Strategic Management of Information and Communication Technology: The United States Air Force Experience with Y2K

Shortly before we rolled from 1999 to 2000 we understood we were standing on the brink of the end of our technological society. Shortly after, we were relieved to discover we were better at solving such problems than we thought. With the US Air Force, a large organization heavily dependent on technology as their case study, Haselkorn (technical communication, U. of Washington) and his colleagues conducted interviews and a workshop about what came to be known as Y2K, and, by extension, the effects of other disasters or potential disasters. They examined how organizations managed highly complex technologies, how they aligned their organizations to implement technology-related strategies and understand risks, and the relationship between technology-related risk and socially imbedded issues. The result is a report that is accessible and practical to both those who develop practical measures to deal with crises or potential crises as well as to policy-makers.