Today's Picture and the blogs

Today's picture shows Rickover on a submarine with his former protege, President Jimmy Carter, in the 1970s.

After a pretty positive reaction to the blogs yesterday, today was a disappointment.

Ryan's blog on baseball's salary cap dilemma, only has one entry, on August 29.

Shawn's blog has some really interesting posts on baseball history, and some neat photos. However, only four posts to date, and none since September 13--that's almost two weeks without a post.

And the interestingly titled Kreynormis blog on franchising also only has one entry.

This blog is 15% of your final grade--and damage has already been done! Fair warning!

More Blogs

Monday--back to work!!

William has just started with his blog, so he has a ways to go. However, he is looking at the link between the real estate market and the economy, which is fascinating. Given the housing mess, will it push the economy into recession? Will Americans keep spending if they can't finance that spending with second mortgages?

Tim's blog has ten entries so far, and I really like the way he uses links in the text of his blog! He is focusing on subprime lending mess, which is a critically important subject, and a very complicated one. Will Countrywide survive? How badly have banks and investment firms been hurt? When will we know the truth about how big this mess is?

Patrick's blog, with seven entries, is just a bit shy of where he should be. I love the topic of Beckham and soccer. When I was in Scotland, I used to collect the insignia of the Scottish Premiere League teams!!!!

A Rickover Photo and more blog reviews.

Three more student blogs:

Paris's blog on motorcycle racing is really fascinating. He tells us he will be racing this weekend at Putnam. With eight entries, he is close to where he should be.

Sandra's blog on coffee shops has a lot of visual appeal right now as she focuses on tables and other furniture for the shops. Again, with eight entries, she is almost there.

Matthew's blog on Football as America's new pastime has some good coverage, including his highlighting the fact that Sunday Night Football beat the Emmy's last week! Only five entries, about half of what he should have.

The picture above is of the Admiral in 1972, with Lola Aiken, wife of Senator George Aiken of Vermont, who was a close friend.

Three more blogs, and a slide show!

Lee's blog on GM has some really detailed entries and nice graphics and design. Very high quality, though he has less than half the posts he should. His last two entries do I nice job giving us some historical background about the company.

Jill's blog on media influence on youth has six entries with some very good reflection and analysis. I'd like to see a few more links with articles and examples.

Jeff's blog on financial matters has seven entries--he is doing a good job. Yesterday's entry talked about the Fed's move to lower interest rates.
It's interesting--it will help the housing market, and probably improve the value of my 401K. On the other hand, will it drive the value of the dollar lower, thereby driving the price of imported oil and manufactured products even higher?

On my own research topic, MSNBC has a nice post on the return of nuclear power and a fine historical slide show on the subject:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20841590/

Blogging and World English

Back to the blogs, and all three blogs I reviewed today are in pretty good shape. After four weeks of blogging I'd like to see 8-12 entries, and none of today's bloggers are that far along, But they all have good beginnings!

Dan's blog has 5 solid entries so far, all about the music industry. Today's entry addressed the competition between Kanye West and 5o cent--and Dan wonders whether if the latter's threat to quit is just a sales gimmick. So far, both albums are selling well, though Dan says West is slightly ahead.

Carly's blog has five entries on the health care industry. It sounds like a dry subject, but Carly is doping a nice job using visuals and links to other sites to make the blog interesting--it's a very appealing blog, visually! By the way, Hilary Clinton announced her new health care plan today.

Finally, Alec's blog on video games is very interesting. He need more posts, as does almost everyone! But the numbers he has on video gaming are very informative!

Today I'm thinking about 'world' or 'international English.' This is the idea that those of us who write documents or speak with an international audience, many who are second language learners, we should simplify the vocabulary and our grammar to make understanding a simpler task. Amazing, how a little language descended from Old Norse and other Germanic dialects should become THE language of the World!

Back to the Research and the Blogs

I don't know how I can expect you to become faithful bloggers if my own blog has been a bit lax the last week!

The reason is simple--I've had a lot of papers to grade, and my work on the research project has been continuing. In fact, I have a draft article ready for Technical Communication Quarterly! I'm thinking it might become a short book.

To the blogs:

Kyle's blog on the Chicago Bears has some nice entries on the salary cap. It could use a few more entries and some development!

Candace's blog has five strong entries and good links! The entry on business incubation was very interesting.

Jeanette's blog--No posts yet!!!

Speaking of the research, here is how it concludes:

EXPORTING THE NAVAL REACTORS CULTURE

In recent years, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to transfer the kind of safety culture which Naval Reactors has successfully maintained for over fifty years to other governmental organizations which have experienced institutional failures. Following the failure of NASA to prevent the loss of a second space shuttle, the Columbia, in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), reported that NASA's “organizational culture and structure” had as much to do with the accident as the actual physical events which caused the accident. Among the organizational failures contributing to the accident were “organizational barriers that prevented effective communication of critical safety information and stifled professional differences of opinion” (CAIB, 2003, p.9). The board cited the Naval Reactors program as an example which could serve as a model for the space agency. Ironically, NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe, former Secretary of the Navy had already recognized that NASA could learn from the submarine force and had established the NASA/Navy Benchmarking Exchange (NNBE) in 2002 (Newman, Kauffman, & Ford, 2003). The work of this group is ongoing. And in a presentation to NASA in 2005, Steve Krahn of Perot Systems argued for “institutional constancy” and referred to his own case study of Naval Reactors as a model for success (Crawford and Krahn, 1998). Dr. Krahn is a former assistant to Rickover and former Chief Operating Officer of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).

In another disaster, Hurricane Katrina, the Independent Levee Investigation Team (ILIT), made this finding:

Many of the organizations responsible for building and maintaining flood protection in New Orleans, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the local levee districts, can learn a lot from High Reliability Theory and the example that the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program continues to set. The fluid organizational structure, vibrant exchange of ideas (coupled with developed communication skills), and coherent training programs are to be desired by many public and private organizations. (Seed et al, Appendix G., p. G-7).

Once again we see another organization attempting to transfer attributes of the successful Naval Reactors culture to other governmental organizations. In fact, the concept of the HRO may be in danger of becoming one of the next in a long history of management fads (Kieser, 1997; Newell, Robertson & Swan, 2001). It has even entered the arena of educational administration where advocates of “fail-safe schools” are adopting some of the strategies of the HRO (Bellamy, 2005).

Advocates of such cultural transfer could learn something from the literature of technology transfer. As Nancy Coppola wrote in the 2006 guest editor’s introduction to a special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly on the subject, “Technology transfer might best be understood as a navigating practice; like wily Odysseus, we are not mastering but negotiating the process” (p. 289). Like technology transfer, the type of transfer advocated by those who wish to move the Naval Reactors model of doing things into other organizations face not only the usual “technical, regulatory and human barriers” (Coppola, p. 288) that come from introducing a technology (and as Foucault recognized, administrative techniques are technologies) into a new cultural setting, but also a slew of challenges that come from attempting to change the very nature of the culture. Add to that the fact that Admiral Rickover and his successors were wildly successful in lobbying Congress for financial resources that organizations like NASA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the public schools simply don’t have, and the challenge facing such transfers are clearly immense. Can civilian engineers in NASA achieve the same kind of cultural cohesion that allows significant dissensus to coexist with a high level of organizational camaraderie on submarines? Can the Army Corps of Engineers develop multiple levels of technical expertise without the kind of technical schooling and qualification provided by Naval Reactors? Can a principal in an elementary school, who may be the entire administrative team, provide the kind of monitoring and mentoring that occurs across multiple levels in the engineering spaces of a ship? This is not to say that other organizations cannot learn from high reliability organizations—just that becoming an HRO is a much more complex task than simply declaring you are one!

More Reviews and More Submarine Stuff

Julie's art business blog--a nice blog, with a mixture of reviews of writing on the subject and her own personnel reflections. Three solid entries so far.

Gerri's blog on gas prices begins by asking whether a car is a necessity, and then moves to a description of how gasoline is made. Good work, though she needs more entries.

Megan's food safety blog has some really interesting thoughts on the subjects. Only two brief entries so far though.

My own research continues. Let's look at this web of texts a submariner lives in another way today.

Let me give you an example in the form of a very simple, very routine shipboard evolution. John is a junior nuclear watchstander in the lower level of the engineroom of a submarine. He is taking his hourly logs, which means he has to take a tour through his assigned spaces and read and record various pressures, temperatures, and levels in his “log” a documents which is basically a grid which he fills with numbers. During this process, he notes that one of his parameters, a tank level, is above its acceptable range. He writes a sentence recording that fact in the narrative section of his log. He then picks up the phone and calls the watch officer in the reactor control room and reports this information. The watch officer acknowledges the report, and calls his roving watch supervisor to the control room and instructs him to begin preparing to pump down the tank. The watch officer then calls the ship’s control room, and requests permission to pump the tank. The officer in charge of the ship’s control room acknowledges the request, and consults environmental regulations and the plot of the ship’s course to determine if the ship is in a location where pumping this tank is permitted. Once he has done so, he calls the reactor watch officer, and orders that the tank be pumped.

In the meantime, the roving watch supervisor has went to the lower level of the engine room, and is reviewing with John the standard operating procedure to pump the tank. The watch supervisor notes that the procedure requires that the tank be first vented and sampled for hydrogen, so he goes to a locker and breaks out a portable hydrogen detector and its operating manual. They review the procedures to sample for hydrogen.

The reactor control officer gives the order to his watch supervisor to pump the tank and to report all primary valve operations to the reactor control room. The watch supervisor directs the simple evolution, which first involves opening a vent valve, sampling for hydrogen, shutting the vent valve. John records the hydrogen level in the narrative section of his log. The watch supervisor then orders John to open a suction valve to the tank, start s pump, then opens a valve to discharge the tank effluent into the ocean. When the tank level reaches the desired level, the watchstander shuts the discharge valve, stops the pump, and then shuts the suction valve. Each time one of these valves are operated, John records the operation in the narrative of his log, and the watch supervisor reports the valve operation to the reactor control room. At the end of the operation he records the new tank level in the narrative of the log. The watch supervisor reviews and initials the log as part of his periodic four-hour review.

In the reactor control room, the reactor control officer has one of the control room watchstanders record each of the valve operations in the primary valve operations logbook. The officer updates the laminated reactor plant schematic with a grease pencil, marking an open valve with a red “O” and a shut valve with a red “X.” Once the operation is complete, the reactor control officer logs the completion of the task in his own log narrative which is reviewed daily by the Commanding Officer and the Ship’s Engineer. He reports the completion of the pumping operation, the new tank level, and the final position of the discharge valve to the ship’s control room officer, who acknowledges the report, and verifies the valve position by checking the remote valve position indicator for the hull valve in the ship’s control room.

This kind of operation, and many more complex operations occur routinely on every watch on board a submarine. In this operation, three manuals were consulted—an environmental manual, an operations manual, and a technical manual for a hydrogen detector. A tank level, an out of normal condition, six valve operations, a final tank level, and a review check are entered into the lower level watchstander’s log. Six valve operations are entered into the primary valve operations log, and six valve operations are updated on the reactor control schematic. The operation is logged in the reactor control officers log.

Bierly and Spender describe this system of redundancy in oral and textual communication as one that “helps to establish crisis-resistant patterns of communication and behavior (1995, p. 648). It also helps to reinforce the hierarchical authority relations essential to central bureaucratic control, while also involving numerous watchstanders in the process so that any one of them can interrupt the process when an error is made. This is where the clan culture established by Rickover becomes so important. In a strictly bureaucratic culture, John, the lower level watchstander is simply expected to blindly follow orders. In the nuclear clan culture established by H.G. Rickover, John is expected to speak up and intervene if one of his superiors makes a mistake, such as forgetting to sample the tank for hydrogen. Considering the dangers of a hydrogen-fueled fire, or of flooding due to an improperly positioned valve in the confined spaces of a submarine, the complex network of written and spoken texts across several levels of control make sense. This is the essence of textual consumption and production in a high reliability organization.

High Reliability Organizations and some blog reviews

I'll start reviewing blogs with comments now--I aim to review about three a day throughout the semester. I'll also continue with my own research. You can link to any of these blogs by clicking on the links on the right side of this page.

Jeremy's BMX blog--It has a good subject, and apparently the BMX bike industry is an area with a lot of technological innovation Jeremy can discuss. Unfortunately it's been 9 days since his first post, and that's too long between posts!

Fabian's blog--No posts yet! Enough said!

Andrew's Colts blog. This blog has an interesting post on the Colt's charity foundations. Two posts so far--a good start, but needs attention.

All blogs--pay attention to grammar, capitalization, and spelling. We all occasionally make mistakes, but blogs are public posts and require some care!

Now on to my own research project.

The Navy's Nuclear Power Program is what some organizational theorists call a "high reliability organization." The operation of these organizations are noteworthy because failure to perform at a high level of competence could lead to the destruction of the organization or severe harm to the general public. Operation of submarines and nuclear power plants are extreme examples of this type of organization.

When this type of organization operates routinely without incident, their operations are often relatively invisible. However, when these organizations experience accidents, the event is often accompanied by public clamor for investigation and reform of the organization. Examples of these kinds of events include the loss of the submarine Thresher in 1963, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, and the loss of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. Researchers in technical communication have examined the latter two incidents, and found that communication issues contributed in some ways to those disasters (Doheny-Farina, 1992; Dombrowski, 1992; Moore, 1992; Winsor, 1988). Since technical communication in these organizations may play a critical role in their operations, it is important to understand the nature of that role.

The Research Continues

What is most interesting to me about this topic, is how the nuclear program uses a web of texts to monitor and direct the activities of its personnel. It does so on a number of levels.

At the highest level, Naval Reactors used texts to control activity on submarines from its Washington D.C. office. The admiral required submarine Commanding Officers to send quarterly letters detailing the number of training sessions, shipboard drills, qualifications earned, operational incidents, and more. Instructions for this letter required gory detail, even to the level of high, low, and mean grades for routine quizzes and exams, lecture/seminar titles, qualification delinquencies. Naval Reactors also published a series of "technical bulletins" collected particularly egregious events chronicled in these letters, which the admiral used as warnings to educate and control his nuclear crews.

At the shipboard level, the Commanding Officer and his Engineering Officer also used texts to control events. For example, before retiring to bed each evening, these officers issued texts in the form of "night orders," which all watchstanders had to read and initial. Thus these officers controlled shipboard activity from the comfort of their "racks" (beds).

Finally, at the crew level, texts played a large role in enculturating new personnel in the norms of shipboard existence. The crews of at least three ships on which I served maintained their own "Vindictive Night Order Books," (V.N.O.B.) which parodied and lampooned the orders of the senior officers, and teased and targeted fellow crew members. While on the surface, this was a subversive text, below the surface these texts served the function of what Bierly and Spender (fellow submariners, and researchers in management) describe as a "rich, group-oriented learning process." The V.N.O.B. contained its share of off-color humorous tales and obscene limericks, but also told stories which described mistakes other sailors had made, mistakes as watchstanders, and the mistakes of the "newbies" as they learned the shipboard cultures. the V.N.O.B. was a place where the sailors became acquainted with an avalanche of nuclear jargon, acronyms, and cultural imperatives. Even the subversive nature of the text served its purposes: Rickover himself was famous for the practical jokes he played on the slow-minded, and he frequently signalled to his nuclear operators "that it is OK to stand up and say what you believe rather than blindly follow orders" (Bierly and Spender). Rickover himself, shortly after leaving the Navy, told a Rolling Stone interviewer that "I followed those orders I agreed with." The fiercely independent operator who defied fear challenged his supervisors when they were taking actions detrimental to the safe operation of the nuclear power plant was part of this culture Rickover was trying to promote.