Managing environmental uncertainty with legitimate authority: A comparative analysis of the Mann gulch and storm king mountain fires
Abstract This paper uses the Mann Gulch and Storm King Mountain fire disasters as a beginning point to analyze organizational crises. Several of the human factors that contributed to both disasters are identified, and the point is made that similar factors most likely contribute to other organizational crises. It is argued that the lack of legitimate authority impaired the crews’ ability to overcome disaster. Underlying this is a lack of common experience, communication, and interaction. Based on this analysis of the Mann Gulch and Storm King Mountain fires, practical recommendations for enhancing organizations’ ability to effectively cope with crisis and environmental uncertainty are offered.
Since international awareness of a global rush for land has grown from 2008 onward, various databases and reports have attempted to provide an overview of the situation by compiling information on individual land deals. While providing such an overview is challenging owing to the dynamic and untransparent nature of the investments, flawed methods of using and citing data are aggravating that challenge and allowing dissemination of inaccurate information. The consequences are an unnecessarily blurred picture of the land deal situation and thus an inadequate basis for related political decisions or social actions and a misleading starting point for new research projects. In this article we demonstrate some of the flaws in the use of data and their consequences, with examples from fieldwork and literature on Tanzania. The paper illustrates and contributes to the evolving debate on appropriate research methodologies for studying the global land rush.