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Why Organizations are Accidents Waiting to Happen in In Patrick O’Hara’s Why Law Enforcement Organizations Fail

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Why do organizations fail? In Patrick O’Hara’s prologue of his book, Why Law enforcement Organizations Fail, he talks about how organizations are accidents waiting to happen. O’Hara gives examples of how one of the most well-known federal government agencies, the FBI, still has mishaps in their organization. In Dietrich Dorner’s book, The Logic of Failure, he talks about how humans make decisions and solve problems. Dorner believes the issue with humans solving problems is that once immediate problems are solved we do not anticipate the new ones that appear. Sam Antar in his interview with CNBC and in Lydia Segal’s journal article, Roadblocks in Reforming Corrupt Agencies: The Case of the New York City School Custodians, they talk about …show more content…

People in organizations are tempted to sabotage the organization due to their ego, self-interest and the incentive of becoming higher in the organization’s hierarchy (JJCOB1964, 2012). Furthermore, people in these organizations can create small groups within the organization that can destroy the organization (JJCOB1964, 2012). According to O’Hara organizations must be quick to stop environmental challenges (JJCOB1964, 2012). Only a few organizations can keep up with these challenges and that is another reason why organizations fail (JJCOB1964, 2012). To illuminate, we can look at Robert Hanssen who betrayed the FBI by giving Russian U.S secrets (O'Hara, 2012, p. 5). Hanssen who was described as an arrogant loner was reported by his FBI agent brother for being a security risk (O'Hara, 2012, p. 5). Despite being reported, Hanssen was able to climb the hierarchy in the organization, which increased his ability to spy (O'Hara, 2012, p. 5). Here we see a slow response from the FBI to rid the organization of a threat. Although the FBI has many downturns the people of the United States still heavily supports the organization (O'Hara, 2012, p. 6). I believe that organizations are accidents waiting to happen and I have seen this in a few places that I have worked. For example, I had a bad experience working at an ice cream polar this past summer. The manager was a wealthy man who owned the shop and real estate.

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