Mindful Action in Tension: Responding to Errors in High Reliability Seeking Organization

Abstract

We studied how actors in a high reliability seeking organization (HRO) respond to errors through mindful actions that are in tension. Scholars conceptualized mindfulness in HROs as a combination of awareness and action, however, prior research has primarily emphasized mindfulness as enriching awareness (Weick et al, 1999) with less attention to action. The element of rich awareness has produced important insights into how organizations can notice errors or prevent them from occurring. However, we know little about the role of mindfulness as action. By adopting a paradox lens and using the repertory grid technique, we elicited simultaneous opposites that actors navigate in their responses. In exploring individual actors’ responses to two types of errors – near-miss and accidents – allowed us to elaborate how individuals configure their action repertoire. When enacting their responses, actors locate their actions in between multiple opposite poles that create tensions. Actors’ sense of tension changes when errors are deemed near-miss or accidents thereby locating their actions between the simultaneous opposites differently. Finally, actors’ repertoire of actions reflects their awareness of not only errors, as the extant literature suggested, but also their awareness of the social context and their place in this context.