Organizing on the edge: Heading to Mount Everest

The paper analyzes complexity in organizations facing threatening environments. Such contexts are characterized by very high levels of risk and uncertainty that challenge organizational survival: fire-fighting, aerospace projects, high-tech research programs, etc. A paradox of these contexts is that although they remain stable, organizations operating within them are often transitory, single-project and with a high variety of skills and knowledge. These organizations show a peculiar way of organizing complexity, that deserves special attention. This paper is built upon a longitudinal case study based on successive attempts to climb Mount Everest by Chilean expeditions. After three failed attempts (1984, 1986, 1989) the summit was finally reached in 1992 through one of the hardest routes. Each expedition was an independent organization, and structural arrangements as well as participants were different, except for a small permanent coreComplexity in organizations; environment;

Wild cards, weak signals and prganizational improvisation

This paper addresses the need for reliable action guidelines that can be used by organisations in turbulent environments. Building on current conceptual and empirical research, we suggest an analytical approach for the management of surprising and potentially damaging events. In order to do so we use the wild card management system. Wild cards refer to sudden and unique incidents that can constitute turning points in the evolution of a certain trend or system. As the first of the two components of such a wild card system we advocate a weak signal methodology to take into account those wild cards that can be anticipated by scanning the decision environment. The second component, the nurture of improvisation capabilities, is designed to deal with ongoing crisis. This paper can be seen as part of a broader agenda on how to manage in conditions of continuous but unpredictable change.wild cards, weak signals, improvisation, minimal structures

Annotated bibliography of community music research review, AHRC connected communities programme

This research review, consisting of a 90-entry annotated bibliography, was produced as part of an AHRC Connected Communities programme project entitled Community Music, its History and Current Practice, its Constructions of ‘Community’, Digital Turns and Future Soundings. It supports a 2,500 word report written with this same title for the AHRC

The golden circle: A way of arguing and acting about technology in the London ambulance service

This paper analyses the way in which the London Ambulance Service recovered from the events of October 1992, when it implemented a computer-aided despatch system (LASCAD) that remained in service for less than two weeks. It examines the enactment of a programme of long-term organizational change, focusing on the implementation of an alternative computer system in 1996. The analysis in this paper is informed by actor-network theory, both by an early statement of this approach developed by Callon in the sociology of translation, and also by concepts and ideas from Latour’s more recent restatement of his own position. The paper examines how alternative interests emerged and were stabilized over time, in a way of arguing and acting among key players in the change programme, christened the Golden Circle. The story traces four years in the history of the London Ambulance Service, from the aftermath of October 1992 through the birth of the Golden Circle to the achievement of National Health Service (NHS) trust status. LASCAD was the beginning of the story, this is the middle, an end lies in the future, when the remaining elements of the change programme are enacted beyond the Golden Circle

Resilience Capacity and Strategic Agility: Prerequisites for Thriving in a Dynamic Environment

organizational resilience, strategic agility, competitive dynamics

"Getting Down the Road": Understanding Stable Mobility in an American Circus

A circus, perceived as a fleeting performative event by its audience, presents a life of continuingly restored movement and work to the people that produce the performance. This is the starting point for the stable mobility concept presented in this research. The circus represents a situation of continuing and stable physical movement in which the production of movement continually creates a recognizable, yet flexible, situation. This thesis demonstrates the value of stable mobility for understanding experiences and productions of cultural geographical phenomena that are flexible, continually restored, and reworked to be stable, yet also specific, at each restoration. The thesis argues that stable mobility becomes apparent through mobile research perspectives. A mobile perspective is viewing the lived relationships and processes of mobility from the place of mobility and finding ways to recover the practices and experiences of being mobile. This is done, not by adding physical movement, but by considering the context of movement. The research presents ideas of performance and memory as the ways in which a circus manages to reproduce and transform its culture of mobility by calling on past formulations of circus mobility in ways specific to each performance. Significantly, the thesis presents a figuring of mobility, understood as constantly renewed relationships between people, materials, and memory made flexible through improvisational performances, as necessary to the maintenance and preservation of circus life. Through a five month ethnography conducted on the roads, and in the tent, of Kelly Miller Circus' 2008 season, this research discovered how, through continually restored and flexible performances of memory, this performative culture of movement maintains and preserves its mobility by continually becoming temporarily immobile. In order to reflect the varied aspects of stable mobility at work in Kelly Miller Circus, each ethnographic description and analytical engagement is written in a different performative style

Drama for the Church: the Soul Purpose Plays

Intended as an introductory chapter to a book, this essay outlines the motivation for writing liturgical drama and for creating Soul Purpose. Unfortunately, John Steven Paul (1951-2009), professor of Theatre at Valparaiso University, passed away before he could complete the full manuscript

A visible geography of invisible journeys: Central American migration and the politics of survival

Human rights groups have called undocumented Central American migrants the ‘invisible victims’ of criminal violence in Mexico. However, the geography of the unauthorised migration route through Mexico is highly visible; its location, protocols and violent practices constitute common knowledge in the communities through which it cuts its path. This paper examines the visual cues of the route. Images of places, such as the trailhead, the river at the borders, the migrant shelter and the train yard, provide focal points that orient migrants to the physical terrain. These images also orient activists, providing potent symbols for political contestation in favour of migrants’ rights. However, visibility attracts criminal gangs who rob, kidnap and rape migrants, and the gaze of state officials who detain and deport migrants. Thus, this paper traces how geographic icons become beacons to migrants, activists, criminal predators and state actors, and it examines the nature of information and representation under this strategic interaction. It examines how victims and perpetrators become visible to one another

E2BNAR: Energy Efficient Backup Node Assisted Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks

In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), each sensor node can only use so much power before recharging. If energy is depleted too quickly, nodes will fail one by one, bringing down the network as a whole. To this end, a design is needed to reduce the burden on the sensor nodes' power supplies while extending the network's useful life. This paper proposes a new approach, called Energy Efficient Backup Node Assisted Routing, to accomplish this (E2BNAR). Each primary node in the network has a group of backup nodes to ensure the network continues functioning. Assuming that the sensor nodes are capable of energy harvesting, E2BNAR finds the best backup node by analyzing the statistical relationship between energy harvesting and consumption rates. Periodically, residual energy is used to analyze the current energy consumption rate. When evaluating performance, several different indicators are taken into account. These include the Packet Delivery Ratio, Throughput, Average Energy Consumption, and Number of Awakened Sensor Nodes. Through analysis and experimentation in several settings, the proposed method's efficacy has been established

Logistics and the Chaco War Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932-1935

This article provides an assessment of how Paraguay, the weaker power, managed to defeat Bolivia in the 1932-35 Chaco War, fought over the disputed and remote Gran Chaco region that separated the two countries. The article argues that Paraguay’s logistical superiority was a decisive factor leading to victory in 1935. It uses a broad definition of logistics to include the acquisition of matériel before the war as well as the establishment of national and international supply lines during the war. Comparing and contrasting Bolivia and Paraguay in the period from the early 1920s to 1935, this article suggests that the preparation and development of an effective logistical infrastructure by Paraguay in the late 1920s and early 1930s were vital for the operational success that it had achieved on the battlefields of the Chaco by late 1933