Exploring the Barriers to Learning from Crisis

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.