Browsing by Author "Cantarelli, Chantal C."
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Item Open Access Managing disruptions in complex projects: the antifragility hierarchy(European Academy of Management (EURAM), 2024-06-28) Usher, Greg; Cantarelli, Chantal C.; Davis, Kate; Pinto, Jeffrey K.; Turner, NeilProjects are prone to a variety of disruptions across their development cycle, requiring that effective organizations develop strategies for proactively recognizing disruption likelihood and swiftly responding to these events. This paper explores a hierarchy of responses to disruption, based on Taleb’s (2012) theory of antifragile system behavior. Following this reasoning, we suggest that when faced with project disruptions, organizations need to investigate the means to trigger a “convex” response that increases value through antifragile thinking. We propose an “antifragile hierarchy” in which four key responses to project disruption are demonstrated, with a range of strategies available for addressing these disruptions. This hierarchy offers a novel conceptualization of responses to project disruption events, suggesting that the options available to organizations facing disruptions range from fragile (the least effective) to antifragile (the most constructive). Finally, we offer a set of strategies for effectively responding to disruptions to promote antifragility in projects.Item Unknown Touching the void: The loss of containment and the space between operational and entrepreneurial leadership in the K2 disaster(European Academy of Management (EURAM), 2024-06-28) Cantarelli, Chantal C.; Davis, Kate; Kutsch, Elmar; Turner, Neil; Denyer, David; Turnbull James, KimIn this paper, we seek to understand how members of a collective facing a novel, unprecedented challenge can lose an integrated and realistic connection to the people, events, opportunities, and threats around them. Using extensive data, including interviews with survivors and unique video footage we analyze how eleven experienced climbers lost their lives in 2008 attempting to summit K2, the world’s second-highest mountain. Existing theories of leadership and information-processing views of human cognition do not fully explain observations from our qualitative study. However, containment and social defense constructs suggest how and why people failed to respond to the impending disaster. We offer four key findings. First, destabilizing conditions can erode operational leadership resulting in a breakdown of the traditional sanctuaries of procedure, role clarity, hierarchy, and positional authority. Second, despite clear, escalating threats and the potential for impending disaster, individual and collective responsiveness, proactivity, and adaption can fail to materialize. Third, people’s responses to novel, unprecedented circumstances are deeply connected to and reliant on the ways collectives develop to contain anxiety. Finally, loss of containment can result in a void, disabling people from confronting and adapting to challenging situations realistically and competently.