Human Fallibility, 2012
The Ambiguity of Errors for Work and Learning
Professional and Practice-based Learning Series, Vol. 6

A curious ambiguity surrounds errors in professional working contexts: they must be avoided in case they lead to adverse (and potentially disastrous) results, yet they also hold the key to improving our knowledge and procedures. In a further irony, it seems that a prerequisite for circumventing errors is our remaining open to their potential occurrence and learning from them when they do happen. This volume, the first to integrate interdisciplinary perspectives on learning from errors at work, presents theoretical concepts and empirical evidence in an attempt to establish under what conditions professionals deal with errors at work productively?in other words, learn the lessons they contain. By drawing upon and combining cognitive and action-oriented approaches to human error with theories of adult, professional, and workplace learning this book provides valuable insights which can be applied by workers and professionals. It includes systematic theoretical frameworks for explaining learning from errors in daily working life, methodologies and research instruments that facilitate the measurement of that learning, and empirical studies that investigate relevant determinants of learning from errors in different professions. Written by an international group of distinguished researchers from various disciplines, the chapters paint a comprehensive picture of the current state of the art in research on human fallibility and (learning from) errors at work.

The Ambiguity of Errors for Work and Learning: Introduction to the Volume Johannes Bauer and Christian Harteis.- Part A: Errors, their Learning Potential, and the Processes of Learning from Errors.- Errors and Learning from Errors at Work Stephen Billett.- Tracing Outcomes of Learning from Errors on the Level of Knowledge Martin Gartmeier and Elke Schüttelkopf .- Towards a Theory of Negative Knowledge (NK): Almost-Mistakes as Drivers of Episodic Memory Amplification Fritz Oser, Catherine Näpflin, Christine Hofer, and Philipp Aerni.- Professional knowledge is (also) knowledge about errors Hans Gruber and Michael Mohe.- Part B: Methodological strategies.- Research on Errors and Learning from them: Methodological Perspectives Klaus Mehl and Theo Wehner.- Measuring Organizational Climate for Learning from Errors at Work Daniel Putz, Jan Schilling, and Annette Kluge.- Part C: Learning from Errors in the Professions.- Innovation by Learning from Mistakes: The Relationships between Team Characteristics, Error Orientation, and Team Innovation Marianne van Woerkom.- Error Orientation and Intuitive Decision Making: Results of an Exploratory Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine Christian Harteis and Franziska Frost.- Learning from Errors in the Professions: Empirical Findings on Processes, Outcomes, and Supportive Conditions Johannes Bauer, Martin Gartmeier, and Christian Harteis.- Part D: Enabling Learning from Errors.- Dealing Effectively with Errors during Training  Nina Keith.- Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction – Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study Inger Marie Dalehefte, Manfred Prenzel, and Tina Seidel.-Learning from Errors: The Role of After-Event Reviews Shmuel Ellis.- Incident Reporting Systems in Hospitals: How does Learning Occur Using this Organizational Instrument? Yvonne Pfeiffer and Theo Wehner.- Conclusion.- Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges for Theory, Research, and Practice Christian Harteis, Johannes Bauer, and Helmut Heid.Part B: Methodological strategies.- Research on Errors and Learning from them: Methodological Perspectives Klaus Mehl and Theo Wehner.- Measuring Organizational Climate for Learning from Errors at Work Daniel Putz, Jan Schilling, and Annette Kluge.- Part C: Learning from Errors in the Professions.- Innovation by Learning from Mistakes: The Relationships between Team Characteristics, Error Orientation, and Team Innovation Marianne van Woerkom.- Error Orientation and Intuitive Decision Making: Results of an Exploratory Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine Christian Harteis and Franziska Frost.- Learning from Errors in the Professions: Empirical Findings on Processes, Outcomes, and Supportive Conditions Johannes Bauer, Martin Gartmeier, and Christian Harteis.- Part D: Enabling Learning from Errors.- Dealing Effectively with Errors during Training  Nina Keith.- Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction – Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study Inger Marie Dalehefte, Manfred Prenzel, and Tina Seidel.- Learning from Errors: The Role of After-Event Reviews Shmuel Ellis.- Incident Reporting Systems in Hospitals: How does Learning Occur Using this Organizational Instrument? Yvonne Pfeiffer and Theo Wehner.- Conclusion.- Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges forTheory, Research, and Practice Christian Harteis, Johannes Bauer, and Helmut Heid.