The rôle of knowledge in system risk identification and assessment: The 2014 Ebola outbreak

Abstract

Current approaches to risk management stress the need for dynamic (i.e. continuous, ongoing) approaches to risk identification as part of a planned resource application aimed at reducing the expected consequences of undesired outcomes for the object of the assessment. We contend that these approaches place insufficient emphasis on the system knowledge available to the assessor, particularly in respect of three related factors, namely the dynamic behaviour of the system under threat, the role of human agents and the knowledge availability to those agents.

The Coronavirus crisis in B2B settings: Crisis uniqueness and managerial implications based on social exchange theory

“…worldometers.info/coronavirus). However, both the SARS and Ebola pandemics remind us that such pandemics are a fact of life and, when not managed properly, can generate major difficulties for companies (Day et al, 2004;Powell et al, 2018).…”

“…An initial net negative social value decreases the expectations of the parties, and then, the crisis can be seen as an opportunity to reverse the situation through rethinking and updating the relational norms and perceived inter-organizational justice (Matopoulos, Didonet, Tsanasidis, & Fearne, 2019). During a global pandemic, business is focalized on people's capacity to perform assigned tasks with internal and external partners (Myer, Conte, & Peterson, 2007;Powell et al, 2018). If a relational imbalance occurs due to the crisis situation, it generates enough distress or guilt that partners often attempt to regain balance (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005;Garner, 2017).…”

“…Moreover, marketing literature has focused on financial-based crises (e.g., 1997(e.g., -1998Grewal & Tansuhaj, 2001), building over the tenets of business cycle theory (see Dekimpe & Deleersnyder, 2018). In this sense, the scarce literature on health-based crisis indicates that the role of human agents internal and external to the firm is key in dealing with this abrupt, sensitive event (Day, McKay, Ishman, & Chung, 2004;Powell, Mustafee, & Brown, 2018). Therefore, we adopt social exchange theory (SET; Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005;Homans, 1958;Lambe, Wittmann, & Spekman, 2001) as the conceptual lens for our study to answer: How do we manage B2B firms in order to satisfactorily navigate the Coronavirus crisis?…”

Human Agency in Disaster Planning: A Systems Approach

“…The various roles of the HAs associated with a CHAS can be characterized by three distinguishing factors: (1) passivity, the extent to which they are active or passive in their role; (2) autonomy, the degree of autonomy that they possess in their interactions with the system; and (3) abstraction, being the extent to which they are acting in the domain of the intangible or the physical. Table II shows the various combinations of these three characterizing factors, from which we can create a simple taxonomy of roles.…”

“…This is the second of a series of articles (1)(2)(3) concerned with the identification and assessment of system risk as part of the process of identifying appropriate policies for the control and mitigation of risks under inevitably limited resource availability. (4) The focus is on safety and mission-critical systems, particularly those that contain human agents (HAs) whose decisions and actions form an inextricable part of the system assets, but noncritical systems also benefit potentially from our approach.…”