How Organizations Think About the Unthinkable

Center for Catastrophic Risk Management

University of California, Berkeley

How Organizations Think About the Unthinkable

Presenter Biographies

W. Earl Carnes is the Sr. Advisor for High Reliability for the U.S. Department of Energy & Liaison with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. He advises senior management of both DOE and its contractors on improving safety and performance across the Department’s total mission portfolio including nuclear defense, environmental restoration, basic science and research across the broad spectrum of conventional and alternate energy sources. Earl coordinates with other federal agencies, private industry & the academic community on high reliability research, theory & practice. As INPO Liaison he facilitates exchange of operating experience and effective management practices between DOE and the commercial nuclear industry. He has authored or co-authored a number of technical publications including the DOE Human Performance Improvement Handbook, the DOE Lessons Learned Handbook, International Atomic Energy Agency technical documents on knowledge management and human performance, and for the Deepwater Horizon Study Group he authored the report paper on “Governance for High Reliability”. Earl is an associate for the U.C. Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.

Louise K. ComfortPh.D.is Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director, Center for Disaster Management, University of Pittsburgh. She holds a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Macalester College, a M.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. She is a Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration, and author or co-author of five books, including Designing Resilience: Preparedness for Extreme Events, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. She has published articles on information policy, organizational learning, and sociotechnical systems, and is Book Review Editor, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis. She has engaged in field studies following eighteen earthquake disasters in fourteen countries, most recently with Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s Reconnaissance Team following the September 30, 2009 earthquake in Padang, Indonesia and an NSF-funded RAPID response grant to study the transition from response to recovery following the January 12, 2010 Haiti Earthquake.

Margo Beth Crouppen is Stanford University Press’ Acquisitions Editor in Economics and Organizational Studies. She is responsible for the Press publishing strategies in these disciplines and produces approximately twenty five books a year. Prior to coming to Stanford University Press in 2006 she was Associate Editor at Sage Publications, Inc., where she helped develop the Press’ flagship program in Research Methods and Evaluation.

Richard S. Hartley, Ph.D., P.E. is a principal engineer in the Emergency, Safety, and Health Division for B&W Pantex in Amarillo, Texas. Dr. Hartley is the primary lead for developing and implementing High Reliability Organization (HRO) practices at Pantex, the country’s only nuclear weapon assembly and disassembly plant. Dr. Hartley complements these efforts with an improved Causal Factors Analysis (CFA) investigation process for organizationally rich, yet non-consequential events to learn when HRO practices fall short. Dr. Hartley has written two texts on the subjects as practical guides for organizations wanting to pursue high reliability and learn as organizations.

Dr. Hartley has conducted HRO and CFA seminars for more than 500 senior managers at Department of Energy sites, the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board, world-wide petroleum companies and presented at numerous professional conferences. Dr. Hartley provided expert testimony at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing on the June 22, 2009 subway crash in Washington, D.C. and was invited to be a keynote speaker at the American Public Transportation Association Rail Conference in Vancouver British Columbia to explore the application of HRO concepts to public transportation.

Dr. Hartley received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, his M.S. in Nuclear Weapons Effects from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and his B.S. in Physics from Texas A&M University. He holds Professional Engineering Licenses in Environmental Engineering in Ohio and Texas. Dr. Hartley is a certified Six Sigma Blackbelt.

Peter M. Madsen, PhD,is an Assistant Professor at the Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University. His research focuses on how organizations and their members learn about and attempt to manage uncertainty and risk (including safety, environmental, and financial risks). His recent work addresses organizational strategies for learning from failure, especially catastrophic failure, and on designing organizations for highly reliable performance. This work focuses specifically on organizational strategies for learning from and preventing crisis and failure, including: learning from near-misses and other “weak signals” of organizational problems, the effective use of post-event investigations, and the development of strong organizational safety culture. He also studies the interplay between risk, environmental, and financial goals in organizations. His work has been published in top management and safety journals, including: Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Engineering Management Journal. Dr. Madsens undergraduate degree is from Brigham Young and his PhD is from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Erwann Michel-Kerjan Ph.D. is an authority in the management and financing of extreme events. He is the Managing Director of the Wharton School’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, a center with nearly three decades of experience in developing strategies and policies for dealing with catastrophic risks. He also teaches Value Creation in the Wharton MBA program. He is Chairman of the OECD Secretary-General Board on Financial Management of Catastrophes, which advises its 34 member countries on these issues. Dr. Michel-Kerjan was named a Young

Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum (Davos), an honor bestowed to recognize and acknowledge the most extraordinary leaders of the world under the age of 40. He currently co-leads the G20 YGL Paris Initiative’s Global Risks under the High Patronage of President Sarkozy. Dr. Michel-Kerjan is the author of several acclaimed books, including, most recently, At War with the Weather (MIT Press, with H. Kunreuther) and The Irrational Economist (PublicAffairs, with P. Slovic). He is a regular contributor in the media and has given over 100 public speeches. He has studied at Ecole Polytechnique in France, McGill and Harvard.

Ian I. MitroffPh.D.is a University Professor at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the College of Environmental Design and a Senior Investigator in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is: Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely(Stanford University Press).His bachelor’s and PhD degrees are in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rangaraj “Ranga” Ramanujam Ph.D.is an Associate Professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. His research examines the organizational causes and consequences of operational failures in high-risk work settings, and the implementation of evidence-based practices in hospitals.His work has appeared in various journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Healthcare Management Science, Organization Science, Medical Care, Journal of Patient Safety, and Implementation Science. Prof. Ramanujam serves on the editorial boards ofOrganization Science,Journal of Organizational Behavior, and the Stanford University Press book series on high reliability organizations. He has consulted for several organizations including HCA, the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute, the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, Pure Safety, the International Association of Holiday Inns, and Sennheiser Corporation. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Theory from Carnegie Mellon University.

Karlene H. RobertsPh.D. is a Professor at the Walter A. Haas School of Business, at the University of California at Berkeley andDirector of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at Berkeley. Roberts earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. She also received the docteur honoris causa from the Universite Paul Cezanne (Aix Marseilles III). Since 1984 Roberts has investigated the design and management of organizations and systems of organizations in which error can result in catastrophic consequences. She has studied both organizations that failed and those that succeed in this category. Some of the industries Roberts has worked in are the military, commercial marine transportation, healthcare, railroads, petroleum production, commercial aviation, banking, and community emergency services.

Roberts has consulted in the areas of human resource management, staffing policies, organizational design, and the development of cultures of reliability. Recently she has consulted with the military, in the healthcare industry, in software development, and in the financial and insurance industries. She testified before the Columbia Accident

Investigation Board and recently testified to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Roberts is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association, the Academy of Management, and the American Psychological Society. She has contributed to policy formation for the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the Department of Energy, and the Mineral Management Service of the U.S. Department of Interior.

Emery Roe, Ph.D. is a practicing policy analyst on science, technology, and environmental issues, associated with UC Berkeley’s Center for Catastrophic Risk Management. He specializes in identifying better management strategies for critical service provisions in large technical systems, including electricity and water. His recent book, co authored with Paul Schulman, is High Reliability Management: Operating on the Edge (Stanford University Press, 2008). Roe is currently involved in a major U.S. National Science Foundation initiative looking at the interconnections between critical infrastructures in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region, an area subject to earthquakes, storms, and global climate change.

Paul Shrivastava, Ph.D., is the David O’Brien Distinguished Professor and Director of the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal. He also serves as Senior Advisor at Bucknell University and the IIM-Shillong, India, and leads the International Chair for Arts and Sustainable Enterprise at ICN Business School, Nancy, France.

Dr. Shrivastava was part of the team of professionals who helped to found Hindustan Computer Ltd., one of India's largest computer companies. He founded the non-profit Industrial Crisis Institute, Inc. in New York, and published the Industrial Crisis Quarterly. He founded Organization and Environment, (published by Sage Publications). He was founding President and CEO of eSocrates, Inc., a knowledge management software company, and the founding Chair of ONE Division of the Academy of Management.

Dr. Shrivastava received his Ph. D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He was tenured Associate Professor of Management at the Stern School of Business, NYU, and held the Howard I. Scott Chair in Management at Bucknell University. He has published 15 books and over 100 articles in scholarly and professional journals. He has served on the editorial boards of leading management education journals including the Academy of Management Review, the Strategic Management Journal, Organization, Business Strategy and the Environment, and the International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management. He won a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. His work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Christian Science Monitor, and on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour. He co-organized the Steelman Triathlon 2005, 06, 07, the Passionman Triathlon 2008, 09 and DJed of the World Tango Music show on WVBU, 90.5FM, Lewisburg, PA.

Kathleen TierneyPh.D. is a professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute of Behavioral Science and director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder ( Tierney has more

than 30 years of experience in conducting research on the societal dimensions of hazards and disasters. The Natural Hazards Center, which is funded by NSF, FEMA, NOAA, NASA, and other agencies, is a key clearinghouse and knowledge transfer organization, specializing in social science knowledge on hazards, disasters, and risk. Staff and faculty at the Natural Hazards Center conduct research on a range of hazard-related topics; current studies focus on warning systems for extreme weather events, housing issues following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the community and psychosocial impacts of technological disasters, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spills, and the TVA coal ash spill of December, 2008. Other projects include studies on disaster resilience conceptualization and measurement and disaster governance in the U. S. and other nations. Center research is funded by several NSF programs and, the Community and Regional Resilience Institute, and the government of the Netherlands.

Timothy Vogus, Ph.D. isAssistant Professor of Management and Organizational Studies at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. His research focuses on how organizations create and sustain highly reliable performance. Specifically, he examines how leaders, culture, and the capabilities of frontline work to ensure reliable performance. His work has primarily examined medical error and patient safety in health care, but he has also studied software development organizations, and more recently, social entrepreneurship. His research is published or forthcoming in leading management and health services journals and as a book from Stanford University Press. Vogus teaches courses on leading teams and organizations, and on negotiations. He was recently named one of the top forty business school professors under forty by PoetsandQuants.com and received the James A. Webb, Jr. Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007 (and was a finalist in 2006, 2008, 2009, and 20120). In 2002 he received the Gerald and Lillian Dykstra Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2002-2003. He has consulted with Mayo Clinic, the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, IU Health, Trinity Health, Kansas University Medical Center, and the Connecticut Hospital Association.

Karl E. Weick Ph.D. is Rensis Likert Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology at the Ross School of Management at the University of Michigan. His research interests include collective sensemaking under pressure, medical errors, handoffs in extreme events, high reliability performance, improvisation, and continuous change. He is co author (with Kathleen Sutcliffe) of Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty (Jossey-Bass). Weick’s master’s and doctorate degrees are from Ohio State University.