Exploring the barriers to learning from crisis: organizational learning and crisis

Smith, D. and Elliott, D. (2007) Exploring the barriers to learning from crisis: organizational learning and crisis. Management Learning, 38(5), pp. 519-538. (doi: 10.1177/1350507607083205)

Abstract

This article explores the possible barriers to effective organizational learning from crisis events. A number of themes are considered including learning from crisis, learning as crisis and learning for crisis. One of the key issues to emerge from a systematic study of crises is the striking similarity between the underlying causes of such events. The article outlines the nature of the crisis management process and identifies a number of barriers to the learning process. A key argument developed in the article is that the barriers to learning can themselves serve to generate the conditions which will allow an incident to escalate into a crisis. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which organizations can develop more effective learning capabilities for crisis events.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Fischbacher-Smith, Professor Denis
• Authors: Smith, D., and Elliott, D.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Management Learning
• ISSN: 1350-5076
• ISSN (Online): 1461-7307