Driven to Distraction: The Unintended Consequences of Organizational Learning from Failure Caused by Human Error

Research to date offers inconclusive and even conflicting evidence regarding whether organizations learn from failure. The present study sheds new light on this debate by highlighting a previously overlooked factor: whether the failure was caused by human error. In attempts to learn from failure, organizational members tend to focus on simplified representations of experiences and, in doing so, distinguish between failures attributed to human errors versus other causes. Our core thesis is that failures resulting from human error attract significant amounts of attentional resources, thereby depleting the limited stock of organizational attention otherwise directed at managing the risk of failures resulting from other causes. We hypothesize that this disproportionate allocation of attention simultaneously is associated with both positive learning outcomes and negative side effects, specifically, a subsequent decrease in failures resulting from human error and also an increase in failures resulting from other causes. We also hypothesize that failures resulting from causes other than human error attract less organizational attention and, thus, lead to weaker learning outcomes. The proposed hypotheses were tested and supported using data from accident reports filed by natural gas pipeline operators with the U.S. Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration from 2002 to 2012. Additional analyses, including text analysis of accident reports, a series of simulations, and a supplementary study, point to organizational attention as the mechanism at play. Taken together, these findings suggest that organizational learning from failure caused by human error produces not only benefits, but also unintended consequences.