I've worked in the fed IT space for a long time. Most human errors lead to witch hunts and public shaming. All of the earlier posts about low morale are spot on. The result of this type of environment is that people are afraid to do anything, for fear of making a mistake. Productivity drops, and projects slow down.
The reaction depends on the type of error, though. Was it a typo in a config file that blew away an application? Or a flawed design that introduced a security problem? Everyone makes typos; I'd hope management would at least emphasize on that type of mistake. But if the error is in the design of a system, then maybe you hired the wrong engineer.
