This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Marcus, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Managing With Danger: An Introduction

University of Minnesota

This article contrasts the two dominant theoretical approaches and presents a third approach to the study of safety in organizations. Whereas view 1 tries to explain why accidents are common and view 2 tries to explain why they are rare, the present author's view, grounded in the empirical studies and theoretical analyses published in this issue of Industrial & Environmental Crisis Quarterly (Volume 9, Number 2), is that managers navigate within safety boundaries. The author stresses that (a) safety is overlaid on normal activities, (b) the safety envelope around organizations has indefinite dimensions, (c) rules are limited and managers often do not know what to do despite heavy emphasis on procedures, and (d) managers accept what they believe to be toler able imperfections. A key question they must address is how much compromise in a system of defenses they can accept before the organi zation crosses over into a state from which it cannot recover.

Organization & Environment, Vol. 9, No. 2, 139-151 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/108602669500900201


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?