Under threat organisations narrow information intake and tighten control, which is the opposite of what novel threats require.
Staw, Sandelands and Dutton's 1981 review. It is the organisational counterpart of the fight-or-flight narrowing, and it is why crises produce centralisation exactly when improvisation is needed.
In practice
- A hospital under inspection stops the two pilot schemes that were working and reverts to the procedure it can evidence.
- A company facing an unfamiliar competitor centralises decisions and cuts experiments, which is the opposite of what an unfamiliar competitor requires.