Student ID: 119052460
Programme Title: MBA DL
Module Title: Foundation of Knowledge and Professional Skills – MN7500
Review of: EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED? HOW SWAT OFFICERS AND FILM CREWS HANDLE SURPRISES
Academy of Management Journal, 2011, 54 (2): 239-261.
BETH A. BECHKY University of California, Davis and GERARDO A. OKHUYSEN University of Utah
Research Questions
How to adjust to situations when faced with sudden change and ensure the nearest planned outcome?
With the assets in hand, what developments can a group use to leverage surprises?
When placed in intense situations and expensive outcomes, how can a team quickly adapt with their current tools to achieve a successful task? (Bechky and Okhuysen, 2011)
Theoretical Framework
The framework defined is socio-cognitive, where the researchers learned that the SWAT team and film crews adapted shared task knowledge with a common workflow expectation. (Bechky and Okhuysen, 2011: 250) Organizational bricolage that is using available resources to react to surprises was adopted, as role shifting became a common practice for both groups. (Cunha and Chia, 2007: 565) Where the SWAT team experienced surprises while on the job, reorganizing routines was used in consideration of previously practiced scenarios rehearsals, as a planned stealth entry was replaced by a dynamic entrance, because of crackling noise in the wooden floor (Bechky and Okhuysen, 2011: 247).
Reordering work was commonly utilized for the film crews when faced with uncontrollable challenges i.e. when a scene couldn’t be filmed due to poor weather conditions resulting in shooting of an alternative scene that was scheduled to film another day (Bechky and Okhuysen, 2011: 248).
Both groups practiced a trial and error approach as they faced unexpected challenges during their tasks. Redundancy was a common mean as multiple scenarios were standardized making it necessary to understand the surprises (Magnus, 2006: 31).
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