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The dark side of organizational improvisation: Lessons from the sinking of Costa Concordia

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  • Giustiniano, Luca
  • Cunha, Miguel Pina e
  • Clegg, Stewart

Abstract

High-reliability organizations operate in highly regulated sectors in which the main concern is ensuring the safety of people and goods. Despite high levels of formalization, organizations have to be sensitive to contingent situations and ready to face the unexpected, so the role of the people in command remains crucial. When unanticipated events and contingencies arise, organizational improvisation comes into its own. Improvisation is the deliberate fusion of design and execution in a novel production entailing the cognitive, rational, and event intuitive interpretation of prescribed rules and standards of conduct at various levels of aggregation. Standardization and improvisation are often represented as two conflicting demands rather than as necessarily interdependent; hence, the possible presence of improvisation in high-reliability organizations has been left underexplored. While most of the extant studies on improvisation have stressed the wisdom of improvised choices, not all improvisations are so successful. In this article we illuminate the dark side of organizational improvisation by analyzing the notorious case of the sinking of the Costa Concordia. The case shows how conformity to the formal adoption of standards and compliance to them can provide a shelter under which impromptu adaptation can be pursued, expressing the negative side of improvisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Giustiniano, Luca & Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Clegg, Stewart, 2016. "The dark side of organizational improvisation: Lessons from the sinking of Costa Concordia," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 223-232.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:59:y:2016:i:2:p:223-232
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2015.11.007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Michael Knoll & Rolf Dick, 2013. "Do I Hear the Whistle…? A First Attempt to Measure Four Forms of Employee Silence and Their Correlates," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 349-362, March.
    2. Mats Alvesson & André Spicer, 2012. "A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1194-1220, November.
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    1. Ruponen, Pekka & Montewka, Jakub & Tompuri, Markus & Manderbacka, Teemu & Hirdaris, Spyros, 2022. "A framework for onboard assessment and monitoring of flooding risk due to open watertight doors for passenger ships," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    2. Vera Lucia Telles Scaglione & Victor Meyer & Diórgenes Falcão Mamédio, 2019. "Improvisation in Higher Education Management: Coping with Complexity and Organizational Dynamics," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 20(4), pages 291-302, December.
    3. Nermin Hasanspahić & Vlado Frančić & Srđan Vujičić & Mario Mandušić, 2021. "Safety Leadership as a Means for Safe and Sustainable Shipping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-14, July.
    4. Magni, Massimo & Palmi, Pamela & Salvemini, Severino, 2018. "Under pressure! Team innovative climate and individual attitudes in shaping individual improvisation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 474-484.
    5. Stéphane Robin, 2023. "Free musical improvisation as an alternative model for organization," Working Papers hal-04080990, HAL.
    6. Giustiniano, Luca & Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Clegg, Stewart, 2016. "Organizational zemblanity," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 7-21.

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