
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991                   TAG: 9102040272
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FOCUS NOT ON `WHO' BUT `HOW' OF ERROR

FREQUENTLY, Roanoke Times & World-News corrections are attributed to an individual: e.g., "due to a reporter's error" or "because of a copywriter's mistake." In my view, this serves only to publicly embarrass the individual and is not an effective method either to resolve a current problem or prevent future errors.

Personification of the problem merely causes people to be counterproductive and create excuses. Certainly mistakes will happen, but more often than not, the cause is a failure of management, such as inadequate orientation of the employee to the job or ineffective communication between boss and worker. The astute manager will focus not on "who," but on "how" an unwanted event happened, and investigate the circumstances. The focus should be on the action, not the actor.

When the question of "Who done it?" arises, it should be in a detective novel, not a newspaper. Most bosses are poor sleuths anyway. R. CRADY ADAMS SALEM

Editor's note: The objective is to tell the reader as specifically as possible how the error occurred, not to embarrass the person responsible.

by CNB