The Failure of Organizational Learning from Crisis – A Matter of Life and Death?
- 13 August 2009
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management
- Vol. 17 (3) , 157-168
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2009.00576.x
Abstract
The continuing failure of organizations to learn from crisis has many costs, social, political, financial and individual and may be attributable to a misunderstanding of learning processes. This paper maps out contributions to learning from crisis from a number of fields. Central to the paper's argument is that the separation of policy development from practice, in theory and action, has contributed to a failure to learn. The paper considers two cases where the failure of child protection services resulted in the deaths of the children concerned. These two cases, separated by seven years, were connected by the failure of the same local authorities and agencies. The paper concludes with a number of observations concerning the public inquiry process.This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- Exploring the Barriers to Learning from CrisisManagement Learning, 2007
- Institutionalized Mindsets of Invulnerability: Differentiated Institutional Fields and the Antecedents of Organizational CrisisOrganization Studies, 2001
- Reframing Crisis ManagementAcademy of Management Review, 1998
- Reframing Crisis ManagementAcademy of Management Review, 1998
- Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda SettingJournal of Public Policy, 1998
- Patterns of ‘Mock Bureaucracy’ in Mining Disasters: An Analysis of the Westray Coal Mine ExplosionJournal of Management Studies, 1997
- Creating earthquakes to change organizational mindsetsAcademy of Management Perspectives, 1994
- Policy Learning and FailureJournal of Public Policy, 1992
- PUBLIC ACCIDENT INQUIRIES: THE CASE OF THE RAILWAY INSPECTORATEPublic Administration, 1992
- Of strategies, deliberate and emergentStrategic Management Journal, 1985