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>From: John Naylor <j.b.naylor@LIVJM.AC.UK>
>Subject: Let's talk about something else: Decision making
>
>So I'm looking for examples that are preferably:
>- in a modern organisational setting;
>- detail one or some clear decisions;
>- don't involve too much pluralism (so politics is out for the most part);
>- can be evaluated with foresight;
>- are written up in quotable sources.

John,
The example I use is the Challenger decision (no accident there, it was a
deliberate decision to do something totally unadvisable). I think it meets
your criteria and for my students, at least, still marks one of the seminal
events of their childhood. Mark Maier did a tremendous amount of work on
this, including videos and other documentation. I don't know where Mark is
now, perhaps you can find him through the Academy directory. Good Luck!

Debra Connelley
Assistant Professor, Organizational Behavior
State University of New York at Buffalo

Bill Starbuck and Francis Milliken wrote a piece on the Challenger disaster
in the Journal of Management Studies 25(4) 1988, entitled "Challenger:
Fine-tuning the odds until something breaks". This article described how
complex organizational systems sometimes contain the seeds of disaster.

Narayan Pant


> There was a good article on the Challenger disaster published in the
> Journal of Organizational Change Management about 10 years
> ago. If you
> contact David Boje, the current Editor of JOCM, he should be
> able to locate
> the article for you. Hope this helps.
>
> Best,
>
> Larry
>
> At 10:37 AM 11/29/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >>From: John Naylor <j.b.naylor@LIVJM.AC.UK>
> >>Subject: Let's talk about something else: Decision making
> >>
> >>So I'm looking for examples that are preferably:
> >>- in a modern organisational setting;
> >>- detail one or some clear decisions;
> >>- don't involve too much pluralism (so politics is out for
> the most part);
> >>- can be evaluated with foresight;
> >>- are written up in quotable sources.
> >
> >John,
> >The example I use is the Challenger decision (no accident
> there, it was a
> >deliberate decision to do something totally unadvisable). I
> think it meets
> >your criteria and for my students, at least, still marks one
> of the seminal
> >events of their childhood. Mark Maier did a tremendous
> amount of work on
> >this, including videos and other documentation. I don't
> know where Mark is
> >now, perhaps you can find him through the Academy directory.
> Good Luck!
> >
> >Debra Connelley
> >Assistant Professor, Organizational Behavior
> >State University of New York at Buffalo
> >
>

There was a good article on the Challenger disaster published in the
Journal of Organizational Change Management about 10 years ago. If you
contact David Boje, the current Editor of JOCM, he should be able to locate
the article for you. Hope this helps.

Best,

Larry

At 10:37 AM 11/29/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>From: John Naylor <j.b.naylor@LIVJM.AC.UK>
>>Subject: Let's talk about something else: Decision making
>>
>>So I'm looking for examples that are preferably:
>>- in a modern organisational setting;
>>- detail one or some clear decisions;
>>- don't involve too much pluralism (so politics is out for the most part);
>>- can be evaluated with foresight;
>>- are written up in quotable sources.
>
>John,
>The example I use is the Challenger decision (no accident there, it was a
>deliberate decision to do something totally unadvisable). I think it meets
>your criteria and for my students, at least, still marks one of the seminal
>events of their childhood. Mark Maier did a tremendous amount of work on
>this, including videos and other documentation. I don't know where Mark is
>now, perhaps you can find him through the Academy directory. Good Luck!
>
>Debra Connelley
>Assistant Professor, Organizational Behavior
>State University of New York at Buffalo
>