Organizational Problems: Potential Causes and Unintentional Consequences — Some Personal Views

It is not uncommon today for companies to suffer a range of program difficulties, which broadly lie under the headings of “lack of efficiency,” “schedules moving to the right,” “cost overruns” and “having to repair past poor decisions.” Although senior management may appear to be well aware of these problems and their consequences, inherent difficulties in rectifying these problems exist. Often, responses are more directed to corrective action and damage limitations rather than assessing what is wrong at a fundamental level. Of course, most — if not all — safety mishaps can be associated with technical or human faults. However, it is also generally accepted that these are not the root-cause reasons for mishaps but rather, a result of faults higher up in the organization’s structure.