Managing Change in Extreme Contexts
Montreal, Canada
Program Session #: 47 | Submission: 14914 | Sponsor(s): (PTC, OB, ODC, OMT)
Scheduled: Friday, Aug 6 2010 9:00AM - 12:00PM at Le Palais Des Congres in 512H

Following last year’s success, we will explore in greater depth the practical, theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical challenges in managing change in the aftermath of extreme events. This involves attempting to prevent or to reduce the probability of accident, attack, crime, disaster, disruption, failure, fraud, loss, misconduct, theft, and other adverse, ‘sentinel’, or non-routine events. In the aftermath of such events, the focus often lies first with causality (why did this happen?), then with attributing blame (whose fault was it?), and finally with remedy (how do we stop this happening again?). Once the ‘lessons learned’ from an enquiry are published, media attention and public debate fade. Research has mirrored this profile of concern. But those lessons are not always implemented, and we do not fully understand why this should be so. We will explore practice: how to manage change in the aftermath of extreme events. We will explore theory: how to explain successful and stalled change processes. We will explore methodology: how to use unique cases. We will explore pedagogy: processes and materials for management development. This Workshop will be of interest to research faculty and doctoral candidates seeking inspiration, and to practitioners seeking solutions. One aim is to bridge scholarship from separate but related fields: normal accidents, high reliability, risk and crisis management, sensemaking in crises, the role of public enquiries, and change management. A second aim is to maintain an international network, to progress the research agenda, and to develop a contingency framework for managing change in extreme contexts

View the submission here