Organizational limits
Samenvatting ‘Cognition, technology, and organizational limits:
Lessons from the Air France 447 disaster’
In this paper we explore the problem of inevitable failures, drawing on Farjoun and
Starbuck’s concept of organizational limits. Operating to very high standards of safety and
predictability can rapidly spiral out of control when faced with an unusual situation, thus it
being inevitable to prevent failures. We will look at this from a limit perspective.
Limits perspective
From a limits perspective, failures occur when organizations attempt to do things that are
beyond their capabilities. A limits perspective is thus implicitly a stress model in which
demands exceed coping capabilities. Limits can be difficult to observe and define and are
not always visible or are only visible for short periods. Some limits are only revealed by
violations that often carry negative consequences,
There are a number of limiting factors that together restrict the overall ability of an
organization to meet the demands made upon it. We can classify these into endogenous
and exogenous limits:
Endogenous
Limits of what an organization is able to do, with reasonable consistency and reliability,
given its characteristics and capabilities.
1. Limits to cognition
Limits to cognition are significant because they constrain the ability of actors to
recognize, interpret, and respond appropriately to events. Cognition-based limits
recognize the limits of attention and their significance for decision making
2. Managerially induced limits
Managerially induced limits are based on notions of coordination and control, in
which limits serve as boundary conditions for behavior (for instance through rules
and policies) and resource consumption (such as deadlines and budgets).
Cognition-based and managerially induced limits share some common features. Both
recognize limited capacity for attention and information processing.
Exogenous
Restrictions on organizational action that emanate from the environment in which an
organization operates. The nature of these can vary, from constraints based on physical laws
(e.g., thermodynamics or gravity) to socially constructed limits (e.g., legislation, regulations,
and norms about what is acceptable or desirable).
1. Environmental limits
What social and physical features of its environment permit
The key point is that the limits to what an organization can do are partly endogenous
(limited by its capabilities) and partly exogenous, limited by what social and physical
features of its environment permit.
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