Abstract
In 1998 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a statement of their strategy entitled “Preventing Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Strategy for the 21st Century.” They described their central challenge this way: “because we do not know what new diseases will arise, we must always be prepared for the unexpected” (p. vii). Soon after they published that statement CDC was confronted with an unexpected emerging disease, the West Nile Virus, which they misdiagnosed initially.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Investigation of the West Nile incident is an ongoing joint project that involves Joe Porac, Huggy Rao, and Karl Weick, with the assistance of Katherine Lawrence. I am indebted to my collaborators for ongoing discussions that have helped all of us see the larger significance of this incident for organizational theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weick, K.E. 5 Managing the Unexpected: Complexity as Distributed Sensemaking. In: McDaniel, R.R., Driebe, D.J. (eds) Uncertainty and Surprise in Complex Systems. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10948637_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/10948637_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23773-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32372-3
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)