Surfing The Edge Of Chaos Summary

Those who take the threat of organizational crises seriously know that they cannot talk their way out of things that they have directed themselves into. This proposition holds for organizations as well as the individuals who work for them. In the case of United Airlines, both the times the organization itself had directed towards crises, which could be averted if the compensation of the broken guitar was paid and if the last-minute change in staff travelling on plane would not have introduced.

The idea that an organism should have emergent properties is that properties appear at certain complex levels of organization, but are not explainable in terms of fundamental properties (186)

The organization’s mission, vision, and goals seem to indicate the company relies on its large size to provide for their guests and its shareholders, however serving two masters can sometimes mean conflict. In Business Communication: Developing Leaders For A Networked World, Peter Cardon refers to conflict as a source of difficulty or strength of the team depending on how it’s perceived. Common areas of emphasis on team assessments are a focus on results, communication climate (including conflict resolution), accountability, commitment, and trust. (Cardon 76)

One far too often hears of issues that arise within organizations. While these issues can be minimal, others can affect an

The acquisition of new knowledge cannot come without imagination. The world around us is vivid, and to be able to understand what is out there, a scientist must imagine what they want to observe. To answer the mystery of these concepts, the sciences were placed into hierarchies, that sparked new ways of thinking to answer the events of evolution: the appearance of life and the development of thought and language. The events can begin to be discussed by the hierarchical complexity of the events. The more simpler events pave the way into thinking for the complex events. When considering the integration in systems, the constraints and limitations occur with the complex the system becomes. As more properties arise in a system, equal amounts of restraints come with it. A consequence

Directions: For this assignment you will need to choose an organization or business you are familiar with or would like to learn more about. You will be focusing on learning about the organizational structure that is being used and the driving and restraining forces.

“There are two distinct types of conflict: conflict that is functional and can build stronger teams, processes, and working relationships, and dysfunctional conflict can destroy the cohesion of an agency” (Reynolds, 2014, para. 3) There comes a time when the company must pull everyone together, bring them back to the beginning, and restart the process of getting things done (Reynolds, 2014). When the level of conflict starts to threaten the cooperation of all members, it is time for the command staff to including human resources to gather everyone and have them refocus on the mission at

The Life-Form structure is true to its name in that it seems to be comparing the characteristics of this organizational structure to those of a life form “with the capability to think and be in the world.” Stanford gives four specific characteristics of this organizational structure of which I would like to expand upon two of them: Life-Form structures “continuously recreate themselves” and “learn to tap into a larger field to guide them toward what is healthy for the whole.”

Several organizations have been subject to the crisis that befalls organizations be it on human resource, financial, public relations or even on policy issues. The Duke Children's Home was one of these organizations that faced a massive crisis in the mid 1990s with the expenses rising at unimaginable rates, as the net margins went down quite fast sending returns to tentative in millions of dollars. This crisis also affected the staffs that were at the hospital at that time since their rates of satisfaction greatly dropped followed by their productivity and the employee turnover became so great. Generally all the stakeholders to the hospital were affected negatively and in a manner that was open and noticeable.

A description of what you believe to be the key issue(s)/challenge(s) facing this organisation and justification.

of discovery by individuals can bring forth new eyes in which they not only perceive

Through the various readings we see that networks tend to have (1) resource interdependence between actors (2) the involvement of multiple actors, each with their own interests and

There is a common understanding that growth in any aspect of the economy is a grand concept. However, when growth begins to start spreading out in such a manner that it becomes uncontrollable, there is an inherent issue. Such is the case in David Carle’s essay “Sprawling Gridlock”. Carle mentions several pervading issues and problems with the rapid growth and spread of Southern California, and outlines measures taken against the expansion. Carle’s resolve and purpose of this essay is to describe and illustrate the issue of the uncontrolled spread of urbanization, and the relation of this rapid growth to the quality of life of its inhabitants. Carle outlines rapid, spread out growth for problems such as

A civilization cannot thrive or begin without disorder, reformation, and stability. These three elements show the imbalance in a culture, the effort to change what is, and the ideal way a society should be. The Epoch theory embodies these three things. In the high renaissance, Savonarola’s unexpected take over from the Medici Family can be seen as a representation of the Epoch Theory. During a time in history when art and money were dominated by this wealthy family, citizens meekly sought for a change in the face of power.

Some have argued that organizational deviance may occur either way. They argue that is beyond their control and it will happen in any given situation. They call these normal accidents. An important component in determining whether or not the organizational deviance persists is how the organization and managers respond to a crisis. “Specifically, crisis management involves preparing for, responding to and addressing the aftermath of organizational deviance” (Boin & Van Duin, 1995 as cited in Giblin, 2014, 137). The way managers and organizations handle themselves during a crisis, determines whether or not other problems will occur. The organization must be able to handle the crisis and bring things back to normal.