All organizations are challenged by the unexpected natural disasters, civil unrest, international conflict, extreme economic fluctuations, and other unforeseen crises that affect their ability to function. Why are some organizations better able to endure and adapt when faced with unanticipated obstacles? Understanding how to maintain function when catastrophe strikes is key to keeping any organization viable.

In this thoroughly revised and updated third edition of Managing the Unexpected, Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe explore their groundbreaking ideas in light of the unique challenges organizations have been faced with in recent years including bank failures, intelligence failures, quality failures, and other organizational breakdowns, which are often self-inflicted. This vital resource clearly demonstrates why some organizations have the capacity to sustain high performance in the face of unforeseen change. High reliability organizations (HROs) such as commercial aviation, emergency rooms, aircraft carrier flight operations, and firefighting units are looked to as models of exceptional organizational preparedness. Managing the Unexpected explains how these HROs developed ways of acting and styles of learning that enable them to manage the unexpected better than other organizations.

This updated edition explores the essential elements of high reliability organizing in a variety of settings including banking, museum curating, latent fingerprint identification, aircraft piloting, and automobile manufacturing, and puts the emphasis on the foundational qualities and principles that define HROs. Expanding on the first two editions of their classic work, Weick and Sutcliffe offer an in-depth discussion of the complexity of five basic principles failure, simplification, operations, resilience, and expertise. As they explain, considerable commitment and competence are necessary, both to deploy these essential principles in the face of the unexpected and to organize around them in order to sustain performance. The revised third edition also contains a broader range of cases that demonstrate how mindful organizing can be directed to enhance sustained reliable performance.

The third edition of Managing the Unexpected is a guide for exploring the various kinds of unexpected events that can unsettle any organization and includes a template that can bolster an organization's ability to anticipate and remain resilient when managing unexpected disruptions.