A Systems Approach to Crisis Preparedness and Organizational Resilience

Class Sessions DYN 672

12. (Wed, Apr 30) 1st half: Crisis as Opportunity 

• Read:
    --  Freeman, draft: Crisis, Resilience & Opportunity
    --  assigned chapters from "The Startup CEO" by Matt Blumberg (Wiley, 2013)
• Review: cases from throughout the semester considering how protagonists were able or unable to seize opportunity from crisis. 
• Think about
    --  Crises in the news. What were the outcomes? Were opportunities available? Were they considered? Manifested? Consider how US presidents have managed crises.
    --  Crises in your own work and life. Were opportunities present?

2nd Half: Crisis Era: Prophetic Or Alarmist? Is the end of the world as we know it on hand? Or are we “apocaholic”?

   Crisis Era?: Read (a) Jared Diamond (2005)  Collapse-How Societies Choose Failure or Success:Chapter 2 "Twilight at Easter" (b) Bill McKibben, Eaarth or (c) Michael Lewis (2006) The Big Short.

   Apocaholic?: (a) Matt Ridley "Apocalypse Not" Wired, Aug 2012 (cover story) (b) Solow, Robert M. "Is the End of the World at Hand?" Challenge Mar/Apr73, p39

 

13. (Wed, May 7) Last Class & Party  Project Presentations, Papers and Party 

 

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(Wed, Jan 22)   All University Classes Cancelled due to Snow

1. (Wed, Jan 29) Course Overview . Mini-cases: Survival, Crear Vale La Pena 

2. (Wed, Feb 5) In The Crisis. Case: Mastitis at Lacteos del Pacífico. More: articles and book chapters, see Session 2 assignment link.  Read Mitroff, Chs 3-7. 

3. (Wed, Feb 12) Workshop: Writing web pages at Van Pelt Library in the Weigle Information Commons Seminar Room (Room #124) 

•      Review first two sessions
•      preview all course topics and reading materials
•      Topic Development Project: Choose a Potential Crisis and develop a course webpage about it.
•      Most important: Think about Choosing a Course Project.

4.  (Wed, Feb 19) Session 4: Crisis Decision Making (No specific preparation needed);  

•      Create a course webpage.
•      Continue to preview all course topics and reading materials;
•      Think about Choosing a Course Project.

(Wed, Feb 26) NO CLASS. work on Course Projects.

5. (Wed, Mar 5)  Resilience: Theory & Context:   Organizational Resilience Read (a) Freeman, Hirschhorn and Maltz "Moral Purpose and Organizational Resilience: Sandler O'Neill in the Aftermath of Sept 11, 2001 (b) Freeman, "Beyond Systems Thinking: Resilience as strategy for safety & sustainability" (c) Hamel, "The Quest for Resilience" (d) Sutcliffe and Vogus "Organizing for Resilience."

6. (Wed, Mar 12) Spring Break (Still meeting)

7. (Wed, Mar 19)  Salem Nuclear Power Class Trip Read material on (1) Normal Accidents; (2) High Reliability Organizations

8. (Wed, Mar 26) Individual meetings on Course Projects.

9. (Wed, Apr 2) Individual resilience / Beyond Resilience: Drawing strength from adversity --

Read:

• Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning
• André Agassi: "Open: An Autobiography"

Review  the cases on the Individual resilience webpage, especially Aimee Mullins

Recommended Reading:

• Robert Schimmel: Cancer on five dollars a day (chemo not included) or how humor got me through the toughest journey of my life.
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2013) Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder Taleb’s site: http://www.fooledbyrandomness..com/
• Seligman, Martin E.P.; Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2000). "Positive Psychology: An Introduction". American Psychologist 55 (1): 5–14.Seligman&Csikszentmihalyi(2000).pdf doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5. PMID 11392865.

10. (Wed, Apr 16) [s.1] Resilience Theory

 • General Resilience Theory

• Searching for Safety, Aaron Wildavsky, (Transaction Publishing, 1988) Chapter 4. Anticipation Versus Resilience, pages 77-79

 • Ecological Resiliency

• The Concept of "Organic".

 • Biological Resiliency

• Clark, William R. (2008) In Defense of Self: How the Immune System Really Works (Oxford University Press) Chapter Two: Antibodies

 • Individual (Pschyological) Resilience: From Handbook of Positive Psychology, Eds. CR Snyder & SJ Lopez (2002, New York: Oxford University Press)

• Masten & Reed, Resilience in development. pages 74-88
• Turner et al Positive Psychology at Work .pages
  

 • Review Organizational Resilience

• Freeman, Hirschhorn and Maltz "Moral Purpose and Organizational Resilience: Sandler O'Neill in the Aftermath of Sept 11, 2001
• Freeman, "Beyond Systems Thinking: Resilience as strategy for safety & sustainability"
• Hamel, "The Quest for Resilience"
• Sutcliffe and Vogus "Organizing for Resilience."

Discussion questions: 

• How has resilience in individuals been studied? What factors affect individual resilience?
• How do these factors relate to your personal experience?
• How do these resilience factors apply to the work environment? What kinds of workers or work groups show resilience or maladaptation?
• Can any analogies be drawn between individual resilience and organizational resilience?

 [s.2]  Introduction to Systems Thinking, Systems Dynamics, and Organizational Dynamics A systems approach to crisis. 

11. (Wed, Apr 23) Modernity, Fragility and Resilience. The example of Industrial Agriculture and the case of YU Ranch 

Read:

• YU Ranch case
• Industrial Agriculture and some alternatives
• Michael Pollan (2006) The Omnivore's Dilemma
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2013) Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, (Random House ISBN 978-1400067824)

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