Do Individuals Learn Differently from Senior Versus Junior Colleagues’ Failures in Organizations?

Abstract

Organizational learning research has shown that individuals learn from other individuals’ failures. However, do individuals learn equally from all others’ failures in organizations? We propose that in organizations in which professional tenure largely determines one’s relative seniority, individuals will learn more from their senior colleagues’ failures than from their junior colleagues’ failures. We test this main hypothesis using data on 288 cardiothoracic surgeons who performed coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgeries in 127 Californian hospitals from 2003 to 2016. We find evidence that—in fact—individuals do learn from their senior colleagues’ failures but do not learn from their junior colleagues’ failures. We examine three plausible mechanisms for this finding, of which we offer evidence through statistical analyses and semi- structured interviews with currently practicing cardiothoracic surgeons. Our paper contributes to the literature on learning from failures, organizational learning, organization design, and microfoundations of organizational performance.