Mistakes In Management Research Articles

Brilliant mistake! Essays on incidents of management mistakes and mea culpa

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine students' perceptions of managerial mistakes and why (and why not) managers admit mistakes.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides a reflective account of how students' perceive management mistakes and deal with admitting “mea culpa” – “I am to blame”.FindingsThe findings show a range of attitudes: they highlight the intermingling pressures associated with the cultural environment and mistakes; they identify media characteristics and its influences on mistakes and mea culpa; they highlight ceremonial processes and tasks that shape and influence the declaration of mea culpa; and they identify how the psychology and sociology of mistakes confronts and affects students. Taken together, the study highlights the varying degrees of wariness that is carried forward by the students from vicariously learning about management mistakes.Originality/valueThis paper links up with recent discussions on retail failure and retail pedagogy. It is hoped that this paper will encourage more academics to address, and engage with, management mistakes creatively in their teaching.

HYPOANDROGEN CONDITION AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES: ACTUAL QUESTIONS OF COMORBIDITY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

The correlation of age-dependent reduction in sex hormones level and changes of cardiovascular system in men was shown recently. High prevalence and various clinical features of age-dependent hypogonadism demands to know diagnostics and management of patients with these disorders. Up to date data about changes of cardiovascular system related to androgen hormone levels reduction are presented. They should help in understanding of pathogenesis of many metabolic and clinical changes. Active attention to the problem of age-dependent hypogonadism, knowledge of organism functions in men with low androgen levels will help to optimize treatment, to avoid of mistakes in patient management, to reduce a risk of severe diseases and finally to improve quality of life and life expectancy of these patients.

Dysfunctional Water Management: Causes and Solutions

Water is an increasingly precious but still poorly managed resource. There is no need to repeat the litany of ways in which water is vital to the survival of human society and the ecosystems on which we depend. Nor is it necessary to describe in detail how the needs for water, both real and perceived, have changed dramatically, particularly over the course of the last century. Yet the practice of water resources management falls abysmally short of the state of the art. Why? What are the obstacles we face? What can we, as water professionals, do about it? I believe that the single largest obstacle is simple inertia—both a reluctance to change the way things are done because those ways have not failed dramatically in the past and an obsession with maintaining the status quo in terms of resource allocation. Reluctance to change is not entirely misguided; mistakes in water management can be very costly. But so are the consequences of maintaining the status quo. We cannot adapt to the dramatic changes in needs for water and in climate-change-induced water availability while maintaining the status quo in the way we manage water. In some cases, legal requirements exist to compensate those whose property rights in, or benefits from, water and related resources are diminished; in many cases they do not. Worse, in many cases there is no legal avenue to provide compensation for benefits lost. This leads those who feel they might lose to defend the status quo to the death—almost literally. Add to this the misperception that the allocation of the benefits of water management is a fixed-sum game i.e., if someone gets something, all other beneficiaries must lose something , and changing the status quo becomes very difficult. There are other obstacles as well: the basic structure of water management in the United States is simply counterproductive. When we understand the reasons why the current system is failing us, we can use that understanding to propose rational and realistic reforms. Our current slavish devotion to maintaining the status quo is a recipe for disaster.

Research of influence of the mechanism of forecasting of the traffic on quality of system of adaptive management of the switchboard

It is analysed system mistakes of adaptive management of the mechanism of redistribution of throughput of the batch switchboard between ports. For reduction of mistakes of management use of forecasting in a contour of management of the mechanism of redistribution is is offered. Introduction of the mechanism of forecasting allows to reduce, and under certain conditions and to eliminate mistakes of management which lead to losses of packages

Managing ERP Implementation Failure: A Project Management Perspective

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> Information technology (IT) projects are susceptible to changes in the business environment, and the increasing velocity of change in global business is challenging the management of enterprise systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP). At the same time, system success depends on the rigor of the project management processes. Scope creep, poor risk management, inadequate allocation of human resources over time, and vendor management are some common problems associated with the implementation of an enterprise system. These issues pose threats to the success of a large-scale software project such as ERP. This research adopts a case study approach to examine how poor project management can imperil the implementation of an ERP system. Having learned the lessons from the failure of its first ERP implementation, the company in this case reengineered its project management practices to successfully carry out its second ERP implementation. Many critical project management factors contributed to the failure and success of this company's ERP system. This study explores and identifies critical elements of project management that contributed to the success of the second ERP implementation. For those organizations adopting ERP, the findings provide a roadmap to follow in order to avoid making critical, but often underestimated, project management mistakes. </para>

Management mistakes as causes of corporate crises: Managerial implications for countries in transition

A corporate crisis can be defined as a short-term, undesired, unfavourable and critical state in a company, which has derived from both internal and external causes and which directly endangers the further existence and growth of the company. Although the state of crisis in the company can be affected by various interrelated external and internal causes, which vary by company as to intensity and appearance, the essence of the causes surely lies in the management of the company. During the country's period of transition, all types of explained management mistakes could be found in Slovene corporate systems. Despite the fact that the hypothesis that a pattern of management mistakes follows changes in the political and economic environment cannot be completely reliably confirmed, some outlines of such patterns are seen, in spite of everything. If there really is a more or less valid pattern of management mistakes in corporate crises and these mistakes appear differently with regard to changes in the political and economical environment in countries in transition, this could help decision-makers, who are in the process of appointing new crisis or restructuring managers, make better choices, every time, according to the managers' most appropriate competencies.

The satisfied customer: winners and losers in the battle for buyer preference

The Big Picture The Science of Customer Satisfaction Winners and Losers Customer Satisfaction and Stock Returns Things Aren't What They Seem: The Most Common Management Mistakes Customer Asset Management and the Value of Satisfied Customers Companies That Are Doing It Right

Recurrent Obstetric Management Mistakes Identified by Simulation

Recurrent Obstetric Management Mistakes Identified by Simulation

Current and Future Treatment for Pericarditis

Acute pericarditis is a common disorder in several clinical settings, and may be the first manifestation of an underlying systemic disease. Disease management is often troublesome and concerns may arise regarding the fear of missing a specific etiology, the possible complications, particularly the evolution toward constrictive pericarditis, and the search for new drugs, following a presumed failure of current treatments. The response is often disproportionate, with extensive repeated diagnostic work-up, frequent readmissions and increasing use of new drugs with a doubtful risk-benefit ratio, often without an evidence-based approach. Frustration and management mistakes are common causes of a prolonged course of the disease and frequent consultations. A vicious circle is thereby maintained and is fostered by the relative lack of clinical trials and evidence-based guidelines. The aim of this paper is to review more recent studies and trials in order to develop a more evidence-based management of the disease.

Recurrent Obstetric Management Mistakes Identified by Simulation

Simulation-based drills offer a partial solution to the problem of providing hands-on clinical experience in emergency medicine. They permit repeated practice and aid the acquisition of skills in managing conditions that are not amenable to traditional bedside teaching. The investigators developed a simulation-based curricular unit for hands-on training using mannequins in 4 obstetrical emergencies: eclamptic seizures, postpartum hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia, and breech presentation. The obstetrical teams consisted of at least 1 resident in the first 3 years of a 6-year program and 2 midwives; the midwives had a mean delivery room experience of 2.5 years. Sixty residents and 88 midwives took the course, and 42 labor and delivery teams completed all 4 sessions. Sessions were videotaped from several angles, and tutors observing the sessions completed checklists of required actions and noted whether each action was done correctly according to predefined criteria. The commonest management errors were: Delayed transport of a bleeding patient to the operating room (82%). Lack of familiarity with administering prostaglandin to reverse uterine atony (82%). Poor cardiopulmonary resuscitation technique (80%). Inadequate documentation of shoulder dystocia (80%). Delayed administration of blood products to reverse consumption coagulopathy (66%). Inappropriate omission of episiotomy in cases of shoulder dystocia and breech extraction (32%). Eighteen residents were asked to repeat their training day 6 months or longer after simulation-based training. Their scores were significantly higher in the repeat sessions than in the initial hands-on course. Among the areas in which improvement was most evident were in team organization and mission assignment, knowing how much of commonly used drugs to deliver and how to administer them, and early transfer to the operating room of patients with postpartum bleeding. More than 90% of all trainees expressed great interest in hands-on practice. More than 80% of those who initially were confident in their ability to perform well in these situations acknowledged a change of heart when responding to the concluding feedback questionnaire. The authors believe that simulation-based training in obstetrical emergencies should have a prominent role in the ongoing medical education of labor and delivery teams.

Recurrent Obstetric Management Mistakes Identified by Simulation

To develop a simulation-based curricular unit for labor and delivery teams involved in obstetric emergencies to detect and address common mistakes. A simulation-based curricular unit for hands-on training of four obstetric emergency scenarios was developed using high-tech mannequins and low-tech simulators. The scenarios were eclamptic seizure, postpartum hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia, and breech extraction. The obstetric teams consisted of at least one resident and two midwives. Checklists of actions expected from the teams were handed out to the course's tutors who observed the "event." All sessions were videotaped and then reviewed and analyzed by the trainees themselves, who were guided by two experienced tutors. We identified the most commonly occurring mistakes by summing up checklists and by watching the recorded sessions. Between February 2004 and April 2006, 60 residents in obstetrics and gynecology and 88 midwives underwent the simulation-based course. Forty-two labor and delivery teams completed all four sessions. The most common management errors were delay in transporting the bleeding patient to the operating room (82%), unfamiliarity with prostaglandin administration to reverse uterine atony (82%), poor cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques (80%), inadequate documentation of shoulder dystocia (80%), delayed administration of blood products to reverse consumption coagulopathy (66%), and inappropriate avoidance of episiotomy in shoulder dystocia and breech extraction (32%). Eighteen trainees were invited for repeated sessions at least 6 months after the first training day, and their scores were significantly higher in the latter sessions (79.4+/-4.3 versus 70+/-5.3 for the second and first simulated eclampsia sessions). A curricular unit based on simulation of obstetric emergencies can identify pitfalls of management in labor and delivery rooms that need to be addressed.

The story of Katrina: New Orleans and the political economy of catastrophe

This paper analyzes the public policies that lead to ‘`Katrina,’' paying particular attention to political decisions that created unusual risks in the New Orleans area. Most of the deaths from hurricane Katrina were concentrated in one place, New Orleans, and those losses arose in large part from its location in combination with its three century long effort to ‘`manage’' the risks associated with that location. Crisis management is inherently more error prone than ordinary policy making, because surprise implies the existence of significant information problems and urgency implies that time does not exist to completely address those problems (Congleton, 2005). In New Orleans the unavoidable mistakes of crisis management were compounded by policy choices made well before Katrina made landfall, as well as federalism, partisan politics, corruption, and incompetence.

Biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience: ten guiding principles for commodity production landscapes

Biodiversity conservation in forestry and agricultural landscapes is important because (1) reserves alone will not protect biodiversity; (2) commodity production relies on vital services provided by biodiversity; and (3) biodiversity enhances resilience, or a system's capacity to recover from external pressures such as droughts or management mistakes. We suggest ten guiding principles to help maintain biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience in production landscapes. Landscapes should include structurally characteristic patches of native vegetation, corridors and stepping stones between them, a structurally complex matrix, and buffers around sensitive areas. Management should maintain a diversity of species within and across functional groups. Highly focused management actions may be required to maintain keystone species and threatened species, and to control invasive species. These guiding principles provide a scientifically defensible starting point for the integration of conservation and production, which is urgently required from both an ecological and a long-term economic perspective.

Management Mistakes in Healthcare: Identification, Correction and Prevention

Management Mistakes in Healthcare: Identification, Correction and Prevention

Management Mistakes In Healthcare: Identification, Correction and Prevention

Management Mistakes In Healthcare: Identification, Correction and Prevention

Management mistakes in healthcare: identification, correction and prevention

Management mistakes in healthcare: identification, correction and prevention

Recurrent obstetric management mistakes identified by simulation

Recurrent obstetric management mistakes identified by simulation

Dehydration despite drinking: beyond the BUN/Creatinine ratio.

Of the common problems found in nursing homes, dehydration occupies a special place in the hearts of long-term care staff, a place of fear, and a profound sense of helplessness. To families and residents, the word brings forth concern that the most basic of human survival requirements—water— was withheld to the detriment of the resident. In many cases, the staff of the nursing home know that efforts to provide for this basic need were consistent and often the fluid intake unchanged. Why then, do they often see their residents return from the hospital with the label of “dehydration” attached? Diagnostic confusion first arises from a growing tendency to use the terms dehydration and volume depletion interchangeably, despite the extensive work done to differentiate these two conditions as separate and distinct. 2 The general definition of dehydration is a large loss of water from the body. 3 Significant dehydration is accompanied by an elevation in the serum osmolality. Many who receive the label of dehydration in acute care settings have no such abnormality, 4 and are not suffering from a loss of total body fluid volume. The discussion that follows will discuss the physiology of the laboratory and clinical findings of dehydration and illustrate common clinical problems in which these findings occur either not due to dehydration at all, or unrelated to the diligence of staff in providing sustenance. A basic physiologic principle critical to understanding dehydration is recognition that only 8% of the total body fluid volume is found within the vascular space. Important bedside tools often proposed to diagnose dehydration such as tachycardia, low supine blood pressure, and orthostatic change are related directly to intravascular volume, rather than body water. Clinical findings of common age-associated changes of dry mouth, tenting skin, and sunken eyes are often considered confirmatory, despite evidence that they are not at all specific for dehydration. 5 Mistakes in diagnosis can lead to mistakes in management: true dehydration is corrected by extra free water, while volume depletion needs treatment with isotonic saline solutions. The clinical diagnosis of dehydration is also often applied when the laboratory studies ordered show an elevation of the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and the BUN to creatinine (BUN/Cr) ratio. For reasons to be discussed below, this ratio is not specific for dehydration, and is abnormal when illness effects vascular volume as perceived by the kidney, regardless of the status of total body water. Although significant losses of body water will generally produce significant intravascular volume depletion, the reverse is not true. The elevation of the BUN/Cr ratio can occur due to three basic physiologic mechanisms: overproduction of urea, decreased elimination of urea relative to creatinine, and diminished levels of serum creatinine from decreased production.

Patient safety is not enough: targeting quality improvements to optimize the health of the population.

Ensuring patient safety is essential for better health care, but preoccupation with niches of medicine, such as patient safety, can inadvertently compromise outcomes if it distracts from other problems that pose a greater threat to health. The greatest benefit for the population comes from a comprehensive view of population needs and making improvements in proportion with their potential effect on public health; anything less subjects an excess of people to morbidity and death. Patient safety, in context, is a subset of health problems affecting Americans. Safety is a subcategory of medical errors, which also includes mistakes in health promotion and chronic disease management that cost lives but do not affect "safety." These errors are a subset of lapses in quality, which result not only from errors but also from systemic problems, such as lack of access, inequity, and flawed system designs. Lapses in quality are a subset of deficient caring, which encompasses gaps in therapeutics, respect, and compassion that are undetected by normative quality indicators. These larger problems arguably cost hundreds of thousands more lives than do lapses in safety, and the system redesigns to correct them should receive proportionately greater emphasis. Ensuring such rational prioritization requires policy and medical leaders to eschew parochialism and take a global perspective in gauging health problems. The public's well-being requires policymakers to view the system as a whole and consider the potential effect on overall population health when prioritizing care improvements and system redesigns.

Management mistakes in healthcare: a disturbing silence.

The belated but formal acknowledgment of medical errors and their impact has been well documented. Curiously, the topic of management or executive mistakes in healthcare is not raised in professional meetings nor, until recently, addressed by an article in health administration journals.