The behavioral benefits of other people's failures
Brian Gunia, Sun Young Kim · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2013
Few organizational failures involve all members of an organization; in many cases, many people are uninvolved. The current research examined the responses of the uninvolved actors. Several literatures led us to predict that an organizational failure would create dissonance, which the uninvolved actors would seek to alleviate by redoubling their own work efforts. In other words, other people’s failures would prompt the uninvolved parties to work harder. Three studies, using multiple samples and methods, supported these predictions, showing that failures lead the uninvolved actors to work harder, which allows them to psychologically disconnect from the people who failed. In addition to extending theories of dissonance and organizational failure, these findings suggest that failures may have unexpected organizational benefits.