Reality Check:
The Importance of Learning about
“Managing the Unexpected”
Claudine SchWeber, Ph.D.
University of Maryland University College
USA: claudine.schweber@umuc.edu
EDINEB 2013
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Reality of today’s work environment
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Varied business crises: natural disaster,
economic competition, human error
Business continuity/ continuity of operations
(coop) threatened
40% of USA companies that experienced a
disaster, do not re-open (data 2000)
Challenges for business
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“Managing the unexpected” –Weick &
Sutcliffe (2007)
Leaders not equipped to deal with/ manage
crises; (De Cremer, 2012)
Primary attention to coop=Emergency
management and homeland security groups
Business education challenges
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Leading in ‘unexpected’ environments not a focus
Increasing adult student population: may have
experience with crisis environment
Media environment today  organization cannot
control the messages (internal, external)
Challenge: how to prepare and educate future
leaders to deal with reality  “making decisions in
unfamiliar contexts” (Winter, 2007)
Business education “blind spot” (De Cremer, 2012)
Pilot Study:
the education of MBA students
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Purpose 1: examine the extent to which MBA
programs in USA offer coursework in
‘managing the unexpected’
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Proposition: Bus. Ed programs are not preparing
MBA students for today’s crisis environment
Purpose 2: offer content, literature
suggestions
Pilot Study: method
1) 20 AACSB schools with MBA in USA selected: 10 private and
10 public institutions
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Selection included ‘elite’ and standard institutions, geographical
diversity
2) Information about courses obtained from web: title, content,
level (full-time, executive, part-time), description
3) Relevance for study based on title+course description, etc.
Description needed to indicate not a routine leadership or
change course, but dealt with decision uncertainty, disaster/
crisis management
4) Courses with description/ content showed crisis management
orientation marked CM YES; perhaps, such as improvisational
leadership marked CM Maybe; others marked CM No
Summary chart developed.
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Pilot study: method
-private institutions
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Harvard Business
School
MIT/Sloan School of
Management
Duke University
Thunderbird
Tulane University
University of Pennsylvania/
Wharton
Stanford University
Cornell University
University of Chicago
Northwestern University/
Kellogg School of
Management
Method: Public
institutions
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University of Maryland/
Smith School
University of California,
Berkeley
University of Texas,
Austin
University of Michigan
University of Buffalo
University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Virginia/
Darden School
Georgia State University
University of Colorado
Arizona State University
Results: CM YES*--Private
Schools with CM-YES = 4 private and 4
public institutions
private: --Harvard, “Acting in Time”
--MIT/Sloan, “Managing in Adversity”
--NWestern/Kellogg, “Analytical Approach to
Uncertainty”; “Strategic Crisis Management”
--Univ Pa/ Wharton, “Managing Organizational
Change”
* Often based on course description and title—no syllabus
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Results: CM YES*-public
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Public
– Univ. Texas Austin, “ Managing Complexity”;
“Crisis Management”
– Univ. Michigan, “Business Leadership in
Changing Times”
– Univ. Buffalo, “Crisis Management”
– Univ. Virginia/Darden, “Decision Analysis”
* Often based on course description and title—no syllabus
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Examples of CM-Yes courses
Private
Harvard B.S.: “Acting in Time” --year 2, elective
http://www.hbs.edu/coursecatalog/1518.html
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“Leaders of businesses and other organizations repeatedly face a
wide range of major hazards to their organizations, their
business prospects, their property, their people, their
communities - and to themselves…[these pose] enormous
leadership challenges for companies, agencies… How do we
best build strategies and organize ourselves and our
enterprises to minimize and cope with the challenges and
losses that might otherwise flow from events like these? …This
is a strategy and leadership capstone course…for anyone who
…will lead an organization that faces large-scale risks…”
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CM YES-example/ private
MIT/Sloan School: Managing in Adversity 15.966;
http://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/program-components/personalizedcurriculum/electives/
Elective-Special seminar subject
“…Top Management Perspective. It assumes that the student is
the CEO of a going concern and is faced with a major adversity
— a problem way out of the ordinary and one which takes cool
judgment, hard number pushing, immediate decision making,
extraordinary public relations… [using the case method], show
[companies] facing extreme adversity … which require an
immediate attention. Further, the company will almost always
have some limited resource — time, money, or talent.”
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CM YES-- example/private
Northwestern University, Kellogg School:
Executive program
--Analytical Approach to Uncertainty
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Programs/EMBA/Courses_Curric
ulum/Core_Courses.aspx : Introduces fundamental probabilistic
concepts that enable managers to make critical business decisions in
the face of uncertainty
--strategic crisis management
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Programs/EMBA/Courses_Curric
ulum/Advancedcourses.aspx
Provides conceptual tools for managers in high-pressure, complex crisis
situations; Topics include management and media, dealing with
activists and interest groups, and surviving legal, legislative and
regulatory challenges.
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CM YES-example/private
Wharton, University of Pennsylvania: Managing Organizational
Change MGMT 773 https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/
Full-time program
“During the last decade it has become clear that in the global
economy, firms must constantly adapt to changing
technological, competitive, demographic and other
environmental conditions in order to survive and prosper. The
importance of acquiring the knowledge and tools for changing
organizations successfully cannot be overemphasized…”
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CM YES—examples from Public
institutions
University at Buffalo. Crisis Management MGB 620;
http://mgt.buffalo.edu/programs/pmba/curriculum/course
descriptions#gm
--professional MBA; rotating theme courses
“Crises are everyday occurrences in organizations. For example,
companies deal with crises associated with defective products such as
Toyota in the USA, Europe and Japan. Governments are also faced
with crises such as the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks and Hurricane
Katrina…this course examines the nature of crises and incorporates
topic from …marketing, management, public relations…Issues
[covered] include crisis management including risk assessment,
crisis prevention, crisis preparation, crisis recognition, crisis
containment, and post crisis assessment.”
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CM YES-example/public instits.
University of Michigan- Business Leadership in Changing Times
MO611 – elective
http://www.bus.umich.edu/Academics/Departments/MO
“The objective of this course is to develop a useful approach for
recognizing and dealing with rapid change in business. This
course deals with business leadership during periods of rapid
change and managing a business during difficult times. It
focuses on the early recognition of, methods of coping with,
ways of learning from, and prevention of critically disruptive
situations…”
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CM YES—example/public instits.
University of Texas/Austin --full-time program
http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/MBA/Full-time/Academics/Curriculum
--Managing Complexity MIS 382N.5 – “The world and the organizations in
it are increasingly complex and the future is increasingly uncertain.
Conventional management approaches are clearly not adequate to
deal with these emerging realities…”
--Crisis Management MAN 385--What do Somalia, Shuttle
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Challenger, and 9/11 have in common? They were all
unexpected crisis events that shook the nation and challenged
the national policy apparatus. This course affords students the
opportunity to examine and analyze policy formulation and
implementation…under specialized circumstances of unforseen
crises…”
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CS YES-example/public instits.
University of Virginia/ Darden
http://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/MBA
Executive program-core
Decision Analysis GBUS 735. “…framing, analyzing and
proactively managing decisions involving uncertainty, whether
uncertainty results from general conditions or the actions of
competitors. The course focuses on making explicit the
uncertainty we face so that it can be objectively analyzed…”
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Conclusions
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Study indicates that there is a beginning of work in
the area of ‘managing the unexpected’ in both
private and public institutions
Primarily available in part-time programs; working
professionals (?)
Not consistently available: elective, rotating special
topic, executive, professional MBA, full-time or parttime; found in IT or management areas
limitations
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Used only web as a source
Selection of institutions
May only have title + few sentence
description
Occasionally more detail and once, syllabus
(Harvard)
interpretation of ‘uncertainty’ focus
Suggestions
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Examine and apply, as appropriate, work in
emergency management, homeland security
Use systemic approach to show inter-dependencies
Include ‘resilience’ as a core theme—whether stand
alone course or within ‘change’ or ‘leadership’
coursework.
Themes/concepts: sensemaking, bricolage,
organizational agility, making ‘decisions in unfamiliar
contexts’
Reality check
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Management students need to be prepared
to manage in the real world
“Only by going forward is it possible to know
what the options are for going further
forward” (Sidney Winter, p 526)
THANK YOU
Suggestions for further research directions,
institutions, courses very welcome
claudine.schweber@umuc.edu
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