Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2011
  • Article
  • Research in Organizational Behavior

Organizational Errors: Directions for Future Research

By: Paul S. Goodman, Rangaraj Ramanujam, John S. Carroll and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:26
ShareBar

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to promote research about organizational errors—i.e., the actions of multiple organizational participants that deviate from organizationally specified rules and can potentially result in adverse organizational outcomes. To that end, we advance the premise that organizational errors merit study in their own right as an organizational-level phenomenon of growing theoretical and managerial significance. We delineate organizational errors as a construct that is distinct from but related to individual-level errors and draw attention to its multi-level antecedents, mediating processes, and outcomes. We also discuss error management processes such as prevention, resilience, and learning and call for research to expand our currently limited understanding of how these processes unfold over time, i.e., before, during, and after the occurrence of organizational errors. Further, in the light of a recurring critique of prior error-related organizational studies as being narrowly context-bound and therefore of limited interest to organizational researchers in general, we elaborate on the critical need for future research to explicitly take into account the role of contextual features. We conclude with a discussion of key themes, unresolved issues, and promising research directions.

Keywords

Research; Organizations; Interests; Managerial Roles; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management Practices and Processes; Learning

Citation

Goodman, Paul S., Rangaraj Ramanujam, John S. Carroll, and Amy C. Edmondson. "Organizational Errors: Directions for Future Research." Research in Organizational Behavior 31 (2011): 151–176.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Amy C. Edmondson

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Workplace Conditions

    By: Jill Maben, Jane Ball and Amy C. Edmondson
    • January–February 2023
    • Harvard Business Review

    Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility

    By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
    • January 2023
    • Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

    Psychological Safety Comes of Age: Observed Themes in an Established Literature

    By: Amy C. Edmondson and Derrick P. Bransby
More from the Authors
  • Workplace Conditions By: Jill Maben, Jane Ball and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Psychological Safety Comes of Age: Observed Themes in an Established Literature By: Amy C. Edmondson and Derrick P. Bransby
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College