Unpacking Errors in Organizations as Processes: Integrating Organizational Research and Operations Management Literature

Error research in organizational science (OS) and operations management (OM) has increased in volume, scope, and theoretical and methodological sophistication. Missing from these knowledge advancements are an explicit focus and an integrative framework capturing dynamic processes of errors. Most notably, many extant OS studies are rooted in a static error-as-event perspective without incorporating OM insights on dynamic patterns of errors. We therefore provide a systematic analysis of both OS and OM literatures and offer an error-as-process perspective that sees errors as a cascade (or chain) of emergent triggers, adaptive activities, and social interactions that develop, change, and travel through organizational systems over time. We organize our review around three themes that undergird error phenomena research: (1) the temporal relationship between error prevention (that happens before errors occur) and error management (that arises after errors occur), (2) temporal patterns of error emergence, cumulation, and movement cross work flows; and (3) the dynamic error equilibrium that is characterized by error-amplifying or error-corrective feedback loops. We then mark four pathways toward an integrative view of error-as-process to reposition and broaden error research. Finally, we close with suggestions to understand and study errors as dynamic processes in a more substantial way.