Organizational Culture as a Source of High Reliability

Author's Acknowledgement:

I am grateful to Lisa Berlinger, Larry Browning, George Huber, Todd LaPorte, Reuben McDaniel, Karlene Roberts, and Sim Sitkin for comments on an initial draft of this manuscript.

The analyses in this article represent work in progress and are derived from interaction with a group at Berkeley that is concerned with hypercomplex organizations and a group at Texas that is concerned with narrative rationality. The key people in the Berkeley group include Karlene Roberts, Todd LaPorte, and Gene Rochlin. Key people at Texas include Larry Browning, George Huber, Reuben McDaniel, Sim Sitkin, and Rich Cherwitz. The data with which I am working come from observations and interviews with people who operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor, the Nuclear Carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson, and the air traffic control center at Fremont, California, as well as workshops, literature reviews, and discussions.

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