THe Effects of Discontinuous Change on Latent Errors in Organizations: The Moderating Role of Risk

Abstract

Internal audit data of operations in a financial institution were used to examine the effects of discontinuous change and work-inherent risk on latent errors, defined here as potentially consequential deviations from procedures and policies. Results show that discontinuous change increases latent errors and that this increase varies with the level of risk. Implications for organizational research on errors and reliability are discussed.