Search results

Transformational, charismatic, and related leadership theories play an important role in understanding how leaders motivate better performance. However, these approaches have paid surprisingly little attention to the management of error in organizations. In fact, current studies in transformational leadership tend to define the management of error as one of the negative features of leadership. Preventing error and learning from error is a high profile leadership role in a wide variety of global industries, and therefore, it is important that leadership theories encompass this critical task. We draw on different streams of research to provide a more integrated and positive approach to leadership and the management error. Studies of error management culture provide insights into the organizational systems that are important for responding and learning from error. We discuss how error learning culture can inform the leadership behaviors that will enhance learning from error. We also draw on regulatory focus theory to show how managing error can be differentiated from other leadership activities. The integration of these ideas with current leadership theory provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding the role of leadership when error management is critical. We present this integrated framework and discuss how cultural factors are likely to shape the role of error management in a variety of global contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adverse impact of management systems on the occurrence of human errors.

Conducted is systemic analysis of scenarios, which are illustrating creation of human errors, caused by functions of management systems. The text refers to a research study on mechanisms of errors committed by employees, conducted by the author in several organizations. In the text a special focus is given to the interaction between error‐generating mechanisms and management systems.

First, there are decisions made in favor of the management systems that increase risk of human errors in processes. The conflict between managers and employees, who are blamed for the errors, may obstruct the elimination of errors and the improvement of management systems. Second, managers are expected to resolve the conflict by establishing and maintaining a policy regarding prevention against system‐specific mechanisms of human error. The involvement of managers in improvement and establishing effective vertical communication in the management system are necessary to successful implementation of the policy. Third, a scheme of analyzing adverse effects of decisions is shown.

The paper focuses on some issues that decide on effectiveness of prevention of human errors. It provides explicit evidence of the necessity of the “management involvement” in the quality management system and respective suggestions for the improvement. The considerations may be useful for organizations that are highly sensitive to human errors such as healthcare institutions.

Elements of national and organizational cultures can contribute much to the success of error management in organizations. Accordingly, this study aims to consider how errors were approached in two state university departments in Turkey in relation to their specific organizational and national cultures.

The study follows a qualitative case study design, and the data were collected through five focus groups. The cases under consideration were two state university departments of different organizational sizes.

The results showed that organizational and national culture elements (collectivism, high power distance and relatively low future orientation) significantly interacted with error management practices. In both of the organizations studied, there were found to be limited attempts to prevent the errors unless there was an emergent situation. Error detection was shown to be slow and hindered because of indirect communication among staff. Ultimately, effective error management in these organizations was identified as being unattainable because of negative emotional reactions to errors, lower reporting, restricted communication, potential face loss considerations and lack of feedback.

The findings of the current work extend earlier error management research with empirical data drawn from two cases in the higher education domain. Thus, the study offers preliminary research into the error process in education, and contributes to future research relating organizational culture to error processes.

The importance of an error management culture (EMC) that integrates error prevention with error management after errors occur has been highlighted in the existing literature. However, few empirical studies currently support the relationship between EMC and errors, while the factors that affect EMC remain underexplored. Drawing on the conceptualisation of organisational cultures, the purpose of this paper is to verify the contribution of authentic leadership in steering EMC, thereby leading to reduced errors.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey study. The sample included 280 nurses.

Results of a full structural equation model supported the hypothesised model, showing that authentic leadership is positively associated with EMC, which in turn is negatively associated with the frequency of errors.

These results provide initial evidence for the role of authentic leadership in enhancing EMC and consequently, fostering error reduction in the workplace. The tested model suggests that the adoption of an authentic style can promote policies and practices to proactively manage errors, paving the way to error reduction in the workplace.

This study was one of the first to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership, error culture and errors. Further, it contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating both the importance of cultural orientation in protecting the organisation from error occurrence and the key role of authentic leaders in creating an environment for EMC development, thus permitting the organisation to learn from errors and reduce their negative consequences.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of health information system (HIS)-induced errors and its management. This paper concludes that the occurrence of errors is inevitable but it can be minimised with preventive measures. The review of classifications can be used to evaluate medical errors related to HISs using a socio-technical approach. The evaluation could provide an understanding of errors as a learning process in managing medical errors.

A literature review was performed on issues, sources, management and approaches to HISs-induced errors. A critical review of selected models was performed in order to identify medical error dimensions and elements based on human, process, technology and organisation factors.

Various error classifications have resulted in the difficulty to understand the overall error incidents. Most classifications are based on clinical processes and settings. Medical errors are attributed to human, process, technology and organisation factors that influenced and need to be aligned with each other. Although most medical errors are caused by humans, they also originate from other latent factors such as poor system design and training. Existing evaluation models emphasise different aspects of medical errors and could be combined into a comprehensive evaluation model.

Overview of the issues and discourses in HIS-induced errors could divulge its complexity and enable its causal analysis.

This paper helps in understanding various types of HIS-induced errors and promising prevention and management approaches that call for further studies and improvement leading to good practices that help prevent medical errors.

Classification of HIS-induced errors and its management, which incorporates a socio-technical and multi-disciplinary approach, could guide researchers and practitioners to conduct a holistic and systematic evaluation.

Errors are inevitable, resulting from the human condition itself, system failures and the interaction of both. It is essential to know how to deal with their occurrence, managing them. However, the negative tone associated with them makes it difficult for most organizations to talk about mistakes clearly and transparently, for fear of being harmed, preventing their detection, treatment and recovery. Consequently, errors are not managed, remaining accumulated in the system, turning into successive failures. Organizations need to recognize the inevitability of errors, making the system robust, through leadership and an organizational culture of error management. This study aims to understand the role of these influencing variables in an error management approach.

In this paper, the authors applied the methodology of a quantitative nature based on a questionnaire survey that analyses error management, leadership and the organizational culture of error management of 380 workers in Portuguese companies.

The results demonstrate that leadership directly influences error management and indirectly through the organizational culture of error management, giving this last variable a mediating role.

The study covers companies from different sectors of activity on a topic that is little explored in Portugal, but part of the daily life of organizations, which should deserve greater attention from directors and managers, as they assume a privileged position to promote and develop error management mechanisms. Error management must be the daily work of leaders. This study contributes to theoretical knowledge and business practice on error management.

The purpose of this paper is to provide international data on the occurrence (and rates) of clinical errors, identified by type and consequence in the Lombardy region, and to assess empirically the association between hospital accreditation‐type measures and clinical error rates by merging hospital discharge records and medical malpractice claim data in the Lombardy region (Italy).

Data were drawn from the regional database collecting claims and demands for reimbursement declared by patients hospitalized in regional healthcare structures and regional archives collecting hospital discharge records. To model the variability of clinical errors rates, binomial negative regression models were applied. For improved interpretation of the results, a regression tree methodology was used.

The results demonstrated that the rate of readmission for the same major diagnostic category and the rate of discharges against medical advice significantly affect the incidence of errors causing patient death, whereas the rate of unscheduled surgical readmission in the operating room significantly affects the rate of surgical error.

The findings confirm that claims data is problematic in nature because of the limited number of claims generally emerging from administrative sources. The article proposes using proper regression models for count data, taking into account over‐dispersion and excess zeroes and classification tree methods for a better interpretation of empirical evidence.

Health structures where quality outcomes have a significant impact on clinical error rates should be monitored in depth, investigating the medical charts of involved patients to identify quality problems and problematic areas.

As a risk management strategy, the combined use of claims data and clinical administrative data is proposed to shed light on the more problematic, error‐prone areas, allowing regional stakeholders to receive relevant, highly cost‐effective and timely information and an in‐depth understanding of the problematic areas in the assessment of risk.

This paper investigates whether error management orientation (EMO) of hospitality employees influence their service recovery performance (SRP) through self-efficacy.

In Study 1, data was collected from 161 hotel managers in the USA. In Study 2, data was collected from 215 restaurant employees in Turkey. Partial least squares (PLS) method using SmartPLS 3.3.3 was used for data analysis.

The results indicated that EMO of hospitality employees increases their self-efficacy beliefs which in turn enhance their SRP. The findings were consistent in both studies.

Hospitality organizations should consider assessing EMO of individuals when making selection decisions. These organizations should also consider providing error management training to employees to develop their EMO, improve error management skills and performance.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on EMO of hospitality managers and employees. Error orientation refers to how individuals cope with and how they think about errors at work. Errors are part of our work lives, and a positive orientation toward errors (i.e. EMO) can have a significant impact on individuals’ work attitudes, behaviors and performances. This is the first study that examines EMO as an important predictor of SRP. This study also makes a contribution by studying the mediating effect of self-efficacy to understand the underlying mechanism that links EMO with SRP.

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of patient safety initiatives (PSIs) at the US hospitals. These PSIs include such approaches as open discussion of errors, education and training, and system redesign. In particular, the paper seeks to examine factors that influence the implementation of PSIs as well as the benefits realized from their implementation.

The paper draws on the TQM and medical safety literatures to develop a conceptual framework for improving patient safety. Extensive survey data were gathered from 252 hospitals throughout the US to test McFadden et al.'s model of the factors influencing successful implementation of PSIs.

Certain barriers (lack of top management support, lack of resources, lack of incentives and lack of knowledge) significantly impeded implementation while other factors (perceived importance of PSIs) facilitated implementation. It was also found that implementation of PSIs was associated with benefits to the hospital in areas such as medical error reduction, cost reduction, and patient satisfaction.

The use of a single respondent represents a possible limitation. Future research will explore organizational culture and its relationship to patient safety.

The findings provide direction for implementing more effective PSIs at hospitals.

The paper contributes to the literature on patient safety and medical errors by testing specific mechanisms that are associated with successful implementation of PSIs.

Medication management is a complex process, at high risk of error with life threatening consequences. The focus should be on devising strategies to avoid errors and make the process self-reliable by ensuring prevention of errors and/or error detection at subsequent stages. The purpose of this paper is to use failure mode effect analysis (FMEA), a systematic proactive tool, to identify the likelihood and the causes for the process to fail at various steps and prioritise them to devise risk reduction strategies to improve patient safety.

The study was designed as an observational analytical study of medication management process in the inpatient area of a multi-speciality hospital in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. A team was made to study the complex process of medication management in the hospital. FMEA tool was used. Corrective actions were developed based on the prioritised failure modes which were implemented and monitored.

The percentage distribution of medication errors as per the observation made by the team was found to be maximum of transcription errors (37 per cent) followed by administration errors (29 per cent) indicating the need to identify the causes and effects of their occurrence. In all, 11 failure modes were identified out of which major five were prioritised based on the risk priority number (RPN). The process was repeated after corrective actions were taken which resulted in about 40 per cent (average) and around 60 per cent reduction in the RPN of prioritised failure modes.

FMEA is a time consuming process and requires a multidisciplinary team which has good understanding of the process being analysed. FMEA only helps in identifying the possibilities of a process to fail, it does not eliminate them, additional efforts are required to develop action plans and implement them. Frank discussion and agreement among the team members is required not only for successfully conducing FMEA but also for implementing the corrective actions.

FMEA is an effective proactive risk-assessment tool and is a continuous process which can be continued in phases. The corrective actions taken resulted in reduction in RPN, subjected to further evaluation and usage by others depending on the facility type.

The application of the tool helped the hospital in identifying failures in medication management process, thereby prioritising and correcting them leading to improvement.