A perspective on UNSCOM culture

ABSTRACT

In this article, the author – who served as special adviser to UNSCOM’s executive chair and spokesperson for UNSCOM for nearly four years – focuses on the way in which UNSCOM’s organization and culture evolved to adapt to its mission to destroy, remove, and render harmless Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and its long-range missiles.

KEYWORDS:

• High reliability organizations
• resilience
• continual improvement
• organizational learning
• managing uncertainty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Tim Trevan

Tim Trevan founded Chrome Biorisk Management LLC to provide consulting services in biorisk management and organizational learning. He has a BSc. in Cellular Pathology and an MBA.  He spent 9 years with the British Foreign Service and nearly 4 years with UNSCOM.  For the past 10 years, he has focused on how to apply high reliability principles to biorisk management.