Organized Uncertainty

Organized Uncertainty
Author: Michael Power
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2007-05-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0191531146

Since the mid-1990s risk management has undergone a dramatic expansion in its reach and significance, being transformed from an aspect of management control to become a benchmark of good governance for banks, hospitals, schools, charities and many other organizations. Numerous standards for risk management practice have been produced by a variety of transnational organizations. While these many designs and blueprints are accompanied by ideals of enterprise, value production, and good governance, it is argued that the rise of risk management has also coincided with an intensification of auditing and control processes. The legalization and bureacratization of organizational life has increased because risk management has created new demands for proof and evidence of action. In turn, these demands have generated new risks to reputation. In short, this important book traces the rise of the managerial concept of risk and the different logics and values which underpin it, showing that it has much less to do with real dangers and opportunities than might be thought, and more to do with organizational accountability and legitimacy.

Organized Uncertainty

Organized Uncertainty
Author: Michael Power
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2007-05-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199253943

Since the mid-1990s risk management has dramatically expanded its reach and significance to become a benchmark of good governance for a wide variety of public and private organizations. This book shows that the rise of risk management has much less to do with real dangers and opportunities than with organizational accountability and legitimacy.

Managing in Uncertainty

Managing in Uncertainty
Author: Chris Mowles
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2015-03-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317550358

The reality of everyday organizational life is that it is filled with uncertainty, contradictions and paradoxes. Yet leaders and managers are expected to act as though they can predict the future and bring about the impossible: that they can transform themselves and their colleagues, design different cultures, choose the values for their organization, be innovative, control conflict and have inspiring visions. Whilst managers will have had lots of experiences of being in charge, they probably realise that they are not always in control. So how might we frame a much more realistic account of what’s possible for managers to achieve? Many managers are implicitly aware of their messy reality, but they rarely spend much time reflecting on what it is that they are actually doing. Drawing on insights from the complexity sciences, process sociology and pragmatic philosophy, Chris Mowles engages directly with some principal contradictions of organizational life concerning innovation, culture change, conflict and leadership. Mowles argues that if managers proceed from the expectation that organizational life as inherently uncertain, and interactions between people are complex and often paradoxical, they start noticing different things and create possibilities for acting in different ways. Managing in Uncertainty will be of interest to practitioners, advanced students and researchers looking at management and organizational studies from a critical perspective.

Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication

Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication
Author: Michael W. Kramer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2014-04-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135613915

In this book, Michael W. Kramer applies uncertainty reduction theory (URT)--a key theory in current communication scholarship--to the context of organizational communication. Examining URT and the range of research applicable to organizational settings, Kramer proposes a groundbreaking theory of managing uncertainty (TMU), which synthesizes prior research while also addressing its criticisms. Examples are provided to illustrate the principles of the TMU at both the individual and collective (group/organizational) levels of analysis. Original studies based on the theory show that it provides a useful extension of URT, addressing some concerns raised by critics of that earlier model. Kramer illustrates that, as a model in progress, TMU will change as new research and insights build upon it. Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication assists readers in understanding and researching uncertainty in communication, which encourages additional changes and improvements to the model. It is of primary interest to scholars, researchers, and practitioners in organizational, interpersonal, and group communication.

Bullish on Uncertainty

Bullish on Uncertainty
Author: Alexandra Michel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2008-11-10
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1139474189

Bullish on Uncertainty provides rare insight into the secretive world of Wall Street high finance, which has shaped influential business, governmental, and cultural leaders and keeps supplying new business practices to other organizations in dynamic and complex environments. The book studies how two highly successful Wall Street investment banks managed the uncertainty of their high-velocity environment through different work practices. One bank chose the familiar route of decreasing bankers' uncertainty. The other bank used the novel and effective practice of increasing bankers' uncertainty to make them more alert to new situations and more likely to draw on the bank's entire range of resources. Through vivid accounts of newcomers during their first two years, the book traces how the two banks' initially similar participants were transformed into fundamentally different kinds of persons by the different kinds of work practices in which they participated.

Management of Uncertainty

Management of Uncertainty
Author: Gudela Grote
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2009-09-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1848823738

As I write, the financial systems of the world are collapsing with still no clear indication of what the consequences will be and which measures should be taken to avoid such a crisis in the future. There seems to be agreement though, that the financial instruments introduced in the past few decades entailed far too much complexity and uncertainty and that there was too little regulatory control over the use of these instruments. Management of uncertainty with the aim of achieving self-control is the core concern of this book. It was not written with a focus on financial systems, but many concepts developed in this book are applicable to this field as well. The - neric principles of reducing, maintaining or increasing uncertainties in view of the different contingencies an organization is faced with, the fundamental issue of how much control is possible and who should be in control, and the question of how much and what kind of regulation is necessary with the overall aim of finding an appropriate balance between system stability and flexibility are at the centre of heated debates on the future of finance.

Adaptive Action

Adaptive Action
Author: Glenda H. Eoyang
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0804785406

Rooted in the study of chaos and complexity, Adaptive Action introduces a simple, common sense process that will guide you and your organization into reflective action. This elegant method prompts readers to engage with three deceptively simple questions: What? So what? Now what? The first leads to careful observation. The second invites you to thoughtfully consider options and implications. The third ignites effective action. Together, these questions and the tools that support them produce a dynamic and creative dance with uncertainty. The road-tested steps of adaptive action can be used to devise solutions and improve performance across multiple challenges, and they have proven to be scalable from individuals to work groups, from organizations to communities. In addition to laying out the adaptive action framework and clear protocols to support it, Glenda H. Eoyang and Royce J. Holladay introduce best practices from exemplary professionals who have used adaptive action to meet personal, professional, and political challenges in leadership, consulting, Alzheimer's treatment, evaluation, education reform, political advocacy, and cultural engagement—readying readers to employ this new toolkit to meet their own goals with a sense of ingenuity and flexibility.

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit
Author: Frank H. Knight
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2006-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1602060053

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fascinating and pertinent today, this is Frank Knight's famous explanation of why perfect competition cannot eliminate profits, the important differences between "risk" and "uncertainty," and the vital role of the entrepreneur in profitmaking. Based on Knight's PhD dissertation, this 1921 work, balancing theory with fact to come to stunning insights, is a distinct pleasure to read. FRANK H. KNIGHT (1885-1972) is considered by some the greatest American scholar of economics of the 20th century. An economics professor at the University of Chicago from 1927 until 1955, he was one of the founders of the Chicago school of economics, which influenced Milton Friedman and George Stigler.

Origins and Traditions of Organizational Communication

Origins and Traditions of Organizational Communication
Author: Anne M. Nicotera
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1351336274

Origins and Traditions of Organizational Communication provides a sophisticated overview of the fundamentals of organizational communication as a field of study, examining the field’s foundations and providing an assessment of the field to date, explaining and demonstrating a communicational approach to the study of organization. It provides a set of literature reviews on focused topics written by experts in each area, and links organizational communication theory and research to practice. In reviewing foundational management theory, the book analyzes how early to mid-20th-century management theories shaped contemporary organizations, providing students both with background knowledge of these foundational theories and an understanding of their influence on our thinking and our organizational world. Written at an accessible level for early graduate students, yet still sophisticated enough for doctoral students, the book is ideal for students and teachers of organizational communication and communication history. Downloadable ancillary materials include chapter PowerPoints and a set of instructors' materials containing chapter abstracts, glossaries, discussion questions, annotated supplementary readings lists, and practitioners' corners. Please visit www.routledge.com/9781138570313.