Technology Run Amok: Crisis Management in the Digital Age

by Ian I. Mitroff

Overview

The recent data controversy with Facebook highlights that the tech industry as a whole was utterly unprepared for the backlash it faced as a result of its business model of selling user data to third parties. Despite the predominant role that technology plays in all of our lives, the controversy also revealed that many tech companies are reactive, rather than proactive, in addressing crises.

This book examines society's failure to manage technology and its resulting negative consequences. Mitroff argues that the "technological mindset" is responsible for society's unbridled obsession with technology and unless confronted, will cause one tech crisis after another. This trans-disciplinary text, edgy in its approach, will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners through its discussion of the modern technological crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319957401
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	09/07/2018
Edition description:	1st ed. 2019
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ian Mitroff is Senior Affiliate of The Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California - Berkeley, USA. He is Professor Emeritus of the Annenberg School of Communication and the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA, where he was the Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy. Dr. Mitroff is regarded as one of the founders of the discipline of Crisis Management and founded and directed the USC Center for Crisis Management. Known for his thinking and writing on a wide range of business and societal issues, he is the author of 37 books and is a frequent blogger for the Huffington Post.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 1. The Revolution of Everything.- 2. It’s All About Systems.- 3. Wicked Messes: The Pioneering Work of Horst Rittel and Russ Ackoff.- 4. The Psychodynamics of Messes: The Pioneering Work of Melanie Klein and Donald Winicott. 5.- Why Bigger Is Not Always Better: Further Thoughts on Complex, Messy Systems.- 6. Big Data ≠ Big Wisdom: Mismanaging 21st Century Problems with 19th Century Thinking.- 7. The Ethics of Complex Messy Systems.- 8. How Technology Both Enhances and Diminishes Our Humanity.- 9. Contesting The Technological Mindset: A Humanistic Mindset.- 10. Crisis Management: Coping With Technology.- 11. Inquiry Systems: William James, John Dewey, Edward Singer, C West Churchman.- 12. Future Crises: William James, John Dewey, Edward Singer, C West Churchman.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Thank goodness Ian Mitroff is still stirring up trouble and making us think deeply about the problems and opportunities we are facing. This is an important book. Don't read it unless you really want to think.” (R. Edward Freeman, The Darden School, University of Virginia)

“We all recognize there is a technological revolution unfolding. This book shows specifically how it is changing and will change us. The book is a must read for every citizen of our time.” (Professor Robert E. Quinn, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business)

“Ian Mitroff takes the idea of 'wicked messes' to a whole new place, arguing that the ubiquitous connectivity that we now have are quite literally changing our minds and our societies as well. This revolutionary book argues that technological connectivity is even more revolutionary than most of us recognize. Mitroff links what he calls the technological mind to the reality that our world is comprised of complexsystems that as humans we are ill-equipped to deal with unless we can overcome our tendency to 'Split' the world into good and bad and learn to really deal with complexity.” (Sandra Waddock, Boston College, Carroll School of Management, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA)

“Ian Mitroff is once again at his very best in this enlightening book, addressing the economic-social-political malaise we find ourselves in these days. Mitroff provides us both a penetrating analysis of what lies at the root of the issues, as well as a ray of hope for a way forward. Deeply humanistic in outlook as it is sharp and thunderous in pointing a finger at the bigotry, callousness and sheer stupidity that surround us, whether on social media or in learned journals, Mitroff highlights the 'wicked mess' (not a derogatory concept) of our lives that require an intelligent and dispassionate approach. His book is as much an insight into what has gone wrong, as it is a warning to recast our thinking on the huge challenges we face. This is a book for our times and I urge you to read it attentively. It may (just) save us from walking down a path to oblivion, blinkered.” (Yochanan Altman, PhD, Professor of International HRM, Middlesex University, London)

“"The revolution of everything" begins to cast light into the perplexing and anxiety-provoking changes currently unravelling in our society. With his concepts of 'complex, messy systems' and 'technological mindset', Mitroff explains why some of these changes are both far-reaching and anxiety-provoking. In this way, Mitroff joins a long line of outstanding and prophetic critical commentators on technology and the future which include Lewis Mumford and Alvin Toffler who saw clearly what lay ahead long before anybody else. Using psychoanalytic insights, Mitroff goes beyond these commentators in elucidating the kinds of mindsets that will best enable us to make the best of the wickedly messy world we have created.” (Yiannis Gabriel, School of Management | University of Bath)

Editorial Reviews

2018-10-18
A researcher considers the dangers posed by technology and the ways in which users are increasingly unprepared for them. The benefits of technology are too obvious to invite dispute, but an entire intellectual field has materialized to debate its pitfalls. Mitroff (Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis, 2005) throws his hat into that already crowded ring with his own contribution, which focuses on the neglected perspective of risk management. The author contends that the world is increasingly plagued by torturously complex difficulties—"wicked problems"—that brook no easy solution and are typically embedded within a tangled skein of other challenges. The only proper approach is a relentlessly creative interdisciplinary methodology, but technology enthusiasts are rarely good at this. They blithely believe technology itself will solve every problem, and in their ardor for progress, fail to even see glitches when they arise. In addition, they tend toward "splitting," the simplistically binary division of the world into dueling categories like good and bad, or hard and soft. Mitroff calls this the "Technological Mindset," which dismissively ignores the possibility that technological advances can cause societal disruption. The author lucidly discusses a crisis management mindset as a healthy counterpoint as well as various schools of ethical analysis that could be useful in evaluating problems related to the social impact of technology. He also recommends the creation of a regulatory agency that audits every new invention's social consequences, with that assessment a prerequisite for its commercial adoption. Mitroff has a Ph.D. in engineering, and so is hardly a Luddite—embedded within his critique of technology is an earnest acknowledgment of its blessings. In addition, since 2006, he's been a senior research affiliate at the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, and his expertise in this area is beyond reproach. He thoughtfully dissects the way an obsession with technology has not only blinded many to its more troublesome features, but also has diminished what counts as rational analysis. But the book is freighted with needless digressions—Mitroff inexplicably manages to discuss the Islamic State group and gun control. He also includes an analysis of the Technological Mindset from the perspective of the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, which yields no additional clarity, and pauses to explain to readers the elemental principles of argumentation. He has a knack for finding the most ingeniously circuitous route to further expound on a point already well-made. And his recommendation for an FDA-like agency to make "Social Impact Assessments" of new technologies doesn't seem thoroughly considered. He never addresses the obvious disadvantages of such onerous regulation—especially given the rate at which new technologies arise—or the details of the agency's composition. He also never discusses with any specificity the rational principles of its judgments, a glaring omission given that this kind of issue forms the thematic spine of the author's study. At one point, he confusedly suggests some of the agency's members be children. A provocative but rambling examination of technology's perils.

Kirkus Reviews