Loss of Defensive Capacity in Protective Operations: The Implications of the Überlingen and Linate Disasters

J. S. Busby and S. A. Bennett

Journal of Risk Research, 2007, vol. 10, issue 1, 3-27

Abstract: A clear distinction is often drawn between the functions of production and protection in organisations. This implies that they have twin capacities -- for production and for protection -- that in some respects will be interdependent and in some independent. In the field of operations management productive capacity is a commonly used construct, and there has been some attempt to develop a parallel construct of protective capacity, but this has only been used to refer to capacity that protects productive capacity. It makes no reference to the risk of external harm. This paper presents an attempt to develop the idea of defensive capacity. It uses case studies of two aviation collisions to gain an understanding of what defensive capacity amounts to, and how it can be lost. The results pointed to a way of operationalising defensive capacity that involves preserving its qualitative complexity instead of reducing it to a quantitative variable. They also point to a complex relationship between productive capacity and defensive capacity, which are sometimes complimentary and sometimes opposing. They have certain shared determinants, but certain actions can undermine defensive capacity without there being any observable effect on productive capacity.

Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669870600995915 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:jriskr:v:10:y:2007:i:1:p:3-27

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJRR20

DOI: 10.1080/13669870600995915

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor

More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().