Patterns of 'mock bureaucracy' in mining disasters: an analysis of the Westray coal mine explosion
Article Abstract:
Recent studies on the antecedents of industrial crises have tended to focus on disasters in high-risk systems involving complex technologies and tightly-knit processes. This paper examines events leading up to mining disasters which past research has characterized as being typically more foreseeable and avoidable. We discuss how many mining disasters are likely to be the result of 'mock bureaucracies' or situations characterized by overt violation of safety rules at the workplace. Using the Westray mine explosion as an illustrative case, the paper traces the development and institutionalization of a mock bureaucracy in an organization. Implications for further research and understanding of industrial crises are drawn. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Management Studies
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0022-2380
Year: 1997
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Practical Idealism: An Oxymoron?
Article Abstract:
A critique is presented on discourse analysis of rhetoric used in environmental management. Topics include the constructionist approach to nature, the mega-discourse concept, and the tension between praxis and idealism.
Publication Name: Journal of Management Studies
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0022-2380
Year: 2005
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
In the Name of the Practical: Unearthing the Hegemony of Pragmatics in the Discourse of Environmental Management
Article Abstract:
Three core messages in environmental management are identified: inter-organizational collaboration, compromise, and economic utilitarianism. The authors reorient these concepts within a discourse of pragmatics.
Publication Name: Journal of Management Studies
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0022-2380
Year: 2005
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Forecasting sales in wholesale industry. An analysis of contemporary forecasting in small business. Forecasting practices in retail industry
- Abstracts: Metaphor and the dynamics of knowledge in organization theory: a case study of the organizational identity metaphor
- Abstracts: Internationalization in different industrial contexts. Bootstrapping in small firms: an empirical analysis of change over time
- Abstracts: Prioritization of service quality parameters based on ordinal responses. Applying fuzzy quality function deployment to identify service management requirements for an ocean freight forwarder
- Abstracts: The effect of institutional investors on the level and mix of CEO compensation. CEO tenure and company invention under differing levels of technological dynamism