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Resolving identities: Successive crises in a trading room after 9/11

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  • Daniel Beunza Ibáñez
  • David Stark

Abstract

How do organizations cope with extreme uncertainty? The existing literature is divided on this issue: some argue that organizations deal best with uncertainty in the environment by reproducing it in the organization, whereas others contend that the orga nization should be protected from the environment. In this paper we study the case of a Wall Street investment bank that lost its entire office and trading technology in the terrorist attack of September 11 th. The traders survived, but were forced to relocate to a makeshift trading room in New Jersey. During the six months the traders spent outside New York City, they had to deal with fears and insecurities inside the company as well as outside it: anxiety about additional attacks, questions of professional identity, doubts about the future of the firm, and ambiguities about the future re-location of the trading room. The firm overcame these uncertainties by protecting the traders’ identities and their ability to engage in sensemaking. The organization held together through a leadership style that managed ambiguities and created the conditions for new solutions to emerge.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Beunza Ibáñez & David Stark, 2004. "Resolving identities: Successive crises in a trading room after 9/11," Economics Working Papers 734, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Sep 2005.
    • Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:734
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. extended q & a with daniel beunza about taking the floor: models, morals, and management in a wall st. trading room
      by katherinechen in orgtheory.net on 2020-04-22 22:27:14

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Simpson, Ace Volkmann & Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Clegg, Stewart, 2015. "Hybridity, sociomateriality and compassion: What happens when a river floods and a city's organizations respond?," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 375-386.
    2. Leigh T. Graham, 2007. "Permanently Failing Organizations? Small Business Recovery After September 11, 2001," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 21(4), pages 299-314, November.
    3. David Stark, 2014. "On Resilience," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-11, February.
    4. Millo, Yuval & MacKenzie, Donald, 2009. "The usefulness of inaccurate models: Towards an understanding of the emergence of financial risk management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 638-653, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organizational responsiveness; uncertainty; september 11th;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • G19 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Other

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