Casting blame is natural: it is tempting to fault someone else for a snafu rather than taking responsibilityyourself. However, assigning blame can be detrimental, eroding team unity and hindering individuals from    (11)    to their faults. This, in turn, diminishes the likelihood that organizations can learn from mistakes. A studypublished in 2015 indicates that companies whose managers attributed their failures to external factors    (12)    compared to those who took responsibility for their actions. This research accentuates the significance of a culturethat encourages individuals to take responsibility for their actions, rather than shifting blame to others.
       Some industries have long recognized the drawbacks of fault-finding. The aviation industry's notable successin reducing accidents partly reflects the no-blame processes for investigating crashes and    (13)    calls. TheNational Transportation Safety Board, in charge of examining accidents in the United States, is explicit that itsrole is not to assign blame or liability, but to determine the cause of the incident and provide recommendations toavoid a(n)    (14)    .
       There are similar lessons from health care when things go awry. Different countries have varying compensation systems for patients, with some, like Britain,    (15)    litigation in which fault must be found.Others, like Sweden, do not require blame to be allocated and compensate patients if the harm suffered is deemedpreventable. A British parliamentary committee report from 2022 advocates for moving away from a clinicalnegligence system that relies on proving fault, highlighting that such an approach is costly, adversarial, andpromotes individual blame over    (16)    learning.
       There is an obvious worry about embracing blamelessness. What if a wretched website keeps crashing andthe same person is at fault? Sometimes, after all, blame is deserved. However, the "just culture" concept,developed by James Reason in the 1990s, provides a framework for addressing these concerns. The aviationregulator in Britain defines a clear line between honest mistakes and intentional ones, ensuring individuals are notunfairly let    (17)    . This approach fosters a culture where people are not penalized for actions, omissions, ordecisions that align with their experience and training, which narrows    (18)    for blame but does notremove it entirely.
       There are two bigger problems with trying to move away from the    (19)    to blame. The first is that itrequires a substantial effort to implement. Blaming someone is easy and fast, as it takes only a second to say, andhas the    (20)    of truth. On the other hand, documenting mistakes and implementing changes requires morestructure and effort. At Google, for example, blameless postmortems are part of their culture, which involvestemplates,    (21)    , and discussion groups. The second problem is the issue of power dynamics. Those inpositions of authority are more prone to point fingers and blame others for failures. A study conducted by theUniversity of California, San Diego, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore found that people withpower tend to assume that others have choices and are more likely to assign blame to them.
       Blaming others for mistakes is a common    (22)    , especially among those in positions of power. In anexperiment, people were randomly assigned the roles of supervisor and worker, and shown a transcript of anaudio recording that contained errors. The supervisors were more likely to blame the transcriber for the errors and    (23)    payment, despite an apology explaining unstable internet connection problems. Blame is alsocontagious. In a paper from 2009, researchers asked volunteers to read news articles about a political failure andthen to write about a failure of their own. Participants who read that the politician blamed special interests for thescrew-up were more likely to pin their own failures on others; those who read that the politician acceptedresponsibility were more likely to    (24)    the blame for their shortfall. Bosses are the most visible people ina firm; when they point fingers, others will, too. If a company has a blame culture, the fault lies there.
【題組】11.
(AB) tendency (AC) edge (AD) close (AE) room(BC) underperformed (BD) off the hook (BE) occurrence (CD) wake-up(CE) escaped (DE) collective (ABC) utilizing (ABD) shoulder(ABE) reviews (BCD) resorting (BCE) withhold (BDE) owning up(CDE) repeat (ABCD) ring (ABCE) accountable (ABDE) menaced