Today we received the great news that we received a small amount of funding (25000 kr) for visiting the Keswick museum that hosts the mountain heritage trust collection that relates to the history of (UK) mountaineering. We are really excited about this since we will be able to find some initial traces of how the history of mountaineering (and hence the commercialization of risk) has evolved through technical developments and undertakings. The data collection is planned for the fall of 2017.
Markus to present at TedX Umeå
Markus have the honor of presenting some of our research on TedX Umeå. More precisely he will be talking about boredom on Everest, how that may kill and how they manage it –> and what ordinary organizations may learn from it. Find the information about Markus´s presentation below:
Information about the event, here
Managing the risk of boredom: Insights from Mt Everest
About me
I’m a professor in management at Umeå University, and genuinely curious about the impact of time and anything extreme in, and on society. I have researched extreme contexts such as mountaineering, emergency departments at hospitals and the police, and naturally published extensively in various journals. Together with my research team www.tripleED.com my latest project is concerned with the everyday activities in commercial mountaineering expeditions.
Why listen to me
I will bring you along to the roof of the world by elaborating on the dangers of being bored at Mount Everest, how commercial expeditions mitigate these risks, and how any organization may improve their business by learning from the insights gained in a setting where failure is not an option.
Working with the analysis
Here we are hard at work with the analysis of Robert´s first article where we examine sensegiving in the context of the Swedish police.
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Virginia had her defense on the dissertation
In February Virginia had her internal defense on her dissertation. Katharina Dittrich from EZH Zürich, together with Jessica Ericsson and Angelos Kostis. The trio provided excellent comments on the manuscript that helped to clarify and suggests constructive ways forward. The conclusion is that Virginia´s work is timely and very promising!
Posted in Healthcare, Organizational routines, Seminar
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Virginia receives a scholarship from Wikströmska foundation
As part of a future postdoc at HEC Montreal Virginia received a post doc stipend from Per & Eivors Wikströms foundation. At HEC Virginia will continue her research on organizational routines in the healthcare industry.
Posted in Funding, Organizational routines
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Björn gives two presentations on the data collection at Everest
Björn has been holding two presentations about his Everest experience 2016. The first presentation was held during the annual Umeå Climbing club christmas dinner. In this presentation he talked about the research team, what we can learn from studying these kinds of extreme contextual settings and of course Everest as such. The second presentation was held for the department of Business administration where he shared some of his insights from collecting data and doing field work in extreme contexts.
New podcast on extreme contexts
For some time now Markus has been working on a podcast dedicated to learning from people involved in and with extreme contexts. The idea is to take seriously such individuals experiences and translate it to more ordinary settings and organisations. A plethora of different settings and themes will be covered but the first few episodes deals with high altitude mountaineering and how it may be applicable to i.e. project management. You find the podcast at www.extremecontexts.com
Posted in Just for fun, Mountaineering
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Funding for project on extreme contexts
Everyday life in extreme contexts:
The roles of identity, routines and emotions
Together with the principal researcher Linda Rouleau, and researchers Sebastien Arcand, Stephanie Gagnon, Markus is involved in a project given to Linda and funded by the government of Canada.
Summary
In a global world characterized by risks, catastrophes and accidents, organizations have to deal with extreme events that can provoke loss or damage. Examples include major political collapses (e.g., Quinn & Worline, 2008), disasters (e.g., Majchrzak, Jarvenpaa & Andrea, 2007), catastrophic environmental accidents (e.g., Shepherd & Williams, 2013), death during mountaineering expeditions (Elmes & Frame, 2008), emergency situations (e.g., Cornelissen, Mantere & Vaara, 2014), and so on. Such extreme events are generally the sites of retrospective inquiries investigating what went wrong (Brown, 2003; Boudes & Laroche, 2009). However, as Buchanan (2011: 273) states, “following an accident, crisis, disaster or other extreme events, the recommendations from investigations and inquiries are often not implemented.” One of the multiple reasons explaining this statement is that those conducting these inquiries focus on unpacking these events without knowing the processes and dynamics through which life within organizations was previously structured and ordered. Instead of mainly concentrating our efforts on extreme events when it is too late, we propose to examine the processes and dynamics characteristic of the extreme contexts in which extreme events are likely to occur more or less frequently. To develop efficient tools and intervention strategies, and even to improve prevention policies, there is a need to better understand the way managers and organizational members play their roles, tinker with the limited means they have, and live with the emotional pressures in the everyday life of extreme contexts. This is the aim of this research project.
Posted in Funding, Grants, Mountaineering, Sensemaking
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Markus gave a unscientific lecture on “Boredom in which parties are held on Mount Everest, and amusement is the key to survival” for students at UmU
Last night Markus gave a presentation in the unscientific lecture series for the students. The presentation was based on some of the recent research on the effects on boredom and how it could be managed in a temporary organisation – such as a mountaineering expedition.
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Some TripleED socializing
Honestly, there’s time for work and there is time for play. Tonight it was the latter. Parts of the group were enjoying some food together, life as an academic, methods and why we fo what we do. In addition of life in general and bag pipe manufacturing.
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