Decision Dynamics in Two High Reliability Military Organizations

Abstract

In this research we extend theoretical development about decision making in organizations in which many kinds of errors cannot be tolerated. Catastrophic consequences can be associated with faulty decision making in reliability-seeking organizations, a situation which does not occur in most organizations studied in the past. Observations are drawn from two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. We find decision processes which appear to change often in these organizations. Important decisions can be made by a number of men even at the lowest levels of the organization. Task-related factors such as technical complexity, high interdependence, and catastrophic consequences associated with rare events and more cognitive factors such as accountability and salience affect decision processes. A model is presented that accounts for dynamic change in decision processes in these organizations.decision making, managing high reliability organizations, decision-making flexibility, accountability, expertise migration, decentralization

Service Ecosystems Supporting High Reliability Assets

“…The knowledge base from which reliability is pursued can range from formal or representational knowledge, in which key activities are understood through abstract principles and deductive models based upon these principles, to experience, based on informal or tacit understanding, generally derived from trial and error". Similar themes are observed by Roberts and Bea [26] in relation to the operations of other complex systems-in health management and airline operations too (e.g., briefings to share information, redundancy-two pilots flying airliners), and noted the value of failure simulation tools to help people learn how to respond to abnormal situations. Important support tasks identified from this discussion are designing for technical redundancy, establishing arrangements for rapid access to spare parts, asset-specific training, and context-specific creative problem-solving.…”

Informal leadership redundancy: Balancing structure and flexibility in subsea operations

“…Deference to expertise has been shown to enable flexible coordination and decision-making. Studies of aircraft carriers (Roberts 1990;Roberts, Stout, & Halpern, 1994), emergency response organizations (Bigley & Roberts, 2001), and pediatric…”

Utilizing leadership to achieve high reliability in the delivery of perinatal care

“…The four patterns are: (1) hospitals that significantly improved performance followed by a decline in performance, (2) hospitals that consistently perform well but deteriorate over time, (3) hospitals that significantly improve performance and maintain performance over time, and (4) hospitals that consistently perform well and maintain performance. Table 2 lists the four patterns of standardization and the characteristics (region of country, size of hospital, total annual deliveries) of each hospital selected to illustrate the pattern of change over time.…”

“…High reliability organizations (HROs) demonstrate the ability to operate technologically complex systems without error over long periods 1 and can be distinguished by several common characteristics: (a) safety is the hallmark of organizational culture, (b) a team emphasis rather than individual performance with collegial rather than hierarchical interactions, (c) open and extensive communication is highly valued and rewarded, and (d) emergencies are rehearsed and the unexpected is practiced. [2][3][4][5][6][7] In high reliability organizations, managers expect to make errors and train their workforce to recognize and recover from them. 8 In other words, HROs anticipate the worst and train to prevent these occurrences at all levels of the organization.…”