Preventing the Covering up of Errors: Designing Professional Work Environments for Learning From Error

• In Event: Expertise and Complex Decision Making

Abstract

Errors happen – but in many organizations making an error is associated with notions of poor ability and blame - powerful incentives for covering up errors (e.g. Tucker & Edmondson, 2003). However, when errors are covered up, learning is obstructed (e.g. Rybowiak et al., 1999). In this study, we investigate the influence of the work environment on young professionals’ tendency to cover up an error. We find that both an organization's learning from error climate (Putz, Schilling & Kluge, 2012) and the ability to turn to colleagues for help in order to learn (van der Rijt et al., 2013) can effectively prevent the covering up of errors.

Authors

• Therese Grohnert, Maastricht University

• Roger Meuwissen, Maastricht University

• Wim H. Gijselaers, Maastricht University