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High Reliability and the Management of Critical Infrastructures
Author(s) -
Schulman Paul,
Roe Emery,
Eeten Michel van,
Bruijne Mark de
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/j.0966-0879.2004.01201003.x
Subject(s) - restructuring , reliability (semiconductor) , sociotechnical system , command and control , electricity , service (business) , critical infrastructure , domain (mathematical analysis) , control (management) , task (project management) , risk analysis (engineering) , business , process management , computer science , computer security , engineering , knowledge management , systems engineering , telecommunications , power (physics) , marketing , physics , mathematics , finance , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , electrical engineering , mathematical analysis
Organisation theorists and practitioners alike have become greatly interested in high reliability in the management of large hazardous technical systems and society's critical service infrastructures. But much of the reliability analysis is centred in particular organisations that have command and control over their technical cores. Many technical systems, including electricity generation, water, telecommunications and other “critical infrastructures,” are not the exclusive domain of single organisations. Our essay is organised around the following research question: How do organisations, many with competing, if not conflicting goals and interests, provide highly reliable service in the absence of ongoing command and control and in the presence of rapidly changing task environments with highly consequential hazards? We analyse electricity restructuring in California as a specific case. Our conclusions have surprising and important implications both for high reliability theory and for the future management of critical infrastructures organised around large technical systems.