Beunza, Daniel and Stark, David (2003) The organization of responsiveness: innovation and recovery in the trading rooms of Lower Manhattan. Socio-economic review, 1 (2). pp. 135-164. ISSN 1475-1461
Abstract
What is the organizational basis of responsiveness under conditions of crisis? In this essay we examine a trading room that was damaged in the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. What did the crisis reveal about the social practices and the technological tools of trading? Drawing on ethnographic field research prior to September 11th, we show how the heterarchical (as opposed to hierarchical) organization of the trading room contributed to innovation on an ongoing basis. Drawing on our subsequent observations in the relocated trading room and focus group discussions with executives in other World Trade Center financial firms, we show that similarly heterarchical features contributed to innovation in response to crisis. Under conditions of radical uncertainty, one cannot know in advance what resources one will need, or even know in advance what might be a resource. Laterally distributed intelligence and a tolerance of multiple registers of valuation and interaction provide generative structures of resourcefulness where the replicative redundancy of contingency planning confronts its limits. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of our findings on innovation, location and responsiveness for the changing urban geography of finance and the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://ser.oxfordjournals.org/ |
| Additional Information: | © 2003 Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics and Oxford University Press |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | organizational theory, heterarchy, contingency planning, socio-technical network, economic geography, September 11th |
| Library of Congress subject classification: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HG Finance |
| Journal of Economic Literature Classification System: | L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior > L23 - Organization of Production N - Economic History > N2 - Financial Markets and Institutions > N22 - U.S.; Canada: 1913- |
| Sets: | Research centres and groups > Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour Group Departments > Management Collections > Economists Online |
| Rights: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/rights/LSERO.htm |
| URL: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/38131/ |
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