Ian I. Mitroff

Ralph H. Kilmann

Methodological Approaches to Social Science

Harold A. Linstone

The population and technology explosions are shrinking the world to a system in which everything is interactive, forcing us to transcend traditional modes of thinking. In this book, the authors set forth the concept of multiple perspectives: technical, organizational, and personal. They begin the book with a multiple-perspective examination of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, a case that foreshadows the intensifying problem of managing hazardous technology in the coming decades. They then apply this approach, on a much larger scale, to the United States in the evolving global setting. Included in the discussion are issues such as the balance between short-term and long-term concerns and between individual and societal responsibilities. The interdependence and inseparability of the three perspectives is reflected in the focus on technological superiority, organizational rethinking, and imaginative personal leadership. This book will help managers and students in business, engineering, science, and policymaking break away from exclusive concern with the technical perspective and thus help prepare them for the challenges of a new era.

Managing Technology and Ourselves in a Shrinking World

The Challenge of the 21st Century

Can Alpaslan

Swans, Swine, and Swindlers argues that we must view crises as "messes": webs of complex and dynamically interacting ill-defined and/or wicked problems, conundrums, paradoxes, puzzles, crises; their solutions; and our conscious and unconscious assumptions, beliefs, emotions, and values. Working systematically with this concept, the text digs deeper into the causes, mitigation, and management of crises.

Coping with the Growing Threat of Mega-Crises and Mega-Messes

Swans, Swine, and Swindlers

The recent data controversy with Facebook highlights that the tech industry as a whole was utterly unprepared for the backlash it faced as a result of its business model of selling user data to third parties. Despite the predominant role that technology plays in all of our lives, the controversy also revealed that many tech companies are reactive, rather than proactive, in addressing crises. This book examines society's failure to manage technology and its resulting negative consequences. Mitroff argues that the "technological mindset" is responsible for society's unbridled obsession with technology and unless confronted, will cause one tech crisis after another. This trans-disciplinary text, edgy in its approach, will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners through its discussion of the modern technological crisis.

Crisis Management in the Digital Age

Technology Run Amok

Warren G. Bennis

The claims made for television when it was a fledgling industry in the early 1950s have virtually all proven false. TV was to be the great entertainer-educator, an electronic marvel that would, over time, elevate viewers' tastes and sensibilities. As we now know, the need for entertainment dominates, and everything has been reduced to simple and slick images. Now the authors address this most pressing of social issues.

The Deliberate Manufacturing of Falsehood and what it is Doing to Our Lives

The Unreality Industry

Gus Anagnos

According to Mitroff, one of the world's leading experts on crisis management, the rise in the crisis rate is due to an ingrained "it-can't happen-to-us" mentality--which, in turn, leads to a total lack of preparedness for crises.

What Every Executive and Manager Needs to Know about Crisis Management

Managing Crises Before They Happen

Abraham Silvers

Discusses how and why organizations and special interest groups of all kinds attempt to solve the wrong problems with intricate solutions.

How We Trick Ourselves and Others Into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely

Dirty Rotten Strategies

Donna Mitroff

Fred Rogers is one of the great icons of American culture and the values and philosophy for which he is famous have stood the test of time. Fables and the Art of Leadership brings those same values and philosophy to the workplace, where they're now needed more than ever. This unique and timely work is for everyone who aspires to become and be a better leader. Mister Rogers didn't expound abstract principles to help children face up to the problems they faced; instead, he created and told countless fables and stories. Ian and Donna Mitroff's book uses those fables to help managers master the most difficult challenges they face: achieving significant change; fostering creativity; curbing rudeness; promoting leadership, managing crises, and many more. It is their new interpretations for the workplace that will make Fables and the Art of Leadership a classic in business studies.

Applying the Wisdom of Mister Rogers to the Workplace

Fables and the Art of Leadership

In this ground-breaking work, two pioneering thinkers in business studies pinpoint the profound changes they believe must occur in the way that business executives think, make decisions and solve problems if America is to remain competitive.

Breaking the Chains of Traditional Business Thinking

The Unbounded Mind

Rune Storesund

Technology has made human lives incomparably better. Civilization as we know it would utterly collapse without it. However, if not properly managed, technology can and will be systematically abused and misuse and thereby become one of the biggest threats to humankind. This open access book applies proactive crisis management to the management of technology organizations to make them more sustainable and socially responsible for the betterment of humankind. It forecasts the unintended consequences of technology and offers methods to counteract it.

Ian I. Mitroff

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