Asking “What Else?” to identify unintended negative consequences

Kathleen M. Wilburn and H. Ralph Wilburn

Business Horizons, 2016, vol. 59, issue 2, 213-221

Abstract: With the advent of big data, the Internet of Things, cognitive computing, and social media, it is becoming more difficult to argue that one could not have known or at least have considered more alternatives, particularly negative unintended consequences that happen in addition to the intended positive ones. Organizations too often make a decision that will produce a positive consequence and then focus on how to implement it, rarely stepping back to ask “What else could happen?” Any decision changes the system in which it exists. The longer the time required to implement a decision, the more systemic changes can alter the effects of the decision on the system. Decisions to implement Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability initiatives usually involve many different stakeholders and may involve systems in which organizations have little expertise or experience. A major negative unintended consequence, even for a CSR initiative, can damage the stakeholders’ trust in the organization. This article proposes a 5-step process to answer the question “What else could happen?” in order to identify possible unintended negative consequences, thereby helping organizations support their commitment to people, planet, and profit.

Keywords: Unintended negative consequences; Decision making; Scenario thinking; Stakeholder theory; Corporate social responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681315001482
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:59:y:2016:i:2:p:213-221

DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2015.11.006

Access Statistics for this article

Business Horizons is currently edited by C. M. Dalton

More articles in Business Horizons from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().