When Things Go Wrong
Organizational Failures and Breakdowns
Edited by:
- Helmut K. Anheier - Hertie School of Governance, Germany, University of Heidelberg, Germany
July 2012 | 328 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
'The editor has worked well to achieve a coherent product which will serve as the authoritative and leading text in its area. The future research agenda is to combine economic and non-economic performance measures, as well a to differentiate failure as process and failure as an outcome.' - Gerald Vinten, Southampton Business Institute, British Academy of Management News
This book deals with the the multi-faceted nature of organizational failure through examination of the organizational, political, cognitive and structural aspects of the phenomenon. `Failure' is presented as a relative concept where the expectations and strategies of stakeholders make claims on the performance of the organization and the notion of success. The book also issues a challenges to future research in this field: It advocates using a combination of economic and non-economic performance measures in the assessment of organizational tendencies toward success and failure, and stresses the need for differentiation between failure as a process and failure as an outcome.
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
Helmut K Anheier and Lynne Moulton
Organizational Failures, Breakdowns and Bankruptcies
PART TWO: ORGANIZATIONS AND FAILURE
Lynne G Zucker and Michael R Darby
Costly Information
David Wilson, David J Hickson and Susan J Miller
Decision Overreach as a Reason for Failure
Mark Hager et al
"Tales from the Grave"
Renate Mayntz
Organizational Coping, Failure, and Success
PART THREE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FAILURE AND BANKRUPTCY
Wolfgang Seibel
Successful Failure
Kevin J Delaney
Veiled Politics
Mark Bovens et al
The Politics of Blame Avoidance
Terence C Halliday and Bruce G Carruthers
Creating the Agents of Corporate Rescue
PART FOUR: THE COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION OF FAILURE
Lee Clarke and Charles Perrow
Prosaic Organizational Failure
Marshall W Meyer
Permanent Failure and the Failure of Organizational Performance
PART FIVE: STRUCTURAL FAILURES
Frank P Romo and Helmut K Anheier
Success and Failure in Institutional Development
Helmut K Anheier and Frank P Romo
Stalemate
PART SIX: CONCLUSION
Helmut K Anheier and Lynne Moulton
Studying Organizational Failures