Umgang mit Unsicherheit in globalen Produktionsnetzwerken und Zulieferketten (Dealing with Uncertainty in Global Production and Supply Networks)

Disruptive Ereignisse wie die Finanzkrise oder Fukushima verdeutlichen die Anfalligkeit globaler Produktionsnetzwerke und Zulieferketten. Ein wichtiger Grund hierfur ist die meist einseitige Orientierung an vermeintlich kalkulier- und quantifizierbaren Risiken anstatt der zusatzlichen Berucksichtigung genuiner, unvorhersehbarer Unsicherheit. Im Rahmen dieses Projekts wurde untersucht, inwiefern in solche Netzwerke eingebundene Unternehmen auf Unsicherheit vorbereitet sind bzw. damit umgehen. Basierend auf einer systematischen Sichtung der Literatur und von Jahresabschlussberichten sowie Interviews mit Mitgliedern der Arbeitnehmervertretung in Aufsichtsraten wichtiger deutscher Unternehmen in den Bereichen der Metallindustrie zeigt sich, dass primar Risiken und nicht Unsicherheiten vor organisationalem Hintergrund analysiert werden. Dies fuhrt dazu, dass die Unternehmen tendenziell gegenuber disruptiven Ereignissen anfalliger sind. Allerdings bilden disruptive Ereignisse oftmals den Anstos fur Veranderungen des Diskurses und erzeugen sowohl Sensibilitat fur den Umgang mit Unsicherheit, nicht nur organisational, sondern auch und gerade interorganisational.Disruptive events like the financial crisis or the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident illustrate the vulnerability of global production networks and supply chains. A key reason is the oftentimes identifiable tendency to gear operations towards calculable and quantifiable risks instead of embracing genuine uncertainty. In the course of this project we investigated how organizations embedded in global production and supply networks prepare for the unexpected. Based upon a systematic literature re-view and an analysis of annual reports as well as exploratory interviews with employee representatives on the supervisory boards from leading German firms in the metal and machine-building industry we show that primarily risk-oriented conceptions are utilized, whereas understandings of fundamental uncertainty plays only a minor role. This results in being more vulnerable to disruptive events. However, disruptive events have the potential to change mindsets and initiate discourses that trigger being sensitive for dealing with uncertainty; not only on an organizational, but also on an interorganizational level.

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