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Mission improbable

Lee Ben Clarke

1999217 pagesabout 3–5 hours
1999
first published
  • 1999University of Chicago Press · 217 pages · ENGISBN 9780226109411
  • 2001University Of Chicago Press · 225 pages · ENGISBN 9780226109428

How does the U.S. Post Office plan to deliver mail after atomic Armageddon? How do oil industry executives intend to collect 10 million gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf of Alaska? How do regulators try to convince people that everyone can be evacuated from congested Long Island after a nuclear power plant destroys itself? Lee Clarke enters the world of managers and experts to find out how governments and corporations plan for massive disaster when they have no clue as to how to go about it. He argues that managers create plans that are "fantasy documents," rhetorical tools that are used to convince audiences that experts are in charge and that all is well. Provocative and written for a general audience, Mission Improbable makes the case that society would be safer, smarter, and fairer if organizations would admit their limitations.

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