Taking the fatal 2003 shuttle accident as a starting point, Starbuck (New York U.) and Farjoun (York U., Toronto) invited experts in technology, management, organizational behavior, and other
fields to contribute insights about the disaster and the organizational lessons it suggested. Disasters, Starbuck and Farjoun write, dramatize how things can go wrong, particularly in large,
complex social systems. While an investigation identified the direct technical cause of the accident, it also found that the crew’s deaths were a product of long-standing organizational
problems. Starbuck, Farjoun, and their contributors seek to illuminate what other organizations can learn from those problems. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
