The Double Cognitive Bias of Mistakes: A Measurement Method

Abstract

There is no learning without mistakes. However, making mistakes among knowledge workers is still seeing shameful. There is a clash between positive attitudes and beliefs regarding the power of gaining new (tacit) knowledge by acting in new contexts and negative attitudes and beliefs toward accompanying mistakes that are sources of learning. These contradictory attitudes create a bias that is doubled by the other shared solid belief that “BOSSES NEVER MAKE MISTAKES.” The double cognitive bias of mistakes introduced by Kucharska and Bedford (2023) is assumed in this paper to harm organizational learning and collective intelligence development. To justify this point empirically in this paper, the authors propose a procedure enabling the measurement of the double cognitive bias of mistakes. Moreover, to validate the proposed method, authors empirically examine the influence of the KLC cultures’ synergy on knowledge sharing and organizational intelligence and compare obtained results with the effect observed for the sample free of the double bias of mistakes. Novelty: this study is the first to propose identifying the double bias of mistakes and empirically exposing its impacts.