Doctoral Dissertation Research: IT is Risky Business: Routine and Mindful Behavior in Achieving IT Infrastructure Reliability

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Modern private and public organizations are enormously dependent on information technology (IT) platforms for all sorts of processes, mission-critical information, communications and continuity. At the same time, threats to IT reliability are constantly increasing due to complexity, human error, hardware and software failure, and malicious attacks. This study draws upon organizational theories about routine-based behavior and collective ?mindfulness? (i.e., collective vigilence and awareness of detail) from the organizational sciences to develop and test a model relating failure types and various aspects of mindfulness to successful and unsuccessful responses to failures. We characterize failures on two dimensions: the type of breakdown and extent of prior experience with the context in which the problem occurred. We hypothesize that organizational response to a failure is contingent on the various types of mindfulness exhibited by the organization. In addition, we extend the concept of collective mindfulness, which has previously been examined primarily in organizational settings, to inter-organizational settings. We are able to test the proposed model through a field study of failure ?incidents? experienced by the customers of a leading software and services vendor. An enhanced understanding of the aspects of mindfulness that yield improved failure response will have practical implications for improving hiring, training, retention, vendor alliances, structure/governance and culture/climate practices so as to achieve greater IT reliability.