IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v66y2023i1p65-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An essential stupidity-based review of the Deepwater Horizon disaster

Author

Listed:
  • Sheppard, Jerry Paul
  • Young, Jesse

Abstract

Though more than a decade has passed, there are compelling reasons to revisit the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the most expensive nonnuclear industrial disaster in history. It serves as an exemplar of what organizations should not do. Recent tragedies in Nigeria and Florida also demonstrate how organizations might avoid the risk of being overtaken by readily predictable events. In this article, we look to advance research on risk mitigation and decision-making as we create a more succinct view of how managers create—and might prevent—inaptitude. To this end, we look at how the evolving concept of stupidity is defined in recent research and how it manifested in the critical case of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. We present five proposals for organizations looking to address and avoid potentially unwise decisions that may lead to the next disaster.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheppard, Jerry Paul & Young, Jesse, 2023. "An essential stupidity-based review of the Deepwater Horizon disaster," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 65-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:66:y:2023:i:1:p:65-73
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2022.02.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681322000209
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.02.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Ocasio & Tomi Laamanen & Eero Vaara, 2018. "Communication and Attention Dynamics : an Attention-Based View of Strategic Change," Post-Print hal-02312047, HAL.
    2. William Ocasio & Tomi Laamanen & Eero Vaara, 2018. "Communication and attention dynamics: An attention‐based view of strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 155-167, January.
    3. William Ocasio, 1997. "Towards An Attention‐Based View Of The Firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 187-206, July.
    4. Mats Alvesson & André Spicer, 2012. "A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1194-1220, November.
    5. Sheppard, Jerry Paul & Young, Jesse, 2020. "Addressing sustainable development goals for confronting climate change: Insights and summary solutions in the stress stupidity system," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(6), pages 929-951, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angulo-Ruiz, Fernando & Pergelova, Albena & Dana, Leo Paul, 2020. "The internationalization of social hybrid firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 266-278.
    2. Datta, Subhadeep & Mukherjee, Sourjo, 2022. "In families we trust: Family firm branding and consumer’s reaction to product harm crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 257-268.
    3. Matti Mäntymäki & Sami Hyrynsalmi & Antti Koskenvoima, 2020. "How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 1163-1178, October.
    4. Weiqi Dai & Mingqing Liao & Qiao Lin & Jincai Dong, 2022. "Does entrepreneurs’ proactive attention to government policies matter?," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(3), pages 396-431, July.
    5. Ricarda B. Bouncken & Martin Ratzmann & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2023. "Fluffy cuffs: SME’s innovation in alliances with buyer firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1231-1251, October.
    6. Matti Mäntymäki & Sami Hyrynsalmi & Antti Koskenvoima, 0. "How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-16.
    7. Shihao Wei & Christopher J. Boudreaux & Zhongfeng Su & Zhan Wu, 2024. "Natural disasters, personal attributes, and social entrepreneurship: an attention-based view," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 1409-1427, April.
    8. Livieratos, Antonios D. & Tsekouras, George & Vanhaverbeke, Wim & Angelakis, Antonios, 2022. "Open Innovation moves in SMEs: How European SMEs place their bets?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Tomi Laamanen, 2019. "Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in MNCs," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    10. Blankenburg Holm, Desirée & Drogendijk, Rian & Haq, Hammad ul, 2020. "An attention-based view on managing information processing channels in organizations," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    11. Wang, Xincheng & Li, Yuan & Tian, Longwei & Hou, Ye, 2023. "Government digital initiatives and firm digital innovation: Evidence from China," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    12. Shihao Wei & Christopher Boudreaux & Zhongfeng Su & Zhan Wu, 2024. "Natural disasters and social entrepreneurship: An attention-based view," Papers 2404.08620, arXiv.org.
    13. Kleinknecht, Robert & Haq, Hammad Ul & Muller, Alan R. & Kraan, Karolus O., 2020. "An attention-based view of short-termism: The effects of organizational structure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 244-254.
    14. Pluchinotta, Irene & Salvia, Giuseppe & Zimmermann, Nici, 2022. "The importance of eliciting stakeholders’ system boundary perceptions for problem structuring and decision-making," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(1), pages 280-293.
    15. Anneleen Michiels & Diane Arijs & Lorraine Uhlaner, 2022. "Formal HRM in family SMEs: the role of family-centered goals and family governance," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(8), pages 2553-2576, November.
    16. Andrews, Daniel S. & Fainshmidt, Stav & Ambos, Tina & Haensel, Kira, 2022. "The attention-based view and the multinational corporation: Review and research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    17. Spaniol, Matthew J. & Rowland, Nicholas J., 2022. "Business ecosystems and the view from the future: The use of corporate foresight by stakeholders of the Ro-Ro shipping ecosystem in the Baltic Sea Region," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    18. Morgan, Todd & Anokhin, Sergey Alexander & Wincent, Joakim, 2019. "New service development by manufacturing firms: Effects of customer participation under environmental contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 497-505.
    19. Nick Oliver & Thomas Calvard & Kristina Potočnik, 2017. "Cognition, Technology, and Organizational Limits: Lessons from the Air France 447 Disaster," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 729-743, August.
    20. Hortovanyi, Lilla & Szabo, Roland Zs & Fuzes, Peter, 2021. "Extension of the strategic renewal journey framework: The changing role of middle management," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:66:y:2023:i:1:p:65-73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.