PD 2 Midterm Paper F23
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School
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute *
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Course
4840
Subject
Arts Humanities
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
Pages
4
Uploaded by CorporalBravery6325
Cynthia Schwab
Prof. Daniel Lyles
October 18th, 2023
PD II - Midterm Assignment
1)
In Perrow’s chapter regarding the Three Mile Island incident, he outlined specific
factors that allow this event to be categorized as a normal accident. The system was
vulnerable to failure due to the complexity of the nuclear power plant system. Along with its
complexity, it was a tightly coupled system, all combined to set the stage for a catastrophic
result [1]. Another writing, “Do Artifacts Have Politics” by Langdon Winner, gives an
alternate perspective on the effect of technology, noting the consequences no matter whether
they were deliberately set forth prior to introduction to society. An interesting point made
was that technology itself doesn’t make it “political”, but the environment that the
technology is introduced to can leave a politicalized impact [2].
In the same way, the Three Mile incident discussed by Charles Perrow [1] can be
analyzed with this idea of politicalized technology in mind. The events leading up to the
nuclear energy development caused many public opinions to arise, based on morals,
effectiveness, and safety. Such opinions that were in favor of the energy source were that it
had zero-carbon emissions, therefore being a reliable source of energy for the future.
Differing opinions argued that the nuclear energy plants would produce radioactive waste,
harming the health and safety of humans in the general vicinity. Because both sides of the
discussion had solid reasoning, the catastrophe at Three Mile Island generated heavy public
scrutiny. “The high drama of the event gripped the nation for a fortnight, as reassurance
gave way to near panic, and we learned of a massive hydrogen bubble and releases that sent
pregnant women and others fleeing the area,” Perrow describes on page 15 [1]. The
introduction of technology such as a nuclear power plant can bring disaster for surrounding
communities, even though it is considered a reliable energy source. Politically speaking, the
impactful decisions made about the implantation of such plants is made by government
officials, even though disasters occuring as a result of the technology affects those who had
little to know say in the decision. As a result of catastrophes such as Three Mile Island, the
responsibility of cleaning hazardous waste in the aftermath is handed to the government,
which in turn, further spends the tax dollars of the citizens affected. Therefore, the nuclear
power plant describes an inherently political technology system that can leave negative
lasting impacts on a community due to decisions made by the government.
2)
For this discussion, I will be using a personal real life example of a leadership
position I have been in for about 10 months. I am a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority on
campus, and last December I was elected into an executive team position of Vice President
of Finance/Housing. Now at this point, every exec member was being voted in, so we were
joining together as a brand new exec, replacing the previous team, which was in need of a
complete revamp. This was because the exec team did not care for the chapter members or
the future of the sorority, and lacked chapter programming as well as the ability to think
together as a team. These faults were obvious to me even as a brand new member, and I
knew I had to transform the way my executive position functioned for a brighter future. My
first steps in this process when I stepped into my position were: establishing expectations,
creating and communicating a vision, and setting up short term wins that would encourage
the chapter. These steps were crucial to gaining others’ trust after it had been broken by poor
leadership. In the reading, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”, by John
Kotter, he outlines eight steps to transform your organization, which align to my goals set
when attempting to redesign my position and its impact on the chapter. Step number 3 in
Kotter’s outline is creating a vision for your group or team saying, “creating a vision [helps]
direct the change effort [and develops] strategies for achieving that vision” [3] (page 61). In
my situation, I got everyone on the same page and helped them realize I was working
with
them and not against them. I achieved this by knocking down our member dues by -$20 by
tweaking budget numbers, after I received complaints of inflated member dues. This
allowed members to realize my vision of making chapter dues financially reasonable along
with a detailed explanation of what they were paying for. This also sent a shockwave of
positive feedback from my position, as well as an example of communicating my vision to
the chapter through my actions. Kotter mentions this as step 4 of transforming your
organization saying, “ Communicating the Vision: Using every vehicle possible to
communicate the new vision and strategies [and] teaching new behaviors by the example of
the guiding coalition” (page 61) [3].
In terms of setting expectations, I communicated them directly to the members of the
house in a set of “ house rules” so that there was no confusion when it came to the schedules
of house chores and room conditions. I also implemented a system of consequences so that
every member was held accountable for their actions, which decreases a sense of unfairness
when dealing with issues. My last goal in my position was to plan and create short-term
wins, in which Kotter explains in step 6 of his outline, “ planning for visible performance
improvements [and] creating those improvements.'' (page 61) [3]. I was able to update the
chapter with my achievements whether it was interviewing new candidates for our house
director, new grocery items, or a fun piece of furniture in the living room bought with our
house budget. As a result of these implemented changes to my VP position, I was left with a
positive result of a relationship built on trust and dedication to the cause, and I am now able
to pass this knowledge of how to build a great team onto my successor of VPFH for this
coming December.
3)
In Norman’s book, “The Design of Everyday Things”, he describes affordances of
everyday technologies [4] that can align with affordances discussed in the first two chapters
of Perrow’s book, “Normal Accidents”[1]. A common theme is presented, saying that
operator error is inevitable, and mistakes happen, especially taking into account the Three
Mile Island Incident with the nuclear power plant. Because of this, an important accordance
should be that when error is presented within a system, a loud and clear signal needs to
represent this so that the error can be mitigated by further technology or human correction.
Norman mentions that a design should be as simple as possible for the user and should lend
itself to being easy to operate [4]. Another considerable affordance is that most systems are
not linear, meaning functions interconnect and one may impact another. In the video made
by William Whyte, “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”, he studies people’s behavior
in extensive data collection of where they tend to sit [5]. His processes of taking data by
observing people can be carried into places where systems are complicated to cause human
error, so that behaviors can be tracked, leading to a more controlled environment. Experts
can use these failures to learn from and map out what went wrong to create possible
scenarios. This will help them study the intertwining relationship of the subsystems together
or learn to design differently.
4)
In Perrow’s explanation of the Three Mile Island Incident, the idea of a nuclear power
plant is clearly a huge risk that is considerably unknown. I believe part of this disaster was
due to the fact that the technology wasn’t fully understood yet before the design
implementation [1]. Power plants cause risk of meltdown, leading to hazardous radioactive
waste in residential areas as well as significant ecosystems. The infrastructure that locates
these power plants in such areas does not consider the livelihood of the people living within
the radius of harm, and these people have no voice in decisions being made. Minor failures
that occur in the system are considered acceptable risks, but failures such as faulty signals
and valve misclosure are involuntary. The individual operators have very little control over
these system failures so the blame cannot be concentrated on human error, and instead put
into scheduled maintenance and design.
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5)
In the Three Mile Island Incident, several systems failed that led to disaster [1]. Firstly,
the cooling system of the nuclear reactor ran out of steam. This caused the generator to boil
dry, leading to built up, decaying radioactive material. In the second system, there was no
circulation of air, causing the core to become too hot. This event triggered the PORV to
release pressure, but there was a loose knob causing too much pressure to be released. A
series of other issues with the reactor system added fuel to the fire, including moisture
released into the air, causing the ASD being triggered, along with the signal. The turbine
stopped and the feedwater pumps went on, but the valve was accidentally left closed (due to
human error). Other outside factors were poor communication and ignored problems in the
days leading up to the incident that contributed to the meltdown.
6) See attached pdf of network diagram.
References:
APA Style Citations
[1]
Perrow, C. (1984). Normal accidents: Living with high-risk technologies. Basic Books.
[2]
Winner, L. (n.d.). Do Artifacts Have Politics? . Retrieved October 18, 2022, from
https://w ww.researchgate.net/publication/213799991_Do_Artifacts_Have_Politics
[3]
Kotter, J. (n.d) Leading Change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business
Review. (2022, September 19). Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://hbr.org/1995/05/leading-change-why-transformation-efforts-fail-2
[4]
Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things.
[5]
Whyte, William H., Jr., 1917-1999. (1980). The social life of small urban spaces.
Washington, D.C. :Conservation Foundation,