Mistakes In Management Research Articles

Ecological Relationships between Poisonous Plants and Rangeland Condition: A Review

In the past, excessive numbers of livestock on western U.S. rangelands, reoccurring droughts, and lack of management resulted in retrogression of plant communities. Poisonous plants and other less palatable species increased with declining range condition and livestock were forced to eat these poisonous species because of a shortage of desirable forage, resulting in large, catastrophic losses. The level of management on most western rangelands has improved during the last 60 years, resulting in marked improvement in range condition; yet losses to poisonous plants still occur, though not as large and catastrophic as in the past. Some poisonous species are major components of the pristine, pre-European plant communities [tall larkspur (Delphinium barbeyi Huth), Veratrum californicum Durand, water hemlock (Cicuta douglasii (DC.)Coult. &Rose), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana L.), Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson), and various oak species (Quercus spp.)]. Although populations of many poisonous seral increaser species have declined with better management, they are still components of plant communities and fluctuate with changing precipitation patterns [locoweed (Astragalus and Oxytropis spp.), lupine (Lupinus spp.), death camas (Zigadenus spp.), snakeweed (Gutierrezia spp.), threadleaf groundsel (Senecio longolobis Benth.), low larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum Pritz.), timber milkvetch (Astragalus miser Dougl. ex Hook.), redstem peavine (A. emoryanus (Rydb.) Cory), western bitterweed (Hymenoxys odorata D.C.), orange sneezeweed (Helenium hoopesii Gray), twin leaf senna (Cassia roemeriana Schelle), and white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum Houtt)]. Many of the alien invader species are poisonous: [Halogeton glomeratus (Bieb.) C.A. Mey, St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum L.), poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L.), tansy ragwort (Senecio jacobaea L.), hounds tongue (Cynoglossum officinale L.), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.), yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.) and other knapweeds (Centaurea spp.)]. Poisoning occurs when livestock consume these plants because they are either relatively more palatable than the associated forage, or from management mistakes of running short of desirable forage. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v55i3_ralphs

National strategy for mass casualty situations and its effects on the hospital.

A mass-casualty situation (MCS) usually is short in duration and resolves itself. To minimize the risks to patients during MCS, planning is essential. This article summarizes the preparations needed at the hospital level, for a local MCS involving numerous trauma victims arriving to the Emergency Department at a short notice. Experiences and conclusions related to the implementation of the Israeli strategy in one hospital that combines the responsibilities of both the military and civilians are summarized. The Ministry of Health distributes the master MCS plan to each hospital where a local committee adapts it to the specific situation in a format of standing orders. After its approval by the Ministry of Health, an annual inspection is conducted to check the ability of the staff to manage a MCS. A full-scale drill is conducted every second year during which each site's readiness level and the continuity of the flow of care are tested. In building the strategy for treating trauma victims during a MCS, a few assumptions were taken into account. The goal of treatment in a MCS is to deliver an acceptable quality of care while preserving as many lives as is possible. In theory, the capacity of the hospital is its ability to manage a load of patients in the range of 20% of the hospital bed capacity. Planning and drilling are the ways to minimize deviations from the guidelines and to avoid management mistakes. Special attention should be paid to problems related to the initial phase of receiving the first message, outside communication, inside hospital communication, and staff recruitment. Other issues include: free access to the hospital; opening a public information center; and dealing with the media and very important persons (VIPs). A new method for creating the needed MCS plan in the hospital is suggested. It is based upon knowledge of management techniques that used multi-level documents, which are spread via Intranet between the different key figures. Using this method, it is possible to keep the strategy, the source documentation, and reasons for choosing it, as well as immediate release of checklists for each functions. This detailed, time consuming work is worthwhile in the long run, when the benefits of easy updating and better preparedness are apparent.

Why Pursuing Mistakes in Management Is a Mistake

JOHN R. GRIFFITH, FACHE, IS THE ANDREW PATTULLO COLLEGIATE PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR.

Morally Managing Executive Mistakes

Medical errors have been the subject of extensive discussion for many years. In contrast, management mistakes have not received the same scrutiny. Why is this true, and what are some of the factors contributing to management mistakes? What constitutes a mistake or error? How do mistakes in management compare with those in medicine? When and how should mistakes be disclosed? What are appropriate options for dealing with them productively and ethically? How can the incidence of mistakes be reduced? This article is intended to stimulate discussion about a critical topic--one that has received inadequate attention by both healthcare administration and the field of organizational ethics--with important implications for improving executive and organizational performance.

Ecological relationships between poisonous plants and rangeland condition: A Review

In the past, excessive numbers of livestock on western U.S. rangelands, reoccurring droughts, and lack of management resulted in retrogression of plant communities. Poisonous plants and other less palatable species increased with declining range condition and livestock were forced to eat these poisonous species because of a shortage of desirable forage, resulting in large, catastrophic losses. The level of management on most western rangelands has improved during the last 60 years, resulting in marked improvement in range condition; yet losses to poisonous plants still occur, though not as large and catastrophic as in the past. Some poisonous species are major components of the pristine, pre-European plant communities [tall larkspur (Delphinium barbeyi Huth), Veratrum californicum Durand, water hemlock (Cicuta douglasii (DC.)Coult. Rose), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana L.), Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson), and various oak species (Quercus spp.)]. Although populations of many poisonous seral increaser species have declined with better management, they are still components of plant communities and fluctuate with changing precipitation patterns [locoweed (Astragalus and Oxytropis spp.), lupine (Lupinus spp.), death camas (Zigadenus spp.), snakeweed (Gutierrezia spp.), threadleaf groundsel (Senecio longolobis Benth.), low larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum Pritz.), timber milkvetch (Astragalus miser Dougl. ex Hook.), redstem peavine (A. emoryanus (Rydb.) Cory), western bitterweed (Hymenoxys odorata D.C.), orange sneezeweed (Helenium hoopesii Gray), twin leaf senna (Cassia roemeriana Schelle), and white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum Houtt)]. Many of the alien invader species are poisonous: [Halogeton glomeratus (Bieb.) C.A. Mey, St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum L.), poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L.), tansy ragwort (Senecio jacobaea L.), hounds tongue (Cynoglossum officinale L.), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.), yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.) and other knapweeds (Centaurea spp.)]. Poisoning occurs when livestock consume these plants because they are either relatively more palatable than the associated forage, or from management mistakes of running short of desirable forage.

The pitfalls of managing a superstar

The author gives advice on how to deal with superstar employees. He has never found any literature on the matter (although some may exist), and he is frustrated that more isn't written about this problem. So he has opted to take on the issue directly, present his experiences, and hopefully provide some insight to managers so they won't make the same management mistakes he has made. He entered into people management naively, having no idea whatsoever what it involved because he co-founded a company right out of grad school, and had no idea what people management was. As the company grew, this quickly changed, and when he and his partner started hiring superstars, even more changed.

Does Your Project Risk Management System Do the Job?

This article presents a methodology for ensuring that proper risk management techniques are included in software development projects. It reviews the key benefits of risk management and focuses on common risk management mistakes

Towards Sustainable Pastoralism in Australia's Rangelands

The Australian rangelands are spatially complex, variable to the point where reactions to disturbance are often unpredictable, and generally uneconomic to rehabilitate once damaged. Hence some areas of the rangelands are inherently prone to degradation through management mistakes. Further, economically optimum short-term stocking rates are often well above what the environment seems able to tolerate in the long-term. Because pastoralists rationally discount future production, it pays them to graze heavily; bur this is ultimately an institutional problem, not the fault of the pastoralists. In this article, we outline an approach to identifying regions that should be resilient under grazing and where pastoralism may be sustainable due to sufficiently dependable productivity and profitability. We suggest that if grazing is not phased out as a primary land use in non-resilient regions, then they will continue to experience serious decline. We argue that policy paralysis has come about because of the false assumption (in practice if not rhetoric) that the problems of one region are the same as those of another. Management would improve if governments engineered policies to give private enterprise freedom to pursue profit in resilient environments, and to provide for greater public management in regions where unreasonable levels of altruism are required to meet the goal of sustainable land use.

“Unsafe” business acts and outcomes: A management lexicon

B eing a manager these days is a hazardous occupation. Business environments are more turbulent, clients and customers more demanding, information and technology more difficult to keep pace with. Globalization is creating an entirely new set of uncertainties and expectations. The essential “humanness” of those who have to cope becomes very apparent. Businesses find themselves running the serious risk of engaging in acts and pursuing outcomes that would be considered “unsafe” or “unhealthy.” The problem is compounded because managers are entangled within larger “systems” encompassing other humans. their organizations, and attendant operating environments, all of which make their own competing demands. Given this complexity, it is no wonder many serious management mistakes are made. Simpleminded short-term solutions to problems are put into place without regard for longer-term consequences. Overgeneralizing the benefits of various strategies-in apparent ignorance of their drawbacks-is a key feature of management decisions. Coping means groping for management solutions that minimize effort and stress for the manager and may minimize costs. down time, and the impact of change for the organization. This frequently involves excessive reliance on consultants, industry “leaders,” or the most “successful” companies to provide the answers. Of course, these other sources typically provide solutions they have seen work in their own particular context(s). “It seemed like a good idea at the time” is the guiding principle behind all decisions. It is against this demanding managerial backdrop that we seek to illuminate these mistakes, simplistic solutions, and overgeneralizations with a “creative” lexicon of terms and concepts. It is ment, but this new terminology may be useful in exposing some of the pitfalls and traps that plague post-modern managers. Ours is not the first attempt to stimulate managerial reflection Customarily, the blest practice is brisk management when the gropevine finds that teamwreck has been planaged by responsenility. through the creation of a dictionary or similar device. Saul (1995) discusses the historical I

Downsizing Big Science: Strategic Choices

In good times, management mistakes can often be ignored. But in times of cutback, tough choices must be made over priorities and mistakes are more obvious. It is much more challenging to manage in cutback times because few decisions are win-win situations. Many are zero-sum, with one unit of the organization benefitting at the expense of another. Alternatively, across-the-board cuts that hurt everyone equally please no one in particular. It is hard for leaders to look good in cutback times, even though their skills are most crucial at these moments (Doig and Hargrove, 1987). Some theorists minimize leadership's capacity to make much difference, and suggest chance as determinative (Kaufman, 1985). Administrative theory suggests how various agencies cope (Daniels, 1997; Downs, 1967; Kaufman, 1976; Lambright and Sapolsky, 1976; Levine, 1978). Basic strategies seem to fall into three categories. One is resistance. It calls for the agency to stand up to adversaries, dig in its heels, mobilize the constituency, and fight. The second category is mitigation. Here, the leaders anticipate cutback, plan for it, and attempt to control damage through adaptation. This strategy attempts to keep one step ahead of cutback forces. Like the resistance strategy, it is proactive, but it is more subtle and recognizes a certain inevitability in cutbacks. The third is a combination of mitigation and resistance, a mixed strategy that is most viable only after mitigation has been demonstrated successfully through an adaptation of the agency to the cutback environment. The political power dimension of cutback management is often overriding. When resources are scarce, struggle takes place within an agency and among agencies to see what will prevail. Also, the forces behind cutbacks may not be only budgetary foes. They may be ideological adversaries, who target specific agencies or programs they view as harboring values they oppose. Cutback eras are opportunities to kill particular programs. The rhetoric may come in the language of administrative efficiency--streamlining, reinvention, and reorganizing. Behind the rhetoric are often political interests, with success and failure a function of the political skills of administrators. This article develops these concepts of strategic choice in downsizing through an in-depth discussion of one NASA case, followed by a brief examination of two other Big Science endeavors, one from NASA the other from the Department of Energy. As will be noted, strategic choices can evolve as administrative leaders deal with a shifting environment and learn. Outright resistance may be occasionally effective in normal times where the agency has unusual bureaucratic power; but cutback eras feature macropolicies of long-term constraint and agencies resist at their peril. Overt resistance can hurt an agency and program, whereas mitigation and a skillful mix of mitigation and resistance can lead to a measure of stability. NASA's Mission to Planet Earth In the 1980s a small band of bureaucratic advocates sold NASA on a major new program of earth observations called, until recently, Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), the centerpiece of which was a set of large highly advanced satellites called the Earth Observation System (EOS) (Lambright, 1994). Mission to Planet Earth is now known as the Earth Science Enterprise, but this article uses the older, better known name. Anxious to strike an international leadership stance with respect to the emerging global warming issue, newly elected President George Bush decided in 1989 to sharply augment spending for global environmental research. The Earth Observation System, largest component of Mission to Planet Earth, was raised to the level of a presidential priority (Bromley, 1994). In July, marking the 20th anniversary of the moon landing, President Bush publicly gave his blessing to NASA's newest mission--Planet Earth--and its lead effort, the Earth Observation System (Sawyer, 1989). …

Six common management mistakes and how to avoid them

Six common management mistakes and how to avoid them

Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Recognition and management of acid hypersecretion.

Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (ZES) should be suspected if a patient has severe peptic ulceration, ulcers and kidney stones, a family history of ulcers or endocrine diseases, watery diarrhoea or malabsorption with or without ulcers, or if hypergastrinaemia is found. Any patient in whom ZES is suspected, and certainly if diagnosed, should be given large doses of antisecretory medication immediately. This should never be stopped except under controlled conditions or unless acid outputs have been reduced surgically. Patients cannot be managed safely without measuring acid outputs. These should be lowered to < 10 mmol/h, or < 5 mmol/h in patients with a previous gastric resection or severe oesophageal disease. Acid secretion can be controlled acutely in 70% of patients with an infusion of ranitidine 1 mg/kg/h, while 4 mg/kg/h will control acid in all. The initial oral dosage of omeprazole or lansoprazole should be 60 mg/day. Doses should then be adjusted daily on the basis of acid outputs. Proton pump inhibitors in a dosage of 60 mg/day will control acid output in most patients and 60 mg every 12 hours will control acid output in all. Doses can then often be slowly and progressively reduced. A parietal cell vagotomy reduces acid secretion and reduces, but does not abolish, the need for antisecretory medication. In patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 and hyperparathyroidism, a parathyroidectomy that results in normocalcaemia will reduce acid secretion and drug requirements. A total gastrectomy is rarely if ever needed nowadays. Given the high degree of safety of gastric antisecretory medications versus the risks of acid hypersecretion in patients with ZES, the mistakes in management of acid hypersecretion that must be avoided are those of giving insufficient medication and not measuring acid secretory rates.

How to avoid the seven most common management mistakes

Employment Relations TodayVolume 23, Issue 2 p. 43-52 Feature How to avoid the seven most common management mistakes Lois P. Frankel, Lois P. Frankel Lois P. Frankel: , Ph.D., is a partner in the Los Angeles-based firm The Frankel & Fox Group: Consultants in Employee Development. She travels internationally conducting management, leadership, and team-building workshops, and coaches employees to achieve their full personal and professional potential. She is also the author of Overcoming Your Strengths: Eight Ways To Coach Yourself to Success, which will be published in February 1997 by Harmony Books.Search for more papers by this author Lois P. Frankel, Lois P. Frankel Lois P. Frankel: , Ph.D., is a partner in the Los Angeles-based firm The Frankel & Fox Group: Consultants in Employee Development. She travels internationally conducting management, leadership, and team-building workshops, and coaches employees to achieve their full personal and professional potential. She is also the author of Overcoming Your Strengths: Eight Ways To Coach Yourself to Success, which will be published in February 1997 by Harmony Books.Search for more papers by this author First published: Summer 1996 https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.3910230206 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume23, Issue2Summer 1996Pages 43-52 RelatedInformation

SQOM-2: The Israeli Air Force's Air Power Multiplier

The major expense in the budget of any air force is its flight squadrons. A modern fighter squadron costs US $2 billion and consumes some US $100 million annually. The total investment in a fighter squadron over 25 years is some US $5 billion, and the cost of an average-sized air force is on the order of US $100 billion over this period. The Israel Air Force (IAF) estimated that these huge resources were not used properly in training and at times of crisis due to time-consuming manual management procedures at the squadron level and inefficient information updating in IAF headquarters and regions. In 1993, following successful installation and tests in two IAF squadrons, the IAF decided to install the SQOM-2 system in all IAF squadrons. With the system, squadrons executed 25 percent more sorties than squadrons without the system and increased accurate target hits by 17 percent, producing a 146-percent performance improvement. Operational management mistakes decreased by 30 percent and are moving towards zero.

The Influence of Culture in Search Conferences

This paper analyses an outbreak of fight/flight in a Search Conference. Knowledge ofBion's work, neglected of late because of an expedient belief in our poor communication skills, is essential for Search designers and managers. His basic group assumptions rarely appear in the Search Conference today because it is specifically designed and managed to prevent them. However, cases, commonly of fight/flight, can still occur. They usually involve mistakes in either design or management. This case also involved culture which has also been a relatively neglected dimension of Search Conference theory. Two cultural factors affected the progress of this Search. The first is a trend towards dissociation in the USA and the West generally, and the second is the culture of educated elites, including consultants and academics. Its lesson is that culture should be considered in design.

The Promise and Limitations of Spatial Models in Conservation Biology

We review the application of spatially explicit models to conservation biology, and discuss several problems regarding the use of these models. First, it is unclear whether increasing the complexity of spatial models to include age structure enhances our ability to predict population growth in temporally varying environments. Second, if simulations of individual behavior are used to identify options for landscape management, predictions about the fate of dispersing organisms are likely to be hugely in error unless dispersal attributes are known to a far greater degree of accuracy than is reasonable to expect. Third, the compelling metaphor of extinction debts resulting from habitat destruction in competitive communities stands firm as a cautionary tale even when the metapopulation models include multiple trophic levels but the question remains of how widespread and tight are the tradeoffs between dispersal capacity and competitive superiority. Given the shakiness of spatial models as a foundation for specific conservation recommendations, we conclude they may be more useful as a tool for exploring the design of spatially-structured monitoring schemes, so that management mistakes might be detected before they become irreversible.

Case Studies on Nitrate Leaching in Arable Fields of Organic Farms

ABSTRACT Nitrogen supply of crops on organic farming systems mainly depends on mineralization of soil organic matter nitrogen. Mineralization was studied by taking soil samples from 30 plots in the crop rotation of two organic farms at intervals of 7 to 14 days during the growing season. On fallow plots net-mineralization alternated with net-immobilization three times from April to November. These soil inherent dynamics were modified by cultivation and the growing cycles of the different crops. Several cases could be observed which led to high accumulations of leacheable nitrate in soils: 1. fallow during growing season, 2. fallow during autumn and winter, 3. manuring in autumn, 4. leaching of chopped green manure by rain, 5. low nitrogen uptake of crops because of diseases, 6. transfer of mineralizable nitrogen from spring to autumn. The concept of the soil merely as a storage place for plant nutrients was one of the main factors for mistakes in nitrogen management. Understanding the interactions of plan...

Surgical Correction of Leftsided Abomasal Displacement With a Modified Roll and Suture Method

The number of abomasal displacements has increased consistently in the last ten years with increasing milk production in a large animal practice in northern Germany despite improved management. Besides disposition (1), and mistakes in management (overfeeding during the dry period, inadequate "steaming up"), it is primarily due to feeding regimes (2) which in this practice include silage of corn, grass or turnip greens, hay, turnips and concentrates. The abomasal displacement has been observed frequently secondary to diseases such as liver disease with ketosis, latent hypocalcemia, abomasitis, pelvic phlegmons, endometritis, and lamenesses with associated general malaise and a decrease in food intake. About half of all abomasal displacements can be cured or disappear spontaneously with fluid therapy, intensive therapy of the underlying disease, change in feeding and peroral therapy (via stomach tube) to improve rumen digestion. If conservative treatment of the patient is not possible, the surgical correction of the abomasal displacement is necessary. Besides the rightsided laparotomy and omentopexy (3), the author used a modification of the method described by HULL (1972) which is fast and simple, and is accepted by many farmers even for the treatment of valuable cows.

Nokia's rising star flickers (manufacturing firm)

The problems being encountered by Nokia Corp., a company that grew from a small pulp mill on the Tammerkoski River about 160 km north of Helsinki into one of Finland's major industrial firms, with manufacturing businesses in rubber, paper, and cable, are discussed. These include the social disruption that its employees suffered during the divestment of its old businesses and because of management mistakes in its new ones and over extension, due to rapid expansion, that resulted in a 16% decline in earnings last year when the recession hit. Current retrenchment efforts, internal expansion, and the use of strategic alliances are examined. >

Difficulties encountered in transport of the critically ill child

A prospective survey of difficulties encountered in 100 pediatric emergency interhospital transfers was undertaken to identify needs for education of referring doctors and of transport service staff, as well as weaknesses in the organization of a pediatric emergency transport service (PETS). Such obstacles to smooth retrieval included administrative difficulties, mistakes in management, and unresolved acute severe physiologic derangements in the child. Three hundred ninety-four problems were found: 24% were preventable by improved education of referring doctors; these included unrecognized needs for ventilatory support, added oxygen, chest x-ray or nasogastric tube, and difficulties with airway selection, placement, and care. Twenty-eight percent were preventable by better PETS organization, education, protocols, or telephone checklists; examples include equipment problems and clinical derangements unrecognized at referral. Difficulties owing to conditions of transport (eg. vibration, dysbarism, and air turbulence) were uncommon (five percent of patients). Regular reviews of performance of all PET services, combined with measures to educate referring doctors, can improve patient outcome.