Anticipatory skills

Anticipatory skills can help prevent the resource drain caused by organizational problems, while adaptability helps an organization avoid the problems that change can produce. Over long periods of time, this ability to avoid an important and recurring resource drain can mark the difference between success and failure for an organization. 

To hilly appreciate the importance of anticipatory skills and adaptabihty in the long run, consider this somewhat extreme case. This company was founded in the late 1920s, primarily through acquisitions. It was created as the response of an entrepreneur to a variety of changing market conditions. Over a five- to ten-year period, he established an enormously successful venture. In its market, it became the largest and most profitable organization of its kind. 

Results on the Safety Habits scale reflecting anticipatory behaviour (as a notional reinforcement of coping skills) were opposite to the expected differences and the trend between the two grorrps on the other two scales. More than 70 per cent of the chemical plant group scored below criteria and more than 58 per cent of the police candidates scored at or greater than criteria. 

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