Tag Archives: Functional Stupidity

Corona – Sweden: at least 10.000 infected as of today, 2020-03-20

Posted on March 20, 2020 by swdevperestroika

For exactly a week ago, when the Swedish number of infected was 814, I predicted (more correctly: my Bayesian Model did) that today, March 20, Sweden would have 10.000 infected. Looking at today’s official numbers, it seems that I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Bayes, Culture, Data Analytics, Epidemics, Functional Stupidity, Organization, Politik, Probability, PYMC, Research, Society, Statistics, Sverige | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Systematic failure despite “perfect” systems

Posted on September 13, 2013 by swdevperestroika

As my frequent readers know, I’m a keen sailor, and spend quite a lot of time at sea, in various types of vessels, ranging from high performance dinghies over yachts  to cruise ships.  I’ve also got a Maritime Deck Officer … Continue reading →

Posted in Grandiosity, Leadership, Management, Organization | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Cringely’s latest projection – the consequences of “focus on shareholder value”

Posted on June 22, 2013 by swdevperestroika

Robert X Cringely on the consequences of relentless focus on “shareholder value”. The contemporary “business model” of most of today’s large enterprises, regardless domain, is based on relentless “focus on shareholder value” exlusively. And since the time horizon for that … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Culture, Finance, Functional Stupidity, Grandiosity, Leadership, Management, Organization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

NSA disclosure: is it Orwellian, or is it Huxley…?

Posted on June 12, 2013 by swdevperestroika

Over the past few days, since the revelation of Big Government’s Big-Data surveillance of the citizens of the world, there has been many references to George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”, and that book is now soaring on Amazon’s list of … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Data, Big Government, Business, Culture, Functional Stupidity, Grandiosity, Leadership, Management, Organization | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Lack of application of Complexity Theory in management

Posted on May 8, 2013 by swdevperestroika

An absolutely essential and brilliant article by RIchard Staub in Harvard Business Review, on why organizations have not embraced Complexity as the #1 paradigm for governing their “system”. Reason #1: it’s too complex…! Today’s typical  Empty Suit-managers prefer simplicity, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Complex Systems, Functional Stupidity, Leadership, Management, Organization | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Systems thinking

Posted on April 7, 2013 by swdevperestroika

“Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad or an economist.” ― Kenneth E. Boulding

Posted in Complex Systems, Finance, Functional Stupidity, Grandiosity, Leadership, Management, Organization, Systems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Grandiosity of modern business & society

Posted on February 20, 2013 by swdevperestroika

Professor Mats Alvesson talking about the Grandiosity of modern business & society, where  image matters more than reality, a fancy web-site displaying all the politically correct disclaimers and slogan’s about environmental policies etc is more important than getting the real job … Continue reading →

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Roots of Functional Stupidity

Posted on February 5, 2013 by swdevperestroika

http://vimeo.com/17439151 Professor Mats Alvesson presents some of the root causes for Functional Stupidity. (Presentation is in Swedish)

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Functional Stupidity – The mysterious ways of large organizations explained

Posted on February 4, 2013 by swdevperestroika

A friend of mine just brought my attention to this hot-off-the-press research paper, “A Stupidity Based Theory of Organizations”, by Mats Alvesson and Andre’ Spicer,  published in Journal Of Management Studies. The paper is amazing, it explains a lot of … Continue reading →

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