Fukushima Nuclear Disaster 3.11: System Pathology of Social Organizations [Link]
Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, 2011.5.30
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, were unavoidable natural disasters, but we consider the subsequent breakdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plants to be a catastrophe created by avoidable human errors – an organizational disaster. We review the mistakes that have led up to the present nuclear crisis, and recommend several steps to avoid similar crises in the future. This speech considers the “Fukushima nuclear accident” as an organizational disaster. Furthermore, we discuss problems of the nuclear power plant system of Japan. These include issues of (i) the Fukushima nuclear station’s irrational location in a quake-prone and tsunami-prone area, (ii) the business ethics inherent to operating ageing reactors, (iv) the social responsibility required for organizational management, (v) non-rational governance of nuclear policy in extending the longevity of nuclear reactors, and (vi) the dynamics of system pathology in dealing with socio-biological hazards based on ageing technology, ambiguous management and fuzzy nuclear policy.
Keywords: organizational cybernetics, business ethics, social responsibility, system pathology, governance
Systems Pathology of Social Organizations: Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe 3.11 [Link]
Journal of Informatics, Faculty of Informatics Kansai University, 2011.8.10
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, were unavoidable natural disasters, but we consider the subsequent breakdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plants to be a catastrophe created by avoidable human errors – an organizational disaster. We review the mistakes that have led up to the present nuclear crisis, and recommend several steps to avoid similar crises in the future. These include issues of (i) determining whether the Fukushima catastrophe was an accident or a man-made disaster? (ii) irrational decision-making due to the pathology of Japanese organizations, (iii) the business ethics of power companies running 40+ years old ageing nuclear reactors, (iv) tired management and system fatigue that administrated the hidden trouble of old reactors as social responsibility, (v) dynamics of systems pathology caused by non-rational governance or multisystem errors of disclosure for stricken area and overseas, (vi) un-homeostasis means the pathology or apoptosis that is ‘Fukushima Formula’ applying to the nuclear reactor in the world.
Keywords: socio-cybernetics, business ethics, social responsibility, governance, un-homeostasis