The five habits shared by highly reliable organizations (HROs)

                                                                      

Suggested by Karl Weick, an organizational psychologist, organizations that can spot the unexpected and quickly adapt to the changed environment are highly reliable organizations (HROs) which share five habits.

1.      They’re not tricked by their success. HROs are very responsive to anything that doesn’t fit with their expectations. They are preoccupied with their failures and alert to the smallest deviations.

2.      They defer to the experts on the frontline. Experts on the frontline are personnel who are actually occupied working directly with customers, product, and suppliers. For example store managers of retail chain stores or none-commissioned officers in the military. HROs would get their input and let them make decisions.

3.      They let unexpected circumstances provide the solution. HROs do not always go by predefined procedures to resolve a problem. In special circumstances HROs may come up with a solution that is actually the contrary of routine procedures.

4.      The embrace complexity. We instinctively try to make a simple model when analyzing a complex situation. For HROs it’s the contrary. They believe it takes complexity to sense complexity. They believe that the business is complex so they take a complex route to deal with things. They keep asking “why” and try to aim for deeper understanding. They try to explore deeply in the heart of the problem and consider all the criteria.       

5.      They anticipate but also recognize their limits. HROs anticipate in small scales and they think by acting and by doing things. It is like playing chess. You can’t anticipate everything from the beginning. You have to go by the game and anticipate in small scales in order to win.

Decisions of a High Reliable Organization are supposed to be more reliable because of the organization’s habits and practices, but yet business is complex and involves risk. Decision makers are risk takers because so often times, there is a fine line between a good and bad decision, and between victory and defeat.

Reference:  Coulter Mary, Robbins Stephen; Management, Prentice Hall, Pearson, 10^th edition.

Analyzing the Color-Coded System Introduced by Department of Homeland Security

In 2003 Department of Homeland Security came up with an anti-terrorism system called Color-Coded system. The system would categorize severity of the threat by a color identifier. Shortly after introducing the system, the department was mocked and criticized by public and mass media. Many believed that the department had caused unnecessary panic among American people.

The intention of Department of Homeland Security under the leadership of Top Ridge was to prepare public officials and private citizen for possible terrorist attacks. The color coded system would introduce a common vocabulary by which different government agencies could easily communicate with each other and to the public. Also the plan could save lives by enhancing situational awareness of citizens.

 “Using a “common vocabulary” is sound crisis management practice!” (Guth 160) This program created a chaos in the nation because even though everyone would be alerted by the same colored code, they would not know what they are supposed to do!  

 Despite the Congress chiding Homeland Security for its flawed warning system, in February 2003 officials warned people of a possible threat and changed the color to orange (high condition) without having any evidence of a threat. They instructed people to store food and water and gave them a packing list without providing enough supplies to the stores. The process made people panic and created a chaos in the nation.

Department of Homeland Security introduced the Color-Coded system with the intention to protect American people and to create a nationwide situational awareness, however the plan backfired as it did not properly predict the people behaviors and how it should be carried out. Chris Cox called these warnings “senseless, unfocused, nationwide response” too often created by “unspecified threat alerts.”

Resource: Guth David W, Marsh Charles. Public Relations A value-driven approach, Pearson: 4^th Edition.

Tracing the theme of love through the arts of the later Middle Ages

                 The later Middle Ages in Europe (1150-1400) is also called Gothic Awakening, when Medieval towns and cities gained freedom from Feudal obligation. The Gothic era brought by itself new styles of architecture, music, literature, and art. Both secular and religious love themes can be traced in this era.

            Much of Gothic architecture was influenced by Abbot Suger who tried to make a connection between God and his form of architecture. Reflected light in precious gems and golden reliquaries would represent God’s spiritual being and walls of colored glass would represent the return of Christ.

            Worldly love depicted in later Middle Ages’ arts and music was influenced by the Courtly Love for the most part. The Courtly Love described a code of behavior between men and women. According to the Courtly Love the young man would express his love, devotion, and servitude to his beloved, but the noblewoman would reject it by overcoming her emotions. The male troubadour’s songs and poems would either praise the beloved’s beauty or complain about her cruelty. The female troubadour would often praise lover’s character and warn him against betrayal. Capellanus, Marie de France, Dante, Chaucer, and Giotto are some of magnificent characters of later middle ages art and literature. Their works contain romantic, religious, mystic, social, and political themes.

            By the fourteenth century, secular songs were enriched rhythmically and harmonically, and gradually replaced monophonic songs of troubadours and trouvere. Developed in northern France, this new style was called the Ars nova. Guillaume Machaut was considered to be the master of Ars nova. The majority of his music was composed for dukes and kings. Doulz Viaire Gracieus is a love song written by him which can interchangeably be addressed to the Virgin Marry or a lady love.

            Expression of love in the early Middle Ages’ arts and music were more religious, but towards the end of this era we see more secular love themes growing in the music and the literature. “ In place of a corrupt and discredited Church, Europe’s courts and cities had become leading centers of power and patrons of the arts” ( Bishop 179)   

Resource: Bishop Philip E. Adventures in the Human Spirit prentice Hall, Pearson .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 5^th Edition.

Max Weber’s model of bureaucracy

            Bureaucracy is a model of structural organization which is designed to execute tasks efficiently. Many of today’s large organizations use this model as their structural design. Max weber identified six key characteristics of the ideal bureaucratic organization: Division of labor, authority hierarchy, formal rules and regulations, formal selection, impersonality, and career orientation.

In the bureaucratic system, individuals have highly specialized tasks as oppose to individuals working in small businesses who are in charge of many different things at once. This characteristic of bureaucracy is called specialization or division of labor. The second element is the authority hierarchy which arranges individuals in a vertical ranking of offices. In this pyramid form of command, personnel are supervised by “higher ups” while supervising personnel in lower chains.

Another element of bureaucracy is its formal rules and regulations. Bureaucracy brings individuals of different cultures and backgrounds together and put them under the same formal umbrella. Formal selection is another element of bureaucracy that talks about the required technical ability of each position. Applicants must meet the requirement and once they get in they will be monitored for evaluation purposes.  

Impersonality is the 5^th element of bureaucracy which puts policies ahead of personalities so that all individuals be treated the same way. The last identified element is the career orientation which assigns managers as career professionals as oppose to units owners.          

Max Weber identified bureaucracy as a rational, productive, and highly efficient way to operate in the industrial world. However he detected some drawbacks. Weber was aware that bureaucracy is able to dehumanize people and lead the society to alienation. According to him formal organizations can reduce the human being to “a small cog in a ceaselessly moving mechanism”. Even though formal organizations intention is to serve humanity, Weber feared that humanity may well end up serving formal organizations!

Resource:

1.        Robbins Stephen P, Coulter Mary; Management. Pearson prentice hall .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 10^th Edition.

2.        Macionis John J. Sociology.Pearson prentice hall .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 12^th Edition.

What lessons should be learned from the government’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina?

Hurricane Katrina has been one of the most catastrophic and the most costly natural disasters in the history of United States. There’s been report of more than 1300 deaths and estimated property damage of $75 billion. The local, state, and federal government failed to respond properly to this disaster, making American people more doubtful about whether the emergency system can protect them when needed. From the government’s botched response we should learn how to conduct proper risk assessment research, plan in a timely manner, communicate effectively, and use our evaluation skills to learn from mistakes.

New Orleans is a Gulf Coast city that lies below sea level for the most part. Obviously the protective levee system was not capable of resisting a 125mph storm. Maybe we should do more research about the vulnerabilities of our urban protective systems and improve it to prepare for the worst.

A huge bureaucratic system can sometimes act like a dinosaur that can’t move in the mud. The leadership failed to lead, and no one knew who was in charge! Maybe we need to plan for the worst ahead of time. Maybe there should be leaner bodies within our system independent from the government to be ready to act fast in these situations.   

 “If you can’t or don’t communicate, the frustration and anger will get out of control.” Joe Trahan a noted New Orleans educator stated. The government was unable to communicate with people adequately and communication between public safety forces was disastrous. After the September 11 attacks, the 9/11 Commission report called for improved connectivity in public safety communication. Failure to execute this call also depicts the failure to evaluate properly after the incident. Maybe we should evaluate incidents more carefully, and maybe we should come up with better communication services among our public safety forces and within our government body.   

Katrina has showed us how fragile our system can be facing a huge natural disaster. Obviously no system is perfect and invulnerable but with better research, planning, execution, communication, and evaluation we can reduce botched actions. Remember what made this country great is the attitude of wanting to improve and learning from mistakes.

Resource: Guth David W, Marsh Charles. Public Relations A value-driven approach, Pearson: 4^th Edition.

Comparing Freud’s theory of human personality, Piaget’s approach to human development, and mead’s view of the development of the self.

The human development studies have come a long way since 19^th century when people in Europe presume human behaviors as solely biological and political leaders such as Thomas Jefferson in the States claims that blacks are mentally inferior to whites. Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, and George Herbert Mead have done a great deal of contribution for development of human studies. Freud’s theory of human personality, Piaget’s approach to human development, and mead’s view of the development of the self, have things in common and have things in contrast.

Freud’s theory of human personality identifies three parts in personality: The id, ego, and superego. The id represents human behaving under its basic instincts. Ego is a human conscious struggle to balance its primary enforcement with what society demands. Superego is tied with higher values that an individual sets for himself/herself such as culture and norms.

Piaget’s approach to human development recognizes four stages of cognitive development: The sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages. The sensorimotor stage is the human development at its basic sensual/instinctive level.

           The preoperational stage is the human development at its lingual/symbolic level. The concrete operational stage covers children between the ages of seven and eleven when they focus on

how and why things happen. In this stage individuals see casual connections in their surroundings for the first time. The formal operational stage is the abstract/critical level of human development.

George Herbert Mead in his social behaviorism theory explains individual’s personality in four points. The Self is the individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image produced by social experience. Second point is the explanation of social experience as the exchange of symbols. Mean’s third point is the extension of the second; by using symbols we are capable of imagining our self in another person's shoes to understand his/her intention. Mean in his fourth point divides personal behaviors into two categories:  I and Me. I being the subjective behaviors which is active and spontaneous and Me being the objective behaviors which is passive and hesitant.

As we can see there is a fine line between the Freud’s id and Piaget’s sensorimotor stage. Also there are some similarities between Freud ego and Mean’s self, between Paget’s formal operational stage and Mean’s I and Me concept, and between Piaget’s preoperational stage and Mean’s exchange of symbols concept. However Mean’s model rejects Freud id and Piaget’s sensory motor stage by denying the biological effect on personality. Piaget’s model is time sensitive while Freud and Mean’s models can be applied in parallel.   All three scientists approach behaviorism but one can say Freud and Piaget’s models are social-biological while Mean’s model is more socially driven.

Resource:

Macionis John J. Sociology.Pearson prentice hall .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 12^th Edition. 

Analyzing Davis-Moore thesis.

The Davis-Moore thesis has been made by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore in 1945. According to this thesis social stratification has positive consequences for the operation of a society. It makes the society productive and efficient.

According to Davis-Moore thesis, more important jobs shall offer greater rewards. Answering phone calls, bagging in a grocery store, or entering data on a computer are fairly easy and can be done by almost anyone but jobs such as web programming, accounting audition, or designing automobiles are more advance and require personnel with sufficient trainings and experience. Greater rewards create motivation for people in the society to educate themselves. This Process can create an educated/skillful society.  

One thing that can lose its value in an egalitarian society is the quality of work. According to Davis-Moore egalitarian society last as long as people let anyone perform any job. Workers in an equal society will have little incentive to do their best because everyone gets the same rewards regardless of any extra effort. Why would corporate workers have any incentive for promotion when they would get the same rewards with less responsibility? Why would factory workers work extra time when they don’t get compensated for it? And why would anyone want to work in a mine?

But to what extent the stratification is beneficial? An average full-time employee at Starbucks makes roughly $17,000 annually where as MR. Howard Shultz the CEO of Starbucks makes more than $41 million a year² the amount that would take 2,411 years for an average employee to make! Melvin Tumin(1953) criticized Davis-Moore theses based on three reasoning: First, the invalid assessment of job’s importance and misconnection between award given and contribution made. Second, disregarding the cast element of social stratification. Third, augmenting monetary values and diminishing humanitarian’s.    

            By studying Davis-Moore thesis one may object Tumin criticisms. First, the Davis-Moore thesis does not suggest what reward a society should give to any given job or how unequal the wealth should be distributed. The thesis merely suggests more rewards for more important positions in order to distinguish between different talents and create incentives. Second, it is true that children of rich families are more privileged but given a fairly equal educational opportunity everyone can have a chance to progress. Third, people need money in order to trade goods and services even in an egalitarian society. The only difference is the people in an egalitarian society are confined in limitation where as in meritocracy there is no limit.       

Resource:

1. Macionis John J. Sociology.Pearson prentice hall .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 12^th Edition.

2. <http://www.forbes.com/lists/2012/12/ceo-compensation-12_land.html>

What legal restrictions may limit the amount of dividends to be paid?

Paying dividends would attract more investors and satisfy stockholders including a manager who owns a big share of corporate stocks. Therefore management can find a way to pay extensive dividends to enjoy some personal profit. This is one reason why there are legal restrictions in place to make sure dividend paying would not go out of hand.      

The amount of dividends a firm may pay can be limited by certain legal restrictions. These restrictions vary from state to state. There are two categories that these constraints fall into: statutory restrictions and owners/creditors provisions.   

Statutory restrictions may constrain a company from paying dividends, (1) if the firm’s liabilities are greater than its assets, (2) if the dividend amount exceeds retain earning, and (3) If the dividend is being paid from capital invested in the firm.

Another form of legal restriction is resulted from owners/creditors provisions. These are the restrictions that are unique to each firm. Common stockholders are the legal owners of a corporation and they frequently inflict restrictive provisions on managers to minimize risk. For example they may refuse dividend’s deceleration before the debt is repaid or in order to raise capital gain. Preferred stockholders do not own the corporation and cannot make executive decisions but as creditors they have priority over common stock holders which enable them to refuse common dividends when preferred dividends are dis-satisfactory.        

As we can see corporate managers are not the only ones who make decisions regarding dividends. Federal and state government, common stock holders, preferred stock holders, and other creditors such as bond holders can supervise the amount of dividends a firm may pay.  

Resource

Resource: Keown Arthur, Martin John, Petty William. Foundations of Finance prentice Hall, Pearson .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 7^th Edition

Comparing the concept of God in the religions of the ancient Hebrews, early Christians, and Muslims.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all monotheistic religions which believe in one single God. Despite the cultural and political tensions among them, their divine concepts are very similar. They all believe, that the whole universe is created by one omnipotent God that is imortal, and they all believe in life after death, but there are also many differences in the way they approach the same concept.  

                In the Far East, major religions such as Hinduism believe in multiple Gods, but in contrast religions of Near East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) believe in one single God. Judaism is the oldest of the three dated perhaps 1250 B.C; Christianity, and Islam have confirmed and borrowed many of divine Judaism concepts.

            The Hebrew God named Yahweh. He was considered to be the original creator of the universe with no association with particular locals or aspects of nature. His creation evolved from primal world of nothingness to an orderly hierarchy of all creatures. According to Genesis God created man in his own image and made him the superior creature. God revealed ten commands to Moses and that became the fundamental laws of Judaism. The variations of these laws have also been brought up in Christianity and Islam.

Jesus confirmed that his mission is not to abolish laws and prophets, but to fulfill them.  Mohammad in Sura 12 Joseph indicates that “This is no invented tale, but a confirmation of previous scriptures, an explanation of all things, a guide and a true blessing to true believers” Christianity's view of God is very similar to Judaism. Very similar to Yahweh and Allah the Christian’s God punishes sinners and non-believers, but loves and forgives the faithful servants. In Islam this judgmental phenomena is more intense and visual. The righteous men would be escorted by angels in gardens of heaven where fine trees and streams are, whereas sinners and infidels would be lashed by hell’s flames of fire, over and over again.

                       Jesus and Mohammad have both confirmed monotheistic religions that had come before them, and have included tablets of Old Testament in their holy books. By reading Old Testament, New Testament, and Quran; one may realize that they essentially talk about the same thing with a different interpretation. Could it be that tensions between followers are more cultural and political?   

Resource: Bishop Philip E. Adventures in the Human Spirit prentice Hall, Pearson .Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 5^th Edition.