The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management

Amy C. Edmondson; Paul  Verdin

Chapter | How Could this Happen? Managing Errors in Organizations | 2018

The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management

Abstract

Despite discussion in the management literature about agile organizations or learning organizations, many large organizations are top-down, slow to change, and fraught with obstacles to learning. We describe “strategy-as-learning” to contrast with the traditional concept of “strategy-as-planning.” Practicing the work of organizational strategy as a learning process implies eschewing a set of firm decisions and preconceived courses of action. Instead, strategy formulation and execution develop from setting a direction and posing a set of questions to be defined, refined, and iteratively answered. Strategy-making is thus about developing and advancing hypotheses to be tested. In this context, psychological safety plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of strategy-as-learning, as psychological safety enables speaking up, error reporting, dissenting, and candidly discussing risks. Without these behaviors, especially at the executive levels, organizations are at risk of strategic failures that could have been avoided.

Keywords: Strategy; Learning; Safety; Organizational Culture; Performance Consistency;

Format: Print

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Edmondson, Amy C., and Paul Verdin. "The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management." In How Could this Happen? Managing Errors in Organizations, edited by Jan U. Hagen. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

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The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management

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