The persistence and transfer of learning in industrial settings
Management Science
Survival-Enhancing Learning in the Manhattan Hotel Industry, 1898-1980
Management Science
Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge
Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge
On the Edge: Heeding the Warnings of Unusual Events
Organization Science
Experiencing the Improbable: Rare Events and Organizational Learning
Organization Science
How Near-Miss Events Amplify or Attenuate Risky Decision Making
Management Science
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The stated purpose of the investigations that invariably follow industrial, transportation, and mining disasters is to learn from those tragedies to prevent future tragedies. But does prior experience with disaster make organizations more capable of preventing future disasters? Do organizations learn from disasters experienced by other organizations? Do organizations learn differently from rare disasters than they do from common minor accidents? In its present state, the organizational safety literature is poorly equipped to answer these questions. The present work begins to address this gap by empirically examining how prior organizational experience with disaster affects the likelihood that organizations will experience future disasters. It approaches the issue in the context of fatal U.S. coal mining accidents from 1983 to 2006. The analysis demonstrates that organizations do learn to prevent future disasters through both direct and vicarious experience with disaster. It also indicates that the mechanisms through which organizations learn from disasters differ from those through which they learn from minor accidents.