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Error Reporting in Organizations
Abstract
We develop a framework of individual error reporting that draws from research on human error, learning, discretionary behaviors, and high-reliability organizations. The framework describes three phases that underlie error reporting: error detection, situation assessment, and choice of behavioral response. We discuss theoretical implications of the framework and directions for future research.
... A faster pace introduces selection errors (Anand et al. 2016;Argote et al. 2003;Dahlin et al. 2018) and information asymmetries (Kim and Miner 2007) that make learning problematic. Fast paced innovation creates a high cognitive burden on decision-makers to learn/unlearn (Zhao and Olivera 2006). Overall, the ambiguity of IIEs poses a learning challenge to firms competing in these contexts, limiting the pool of useful experiences to draw from and impacting firms' ability to streamline activities in the short run. ...
... Causality becomes unclear (Dahlin et al. 2018), increasing the likelihood of mistakes. Performance feedback is ambiguous as well (Anand et al. 2016), and is likely to be misguided as firms attribute failures to chance (Zhao and Olivera 2006), overlook the importance of "near misses" (Kim and Miner 2007), and hold onto flawed beliefs (Kale and Singh 2007). ...
... The reinforcing nature of limited experience (Zhao and Olivera 2006) causes poor lessons that further limit firm performance as innovation pace continues to increase. Spurious failures and successes lead firms down inaccurate or even erroneous paths (Laamanen and Keil 2008) and cause them to incorrectly modify best practices and routines (Dahlin et al. 2018). ...
We start by exploring how the interplay of soft power and learning levers helps firms address competitive uncertainty in innovation-intensive environments (IIEs). We then theorize that firms’ motivation to pursue a specific combination of soft power and learning tactics in IIEs is shaped by CEO regulatory focus. The analysis of a panel of IIE firms supports our theorizing and reveals that accounting for CEO regulatory focus is elemental to the understanding of firms’ performance heterogeneity in such environments. We conclude that a perspective focused on a combination of soft power and learning tactics is better fitted to explain firms’ performance in environments plagued by extreme uncertainty compared to traditional theoretical lenses. Our main contribution is to the study of performance in innovation-intensive environments.
... done to show what happens to employees who share their errors. Given the widespread belief that error sharing might expose one to negative repercussions, such as reprisals or social exclusions (e.g., Zhao and Olivera, 2006), employees may feel hesitant about sharing errors and thus choose to hide instead of reveal errors (Choi et al., 2022;Tavris and Aronson, 2007). We contribute to the error management literature by revealing what happens to employees who honestly share errors at work. ...
... Drawing on the self-disclosure literature (e.g., Gibson, 2018;Smith and Kirby, 2009), we posit that error attributes will affect the link between error sharing and the leader's evaluation of and trust in the sharer. We integrate insights from the error literature (e.g., Homsma et al., 2009;Keith et al., 2020;Zhao and Olivera, 2006) to examine error visibility and error severity. Consistent with our conceptualization of error sharing as a general behavioural tendency, our definitions of error visibility and severity are not about a particular error but rather errors typically made by an employee at work. ...
... Error visibility. Drawing on the error-sharing and self-disclosure literatures (Ragins, 2008;Ragins et al., 2007;Zhao and Olivera, 2006), we define error visibility as the extent to which errors one typically makes at work are observable to co-workers. Error visibility directly determines how much volitional control and discretion employees are perceived to possess in error sharing, which in turn affects the leader's evaluation of the sharer's sincerity towards others. ...
Extant research highlights the importance of error sharing for managing errors in organizations, but little work examines what happens to employees who disclose errors. Treating errors as sensitive information, we draw on the self‐disclosure literature to propose that error sharing can influence leaders’ evaluations of employee ability and integrity, which affect leader trust in the employee; error visibility and severity work as contingency factors in the above links. We conducted two field studies and one experimental study to test our hypotheses. We used data collected in China from manufacturing companies (560 employees from 71 teams in Study 1), a high‐reliability organization (359 employees from 104 teams in Study 2), and an online sample (356 participants in Study 3). Results show that error sharing impairs leader trust via the negative evaluation of the employee's ability but enhances trust via the positive evaluation of the employee's integrity; error visibility and severity moderate the relationships between error sharing and leader evaluation of employee integrity and leader trust such that the positive relationships are enhanced when errors are of lower visibility or higher severity. Our study offers a novel perspective to understand the relational consequences of error sharing at work.
... After Edmondson's (1996) and Rybowiak et al.'s (1999) papers, investigations about learning from errors have been directed toward a deeper understanding of the nature encompassing the phenomenon in its diverse dimensions. There have been studies that explore the individual dimension of learning from errors (e.g., Zhao & Olivera, 2006), in terms of teams (e.g., Tjosvold et al., 2004) and organizations (e.g., Dyck et al., 2005), as well as those in which the integration of these dimensions of analysis was sought (e.g., Dahlin et al., 2018). ...
... It is the integrator of the distinct stages of the approach to the error, and it brings together individual and contextual elements that influence positively this process and facilitate learning from errors. According to the model, the individual learning from error -the endogenous variable -is a result of a process that begins with the error detection (Frese & Keith, 2015;Zhao & Olivera, 2006), which, in turn, leads to error correction (Bauer & Mulder, 2007). ...
... The error and learning from errors Errors are inherent to human action, and as such refer to "… inappropriate actions committed while performing a task" (Ohlsson, 1996, p. 242). Such actions concern unintentional or avoidable deviations from goals, standards, or any unexpected result (Cannon & Edmondson, 2001;Dyck et al., 2005), that are the result of individual decisions and behaviors (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). ...
Objective
through the recognition of how important a procedural approach is to the study of individual learning from errors, in this article, we propose and test a model of orientation to individual learning from one’s own error.
Methods
by means of a survey questionnaire involving 298 Brazilian workers, we analyzed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Results
we contribute to academic knowledge, first, by modeling and empirically identifying the relationships of positive influence between positive error orientation and error detection, and between error correction and individual learning from error; and second, by the identification of the significant practical importance of positive error orientation for error detection.
Conclusions
we point out implications for investigations concerned with measuring more accurately the individual positive error orientation phenomenon, as well as those that seek to deepen the understanding of the influence of the organizational context on the direction of individual error orientation. As implications for managerial practice, we highlight positive error orientation as a promoter of learning in individuals, which means that managers should include, in the training programs, learning activities about situations of error in the workplace.
Keywords:
learning from errors; individual learning from own errors; individual error orientation; positive error orientation
... Error management has been regarded as a useful tactic for minimizing the negative consequences of errors (e.g., reputation damage, business losses, customer dissatisfaction, patient mortality, etc.) and maximizing the positive value of errors (e.g., learning from errors, error correction and performance improvement, increased quality and safety) (Dahlin, et al., 2018;Frese & Keith, 2015;Van Dyck et al., 2005). However, if employees choose not to reveal the errors they make to management, effective error management is difficult to achieve (Lei et al., 2016;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Error sharing refers to "the conscious and voluntary disclosure of self-made errors to others in the organization" (Dahl & Werr, 2021, p. 510) and has been regarded as a crucial preliminary step for effective error management (Carroll et al., 2021;Frese & Keith, 2015;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). ...
... However, if employees choose not to reveal the errors they make to management, effective error management is difficult to achieve (Lei et al., 2016;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Error sharing refers to "the conscious and voluntary disclosure of self-made errors to others in the organization" (Dahl & Werr, 2021, p. 510) and has been regarded as a crucial preliminary step for effective error management (Carroll et al., 2021;Frese & Keith, 2015;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Despite the importance of error sharing, our knowledge regarding why and when employees will engage in error sharing with management is still partial and limited. ...
... Prior research has mainly examined error sharing as a risky behavior that is determined by employees' cost-benefit evaluations (e.g., Lee et al., 2015;Russo et al., 2015;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). We contend that employees' error sharing can also be studied as an ethical behavior. ...
The literature on error sharing has focused on employees’ cost–benefit assessment to predict whether employees will disclose self-made errors. Our study advances this line of research by adopting a different theoretical lens and examining leaders’ role in promoting employee error sharing. Drawing primarily upon social learning theory, we expected that when team leaders openly talk about their own errors within teams, through their behavior, they would set an example for team members and encourage members’ error sharing with team leaders. Based on a sample of 353 employees within 95 teams, we found a positive link between leader error sharing and team member error sharing; in addition, we found that ethical leadership evaluation partially mediates this positive link. Moreover, we found that leader error sharing was positively related to the team error management climate, which moderated the relationship between ethical leadership evaluation and team member error sharing in such a way that the positive relationship becomes stronger under a higher error management climate. Our findings highlight the critical roles played by leaders in promoting employees’ error sharing.
... Third, we hypothesize that auditors will learn less from errors when they experience strong (rather than weak) negative emotions, as these emotions take up crucial cognitive resources needed for learning, and may inhibit error learning (in line with, i.e., Heimbeck et al., 2003;Zhao et al., 2019;Smeets et al., 2022). Finally, we expect that auditors will report less error learning with high (rather than low) time pressure, as they are likely to prioritize urgent tasks over learning, and because the error's cause can be externalized (in line with, i.e., Zhao and Olivera, 2006;Homsma et al., 2009;Putz et al., 2012). ...
... Auditors are faced with strict filing deadlines, as an audit becomes more profitable when auditors use fewer hours than paid for upfront by the client (i.e., Kelley and Margheim, 1990;DeZoort and Lord, 1997). Several organizational behavior studies suggest that contextual factors causing time pressure can impair learning from errors for two main reasons (Zhao and Olivera, 2006;Homsma et al., 2009;Putz et al., 2012). First, when individuals attribute errors to external causes such as time pressure, it is less likely that they will recognize the opportunity to learn, as they first seek closure (Ellis and Davidi, 2005;Putz et al., 2012). ...
... While such a strategy enables them to meet important deadlines, it may be problematic for learning because it leads to superficial error analysis, at best (Kruglanski et al., 1993;Putz et al., 2012). Second, high time constraints may cause individuals to use information-processing strategies that limit their cognitive capability (Zhao and Olivera, 2006), which is an essential element of learning from errors (Rasmussen, 1986;Metcalfe, 2017). Both Ford et al. (1989) and Zhao and Olivera (2006) found that professionals ignore competing hypotheses and filter out contradicting information under time pressure, limiting decision making in the short term and learning in the long term, as was also found in two related audit-specific studies (Choo, 1995;Glover, 1997). ...
Introduction
Professionals do not always learn from their errors; rather, the way in which professionals experience errors and their work environment may not foster, but can rather inhibit error learning. In the wake of a series of accounting scandals, including Royal Ahold in Netherlands, Lehman Brothers in the United States, and Wirecard in Germany, within the context of financial auditing, we explore four audit-specific conditions at the workplace that could be negatively associated with learning: small error consequences, routine-type errors, negative emotions, and high time pressure. Then, we examine how perceptions of an open or blame error management climate (EMC) moderate the negative relationship between the four work conditions and learning from errors.
Methods
Using an experiential questionnaire approach, we analyze data provided by 141 Dutch auditors across all hierarchical ranks from two audit firms.
Results
Our results show that open EMC perceptions mitigate the negative relationship between negative emotions and error learning, as well as the negative relationship between time pressure and error learning. While we expected that blame EMC perceptions would exacerbate the negative relationship between negative emotions and error learning, we find a mitigating effect of low blame EMC perceptions. Further, and contrary to our expectations, we find that blame EMC perceptions mitigate the negative relationship between small error consequences and error learning, so that overall, more error learning takes place regardless of consequences when participants experience a blame EMC. Post-hoc analyses reveal that there is in fact an inverted- U-shaped relationship between time pressure and error learning.
Discussion
We derive several recommendations for future research, and our findings generate specific implications on how (audit) organizations can foster learning from errors.
... Error is defined as "individuals' decisions and behaviors that (1) result in an undesirable gap between an expected and real state and (2) may lead to actual or potential negative consequences for organizational functioning that could have been avoided" (Zhao & Olivera, 2006, p. 1013. From organizational perspective, error occurrence poses a critical challenge to productivity, liability, and reputation, often resulting in costly results that ultimately erode brand image and loyalty (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). ...
... Error is defined as "individuals' decisions and behaviors that (1) result in an undesirable gap between an expected and real state and (2) may lead to actual or potential negative consequences for organizational functioning that could have been avoided" (Zhao & Olivera, 2006, p. 1013. From organizational perspective, error occurrence poses a critical challenge to productivity, liability, and reputation, often resulting in costly results that ultimately erode brand image and loyalty (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). From employees' perspective, making errors or even fear of committing errors can considerably impact employees' job stress, job satisfaction, and work-life balance, and consequently elicit burnout (Frese & Keith, 2015). ...
... The learning processes of children and adolescents in schools manifest diversely, including in reactions to teacher questions in class discussions, working on practice exercises to reinforce lesson content, or being questioned by parents to assess their own knowledge. Throughout these learning processes, students inevitably make errors, defined as actions or outcomes that unintentionally deviate from a norm or goal and are judged as incorrect (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Errors become salient through a comparison of the desired and actual states, with the desired state determined by existing norms (e.g., spelling rules) or goals (e.g., correctly solving a task) (Grassinger et al., 2015). ...
... Errors can be more or less unpleasant for individuals depending on the situation and may be associated with emotions such as self-directed and other-directed anger, frustration, and helplessness, and in threats to selfesteem (Weinert, 1999). At the same time, errors are discussed as valuable learning opportunities, revealing misunderstandings, knowledge gaps, and areas where actions are not yet competently performed (Hascher & Hagenauer, 2010;Kreutzmann et al., 2014;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Errors are considered particularly relevant for the development of negative knowledge, defined as knowledge about how something is not correct (Minsky, 1994;Oser & Spychiger, 2005;Zhao, 2011). ...
Errors can support learning processes when students react to errors on an affectivemotivational adaptive and action-adaptive level. Empirical findings indicate that these adaptive reactions to errors are influenced, among others, by the error climate in the classroom as an overarching factor of different dimensions. There is further evidence that there are gender differences in student reactions to errors and that these are differently associated with the dimensions of the error climate. Less is known about the interaction between these variables and whether there are gender-specific differences in adaptive reactions to errors, specifically in primary schools. The aim of the study was to replicate findings on the relevance of error climate as an overarching factor and its dimensions for adaptive reactions to errors in primary school children. The study also investigated gender differences in student perceptions of the error climate, which may explain gender differences in students' adaptive reactions to errors. The sample encompassed third and fourth graders (N=675). Analyses at both the individual and class levels replicated findings from the secondary level for the primary level and revealed further gender-specific differences in student learning from errors that were associated with gender differences in primary school children’s perception of the error climate.
... Ketidakmampuan pemimpin berdampak negatif terhadap berbagai hal yang berkaitan dengan hasil pekerjaan karyawan seperti keterlibatan kerja, kepuasan karyawan dan loyalitas karyawan (Cannon & Edmondson, 2005); (Van Dyck et al., 2005); (Zhao & Olivera, 2006 ...
... Sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa persepsi karyawan terhadap atasan adalah salah satu prediktor terbentuknya loyalitas karyawan dan keterlibatan karyawan terhadap pekerjaan dan tujuan perusahaan. Hubungan antara persepsi karyawan kepada kepala stasiun terhadap loyalitas dan keterlibatan para petugas terkait keselamatan perjalanan Kereta Api memiliki nilai pengaruh yang positif, dengan demikian persepsi positif yang diberikan oleh karyawan terhadap figure kepala stasiun akan meningkatkan loyalitas dan keterlibatan karyawan begitu juga sebaliknya persepsi negatif kepada kepala stasiun akan menimbulkan penolakan untuk loyal dan penolakan untuk bekerjasama dengan perusahaan(Cannon & Edmondson, 2005;Van Dyck et al., 2005;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). MenurutFiske et al., (2002);Judd et al., (2005); Kahn, (1990) kepala stasiun harus mampu menghadirkan persepsi positif di benak karyawannya meliputi kompetensi, kepedulian, perhatian, kehangatan dan dukungan kepada bawahannya, agar timbul loyalitas dan keterlibatan yang bermuara pada peningkatan kinerja karyawan dan pencapaian tujuan perusahaan.Terkait hasil penelitian ini, hal yang bisa menjadi masukan bagi praktisi, khususnya manajemen PT KAI yaitu perlu adanya system assessment yang objektif dalam memilih seorang Kepala Stasiun karena kepala stasiun merupakan atasan langsung yang berada paling dekat dengan psikologis dan emosional SDM operasional dengan tugas dan tanggungjawab yang sangat krusial, karena berkaitan dengan keselamatan perjalanan kereta api beserta aset yang dibawa serta di dalamnya. ...
This research aims to identify employee perceptions of Station Master and their effect on employee loyalty and employee engagement. The Station Master is the leader of the front-liner, who is responsible for railway-safety. Officer compliance with operation regulations is the key to realizing railways-safety, which can arise frome employee loyalty and employee engagement. The station master emotionally close to the employees, more supporting the formation of employee loyalty and engagemen, by building positive perceptions to the station master’s leadership. The research design used are explanatory research with a quantitative approach. The population is operational officers of Indonesian Railways Company in the DAOP 7 Madiun. The data used is primary data, which collected by survey technique of 150 operational officers using online questionnaire, than analyzed and empirical testing using the Smart PLS application. The results is all hypothesis are accepted, that perceptions to the Station Master have a positive effect on the loyalty and engagement of operational employees at PT KAI Daop 7 Madiun. Researchers'hopes the results of this research can provide information and increase knowledge for practitioners, especially the Management of PT Kereta Api Indonesia Daop 7 Madiun in determining the recommended competencies for the Station Head position
... Errors are an inevitable part of all human activity and are prevalent in complex environments such as organizations, being impossible to eliminate them (Ramanujam and Goodman, 2003;Zhao and Olivera, 2006). Organizations have invested a lot in error prevention, implementing increasingly simpler systems and processes, easy to operate and maintain and ideally error-Strategic perspective of error management proof. ...
... Error prevention is likely to lead to a culture of blame and punishment for the presence of errors, creating a strong tension caused by errors and, consequently generating harmful work behaviours of covering up errors, becoming a norm or rule. People, when working in error punishing cultures, develop a tendency to ignore and cover-up mistakes because the threats they face if they disclose them do not outweigh the benefits (Zhao and Olivera, 2006;Dimitrova et al., 2017). Therefore, a pure and simple error prevention approach cannot adequately deal with the fact that errors are unavoidable. ...
Purpose
Errors are inevitable, resulting from the human condition itself, system failures and the interaction of both. It is essential to know how to deal with their occurrence, managing them. However, the negative tone associated with them makes it difficult for most organizations to talk about mistakes clearly and transparently, for fear of being harmed, preventing their detection, treatment and recovery. Consequently, errors are not managed, remaining accumulated in the system, turning into successive failures. Organizations need to recognize the inevitability of errors, making the system robust, through leadership and an organizational culture of error management. This study aims to understand the role of these influencing variables in an error management approach.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper methodology of a quantitative nature based on a questionnaire survey that analyses error management, leadership and the organizational culture of error management of 380 workers in Portuguese companies.
Findings
The results demonstrate that leadership directly influences error management and indirectly through the organizational culture of error management, giving this last variable a mediating role.
Originality/value
The study covers companies from different sectors of activity on a topic that is little explored in Portugal, but part of the daily life of organizations, which should deserve greater attention from directors and managers, as they assume a privileged position to promote and develop error management mechanisms. Error management must be the daily work of leaders. This study contributes to theoretical knowledge and business practice on error management.
... This entails acknowledging mistakes or revealing errors to prevent harm or uphold honesty (Koerner 2014;Schilpzand et al. 2015). Threats in these situations might include guilt, reputational or career damage (Bligh et al. 2018;Zhao and Olivera 2006). Interestingly, this category of morally courageous acts has, to date, largely been ignored in the courage literature. ...
In the battle against unethical behavior in organizations, fostering employees' moral courage proves vital beyond conventional regulation and compliance efforts. To propel this frontier and empower individuals to uphold moral values, a robust measure of workplace moral courage becomes imperative. This paper introduces the Workplace Moral Courage Scale (WMCS), which, unlike previous measures, stands out by capturing the diverse ways in which moral courage can manifest in workplace settings. Building on data from two diverse German employee samples (total N = 995), we unveil five distinct factors: challenging colleague and supervisor misconduct, opposing unethical orders, confessing mistakes, and initiating positive changes. The WMCS exhibits good psychometric properties and convergent and discriminant validity. Confirming its concurrent validity, the WMCS effectively predicts various forms of employee silence, even after controlling for organizational influences. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and implications of the WMCS.
... In such contexts, employees believe admitting errors is interpersonally risky, fearing potential blame and damage to their self-image (Edmondson & Lei, 2014). Thus, this approach leads to perceiving errors as highly straining events eliciting negative emotions, such as guilt, fear, shame, or embarrassment (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). It also encourages employees to cover errors, for instance by denying or disowning them and avoiding reporting. ...
Leaders significantly shape organizational culture and determine collective efficacy, which includes managing errors. They can act as role models to encourage team members' engagement by framing mistakes as opportunities for learning instead of hiding or punishing them. Scholars widely recognize that both leadership and culture have a significant impact on employee performance. However, only a few studies have explored the simultaneous influence of these factors on performance, and the nature of these relationships remains unclear. Furthermore, few studies have empirically investigated the association between leadership, error culture, and workplace errors. Thus, this study explores whether and how different profiles of leadership behavior influence error culture approaches, thereby influencing the occurrence of errors. Our aims are a) to identify potential profiles of leadership styles by employing a person-centered approach and b) to examine how a range of leadership profiles are associated with different cultural approaches toward errors, thus paving the way to workplace errors. We identified four leadership profiles with specific contributions to the error culture approach. The model, tested with an SEM mediation analysis on a sample of 388 Italian workers, showed that a) the different styles contribute to the error-handling process by differently affecting the error management, strain, and covering approaches to errors and that b) their relationship with workplace errors is fully mediated by cultural approaches to errors. The findings support an integrative perspective on leadership, with leaders embodying multiple leadership styles, each configuration expressing a different interplay among styles and uniquely affecting cultural approaches to workplace errors.
... They are central in acquiring negative knowledge (knowledge about what does not work and what is not the case), which in turn has positive effects on performance (Gartmeier et al., 2008). Errors are defined as an unintentional deviation from a certain norm that prevents the realization of a specific goal and is judged to be incorrect (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Examples include conceptual errors but also careless mistakes as a result of a lack of concentration. ...
Background
Errors can provide informative feedback and exhibit a high potential for learning gains. Affective‐motivational and action‐related reactions to errors are two forms of error adaptivity that have been shown to enhance learning outcomes from errors. However, little is known regarding the development and contextual conditions of students' error reactions. A theoretically plausible facilitator to this end is the perceived error climate in the classroom.
Aim
We investigated how students' dealing with errors develops over time and which role the classroom context in general, and the perceived error climate in particular, has for this development.
Sample
A total of 1641 students participated in 69 mathematics classrooms in academic secondary schools.
Methods
Perceived error climate alongside students' self‐reported individual reactions to errors were assessed in a 2‐year longitudinal study with five measurement points over the fifth and sixth grade.
Results
Growth‐curve modelling indicated an, on average, negative development of students' individual reactions to errors. This development varied substantially between classrooms and systematically depended on perceived error climate. A more positive error climate was associated with a less negative development of error adaptivity.
Conclusion
Taken together, our findings imply a strong need and considerable room for the teachers' support in developing and maintaining adaptive reactions to errors. They also allow for the conclusion that teachers can succeed here by means of realizing a positive error climate in class.
... Frese and Keith (2015) and Weinzimmer and Esken (2017) studied learning from mistakes and revealed that the essence of organizational learning is to identify and modify errors. Jung et al. (2021), Kalender et al. (2020), Anderson and Abrahamson (2017), and Zhao and Olivera (2006) noted that the critical problem of organizational learning from mistakes is a lack of reporting. These authors highlighted the need for organizations to change their attitude toward errors. ...
There is no learning without mistakes. However, there is a clash between 'positive attitudes and beliefs' regarding learning processes and the 'negative attitudes and beliefs' toward these being accompanied by mistakes. This clash exposes a cognitive bias toward mistakes that might block personal and organizational learning. This study presents an advanced measurement method to assess the bias of mistakes. The essence of it is the detection of the existing contradictions between attitude and behavior toward mistakes at the personal and organizational levels, as well as combined. This study is based on empirical evidence from a sample of 768 knowledge workers, divided into biased and non-biased subsamples following the procedure proposed in this paper. Those subsamples were next applied to the structural model, examining knowledge, learning, and collaboration cultures (the KLC approach) 's influence on organizational intelligence to validate the proposed method. Results showed that the applied method efficiently detects the DBM and exposes that in doubly mistakes-biased knowledge-driven organizations, the influence of knowledge culture on the mistakes acceptance component of learning culture is negative. So, organizations with a dominated double bias of mistakes do not accept the affirmation of learning from mistakes. Summing up, this study constitutes the Double Bias of Mistakes Theory, which states that the clash between positive attitudes and beliefs regarding learning processes and negative attitudes and beliefs toward mistakes exposed by focusing on control managers (bosses) might block organizational learning from mistakes and, as a consequence, negatively affect organizational intelligence. Without the empirical support for this theory, there was a risk that the idea of accepting mistakes as a potential source of learning would be simplified by biased minds to mistakes tolerance and rejected as ridiculous. Accepting that mistakes can be a source of precious learning does not equal mistake tolerance. On the contrary, it is the first step to managing mistakes and creating efficient error avoidance systems thanks to lessons learned from failures. This study introduces the method of measurement and detection of the Double Bias of Mistakes phenomenon, contributing to the science of organizational learning and collective intelligence-building.
... Accordingly, error prevention mechanisms alone may not be sufficient. Managers and employees may inadvertently detect and rectify errors without proper acknowledgment or communication (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Therefore, effective management of organizational errors is imperative for preventing unintended consequences, leveraging errors as valuable sources of learning, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurial outcomes (Wei & Hisrich, 2016). ...
Most prior research has focused on the positive relationship between a firm's entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and its performance. However, errors in entrepreneurial strategies are inevitable. We argue that entrepreneurial firms benefit from an organizational error management culture. Drawing on data from 208 German family businesses, we combined partial least squares structural modeling with finite mixture partial least squares (FIMIX-PLS) segmentation to capture unobserved heterogeneity in firm performance. Our results show that firms align organizational error management culture with the behavioral or attitudinal dimensions of EO. The two identified segments indicate that firms align one at the cost of the other. Error communication emerged as a central link in both segments, mediating EO and firm performance. Overall, the results highlight the importance of aligning cultural practices, particularly the dialogue about errors within firms, with entrepreneurial behaviors and attitudes across managerial and firm levels.
... Failure, in general, is defined as a deviation from desired goals (see also : Dahlin et al., 2018;Reason, 1990;Sitkin, 1992;Zhao and Olivera, 2006). This definition is consistent with the process level and output-oriented definitions of innovation failure listed in Table 1. ...
... Failure, in general, is defined as a deviation from desired goals (see also : Dahlin et al., 2018;Reason, 1990;Sitkin, 1992;Zhao and Olivera, 2006). This definition is consistent with the process level and output-oriented definitions of innovation failure listed in Table 1. ...
Research on innovation failure has proliferated lately but with little theoretical attention given to the diversity of the concept. Using process theorizing, we present a model and propositions to understand how a firm's anticipation and value toward failure depends on the type of failure (task versus outcome) and the phase (divergent versus convergent) and point (early versus later) 'within' the process that the failure occurs. Using the anticipation-value stances, we then present a typology of four modes of innovation failure that can arise 'from' task and outcomes failure in the innovation process. The four modes (and associated learning response) are unsolicited failures (prevent-alert-eliminate); hazardous failures (predict-modify-mitigate); fortuitous failures (probe-expose-extrapolate); and excursive failures (facilitate-analyze-harness). To help explain the ideas in our process model and typology, we use the well-known IDEO shopping cart innovation project as an illustrative example. Together, these contributions provide contingency oriented insights on how failure varies and journeys within and from the innovation process, which helps researchers and managers to better understand the related causes, effects and learning responses.
... Consequently, employees committing errors are stigmatized as weak, lazy or incompetent and, in most cases, sanctioned by their leaders (Gorini et al., 2012). To date, error prevention cultures still dominate and are present in most organizations (Zhao and Olivera, 2006). In contrast, error management cultures (EMCs) acknowledge that total error avoidance at work is unrealistic (Goodman et al., 2011). ...
In the face of grand challenges like global warming or social inequality, firms are increasingly expected to make a positive contribution to society. As a result, they are looking for ways to fuse their own and common good interests, for example, by employing so-called Common Good HRM practices. These practices like the promotion of a constructive error management culture (EMC) aim to support an environment that facilitates positive societal and ecological change by enabling firm leaders and employees to contribute to global progress. Yet, to date empirical evidence for proposed positive effects is scarce and the embeddedness of employees in different teams and national cultures is largely neglected in prior research. The current study accounts for these shortcomings by investigating the effects of a constructive EMC as a Common Good HRM practice on employee innovativeness and internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on a sample of 82,927 employees working in 9253 teams in a large telecommunication company with subsidiaries in 10 different countries. Applying a comprehensive multi-level design, we find that (i) a constructive EMC has a positive impact on employee innovativeness and internal CSR and (ii) that team member diversity regarding gender, age, and tenure and cultural values affect EMC. Particularly, our analyses uncover that EMC effects differ depending on the kind of diversity and reveal a complex interplay of team composition and cultural values. Despite notable limitations like the examination of only one single organization, our work underpins the theoretically proposed benefits of applying Common Good HRM practices and highlights the need to take both team and cultural influences into account.
... It may be that those in our Study 1 sample (i.e., engineers in a transportation setting) are expected to identify problems to help the organization improve and avoid missteps. Indeed, error resolution is particularly critical in safety contexts (Lin & Johnson, 2015), leading employees who speak up about concerns (i.e., prohibitive voice) to be taken more seriously and potentially endorsed more often (i.e., Zhao & Olivera, 2006). In contrast, prohibitive voice may not fit well within an innovative context where a culture of ideas is salient, resulting in reduced levels of endorsement. ...
Speaking up directly promotes voice endorsement because it enhances communication clarity. Yet, voicers may hesitate to engage in direct voice because it is a dominant communication tactic that may upset, impose on, embarrass, or undermine their leader, potentially resulting in a backlash, greater workload, or a tainted image. These concerns present a puzzle regarding whether alternative communication tactics exist whereby voicers can secure endorsement for improvement‐oriented initiatives without directly challenging their leader. To address this puzzle, we introduce voice inquiry—expressing improvement‐oriented suggestions or concerns in the form of a question—as a submissive communication tactic to secure endorsement. Drawing upon dominance complementarity theory, we argue that voice inquiry prompts endorsement because it enhances leader's sense of power. Given the complementary effect of submissiveness and dominance, we further predict that this effect will be stronger when leader dominance is high. We conducted three Pilot Studies to unpack the content, motivation, prevalence, and submissive nature of voice inquiry. Building on this foundation, we conducted a multi‐wave field study with 373 employees and 178 leaders in a transportation company (Study 1) and a vignette experiment with 243 full‐time workers (Study 2). Across studies, our research demonstrates voice inquiry as a theoretically driven communication tactic that increases endorsement by activating leader sense of power, particularly among dominant leaders.
... The qualitative data obtained suggest that in a prevention frame, participants provide more information about their motivations for implementing decisions, focusing to a greater extent on their prior performance in the simulation, on aspects relating to their own performance and feelings throughout the task, however, as opposite to our hypothesis, nonsignificant differences were obtained in the affective tone of those statements. In this sense, as Zhao and Olivera (2006) highlight, situational factors, such as time pressure, present in our simulation task as well, are likely to affect error reporting. "As time pressure increases, people use information-processing strategies that demand less cognitive resources" (p. ...
Changing situations develop work environments where workers must generate strategies to learn and persist from continuous errors and setbacks. Previous research has shown that errors enhance motivation, break the routine, lead to creative solutions, and reduce frustration; however, this positive aspect seems to have a stronger presence if personal factors and contextual background support such a focus. The main aim of this paper was to analyse, with an experimental design, how different frames about errors and negative feedback (error promotion versus error prevention) affected performance and decision-making processes in a complex simulation task, taking into account individual attitude towards errors. The sample included 40 employees of a Spanish transportation company (37.5% were women and 62.5% were men). Firstly, participants answered a questionnaire about their individual Error Orientation. Then, they were randomly assigned to an experimental condition to carry out a complex decision-making task through a multimedia simulator, which aimed to expose the participant to factors that influence the dynamics of innovation and change, elements that are present in all modern organizations. None of the participants had previous experience in the task. Performance was measured through different aspects: (1) final performance values: adopters, points, time to make decisions and time after receiving negative feedback; (2) the decision-making process. Results showed that error orientation is related to final performance, especially error risk taking and error communication. The effect of the experimental condition was higher for the time to make decisions after receiving negative feedback and for the time to complete the simulation program. Those who worked under the error prevention condition took significantly longer to perform the task. Although our results show non-consistent effects, which frame than the other (promotion versus prevention) is better to make decisions is discussed. A promotion frame prioritizes flexibility, openness, and rapid progress, but does so by sacrificing certainty, and careful analysis. The most crucial factor may be which one best fits the demands of the task at hand.
... The result was a "replication crisis," attracting great attention from neighboring fields and the media (for an overview, see Maxwell et al., 2015;Pashler & Wagenmakers, 2012). Yet, such a crisis can also provide an opportunity to learn from error (Zhao & Olivera, 2006), including the well-documented replication failures and the usage of QRPs. ...
To address the low reproducibility and replicability of research, Open Science Practices (OSPs) have been developed. Yet, despite increasing awareness of their potential benefits, there has been only little implementation. As journals can act as gatekeepers for scientific discoveries, a potential tendency not to mention OSPs on their websites may help to explain this implementation gap. Therefore, we examined the implementation of OSPs and potential barriers in industrial and organizational psychology and management (IOP/management) journals. Study 1 examined whether and how N = 257 journal websites referred to OSPs. We found that most journals did not mention OSPs. Specifically, only two (1.0%), five (2.5%), and 14 (6.9%) IOP/management journals mentioned preregistration, registered reports, and
explicitly welcomed replications, respectively. Study 2 investigated perceived barriers to implementing OSPs with a survey among editors of the IOP/management journals from Study 1. Among the 40 responding editors, 14, ten, and five attributed the lacking implementation of OSPs to a lesser suitability of OSPs for qualitative research, missing authority, and missing familiarity with OSPs, respectively. Based on our findings, the implementation gap could be mitigated by developing new and refining extant OSPs, starting bottom-up initiatives (e.g., researchers directly contacting publishers), and increasing the availability of information on OSPs.
... ults in worse role behavior. Chenhall and Brownell (1988) argue that role ambiguity influences job satisfaction and job performance. In this study, job performance is specified as the quality of a public-sector auditor's economic error communication. Positive error communication means actively communicating about erroneous situations (Sitkin, 1997;B. Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Through the existence of role ambiguity, public-sector auditors in local governments may suffer from a lack of clarity about their audit duties. As a result, they feel less confident and find it difficult to decide how to deal with economic errors, in turn failing to actively communicate economic errors. Thus, it is assumed that the ex ...
Traditionally, public-sector auditors are concerned with auditing the legality and regularity of government activities (compliance audits). However, such auditors are increasingly expected to conduct "performance audits" and communicate economic errors due to inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and poor economic decisions to the auditee. This type of role change is often accompanied by role stress. This study explores whether role stress-role conflict and role ambiguity-among local public-sector auditors and their perception of their new business partner role are precursors of their communication of detected economic errors to their auditees. Therefore, survey data from German local public sector auditors (i.e., municipalities and counties) are gathered and analyzed. Our results show that compare to those in other organizations, auditors who work in more formalized public-sector audit organizations are less likely to experience role ambiguity and role conflict and to communicate auditees' economic errors more actively. Furthermore, we find that auditors who do not experience role ambiguity find it easier to see themselves as a business partner of the auditee and show more active economic error This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
... A ocorrência de um erro ou falha está associada a um hiato entre o estado real e o respetivo estado esperado, sendo que desta desigualdade podem resultar consequências negativas para o normal funcionamento de uma organização, tais como a insatisfação e frustração dos consumidores (Zhao & Olivera, 2006). ...
A crise gerada pela pandemia de Covid-19 confrontou muitos líderes com uma situação para a qual inexiste um plano comprovado ou fórmula disponível. Flexibilidade e positividade na liderança podem favorecer a cultura de gestão do erro, uma vez que possibilita a abertura e confiança para a aceitação e para a aprendizagem com o erro, gerando inovação. Por meio de uma revisão integrativa de literatura, o objetivo do estudo é investigar qual a função da liderança no processo criativo da equipe numa cultura de gestão de erro. Foi possível identificar que a liderança exerce função de suporte e incentivo à criatividade da equipe, favorecendo o processo de inovação, face à oportunidade de reflexão e construção conjunta de soluções. O papel do líder em seu estilo autêntico e humilde, ampara e favorece a cultura de gestão do erro em prol da criatividade e inovação, a partir do erro.
... Ada empat syarat untuk melakukan inovasi (Juliantara, 2006) Keempat, Inovasi muncul dari karena aduan, keluhan masyarakat. Dalam perspektif organisasi, kesalahan telah menjadi bagian penting terkait produktivitas, liabilitas dan reputasi dan konsekuensi mahal, merusak loyalitas dan citra merek serta mengarah pada pemberitaan buruk di publik (Zhao, B., & Olivera, 2006 Daerah, 2021). Kesadaran berinovasi muncul dari pelatihan-pelatihan di DPMTSP yang diperuntukkan para pegawai sehingga bisa melahirkan kapasitas dalam desain berpikir. ...
In recent years, innovation has become an instrument to improve the quality of services to the public. From year to year, the number of participants from innovation competitions was increased. However, after the competition over, innovation does not developed and tends to wither or even die. Therefore, there must be an effort made by leaders in every Regional Apparatus Organization (OPD). This study aimed to explain the efforts made by leaders in local governance organizations to cultivate innovation in public service. The data in this paper were collected through observations to each service unit, interviews with leaders, technical managers of innovation units in each OPD and a study of documentation of regional innovation data base reports. The findings, leaders must have a commitment to the institutions and employees to innovate; leaders who are adaptive and dare to take risks; accepts user’s complaints so they changed; collaborate and integrate with stakeholders to designed the public service innovation. Innovation is the result of collective work; leaders and employees have an influence on the sustainability of public service innovation.Keyword: Leaders, Regional Apparatus Organizations, Innovate, Public Service
... Learning from failure feedback Failure is an outcome that falls short of what is expected or desired (Rasmussen, 1982;Reason, 1990;Sitkin, 1992;Zhao and Olivera, 2006), and failure feedback is feedback indicating to recipients that their performance did not meet expectations (Johnson and Connelly, 2014;Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach, 2019). ...
The present study expands our knowledge of the differential consequences of failure feedback. Specifically, we conducted an online experiment to elaborate on how conscientiousness and extraversion contribute to explaining whether individuals learn from failure feedback for future task performance. In line with our hypotheses, we find that individuals who are highly conscientious and/or highly extraverted are more likely to learn from failure feedback than their counterparts. We discuss the implications of our study and derive practical implications.
... In contrast, the lack of psychological safety leads to more conflict in interpersonal relationships and produces uncertainty (Edmondson & Lei, 2014). This climate reduces stability and generates an uncomfortable work environment in which employees self-protect and avoid speaking up publicly (Grote, 2015;Zhao & Olivera, 2006). Given these characteristics, researchers have found that psychological safety is positively related to outcomes such as voice (Walumbwa & Schaubroeck, 2009) and performance (Carmeli et al., 2012;Liu & Keller, 2021;Wang et al., 2021). ...
To fill the research gap and expand the body of knowledge on leadership communication and internal communication, the current study investigates the effect of leader motivating language on psychological safety, job meaningfulness, and psychological availability, and employee advocacy in the United States and India. Through a web survey of 441 participants from the U.S and 354 participants from India, the study confirmed that leader motivating language is positively related with psychological safety, job meaningfulness, psychological availability, and employee advocacy in the United States and India. The study also looked at the relationship that psychological safety, work meaningfulness, and psychological availability have with employee advocacy, a concept that has been described as an indicator of public relations effectiveness and the ultimate test of a relationship between an organization and its employees.
... If employees identify strongly with and committed to their organization, they would likely be more motivated to take risks to benefit their organizations. For example, employees will proactively report their errors, if they have more consideration for their organization (Zhao and Olivera, 2006). According to the definition, a willingness to take risks is a motivation for contributing to organizational benefit. ...
Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, we theorized and tested a serial mediation model linking empowering leadership with employee radical creativity through job control and willingness to take risks. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from a time-lagged and multisource survey of 385 employees in 84 research and development teams from 20 different companies. The results demonstrated that empowering leadership had a positive indirect effect on employee radical creativity via job control and willingness to take risks, and the error management climate was found to strengthen this indirect effect. Theoretical and practical implications are also provided in the discussion section.
Purpose
Collaborative robots are key enabling technologies within the framework of Industry 5.0. Inevitable robot errors may lead to negative attitudes toward robots and cause deviations from task goals. However, collaborative robots with high ability and performance can gain informal status in the human–robot collaborative team. Since status is a significant factor influencing interactions, it is crucial to explore how variations in the status of erring robots influence team members’ attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs affective events theory (AET) with the experimental vignette methodology (EVM), engaging a total of 388 participants (N student = 216, N non-student = 172) in the experiment.
Findings
First, erring robot status positively influences error tolerance (lower punishment tendency and higher future collaboration tendency). Second, negative attitudes toward robots mediate the relationship between erring robot status and error tolerance. Third, task goal deviation moderates the relationship between erring robot status and negative attitudes toward robots. Fourth, the protective effect of erring robot status differs by prior robot experience.
Research limitations/implications
This study enriches theoretical research on robot status and expands the application of AET to the industrial human–robot interaction (iHRI) domain. Additionally, it offers critical guidance to enhance the effectiveness and error tolerance of human–robot collaboration in practical contexts.
Originality/value
These findings offer a mechanistic explanation for employee attitudes and reactions following robot errors and propose practical measures to mitigate the negative impacts of robot errors on human–robot collaboration.
Purpose
Business failure is a common issue among entrepreneurs, but in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, learning from failure and its cognitive determinants have not been explored. Thus, this study aims to explore the cognitive factors of failure learning for the serial entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach was adopted to recognize and prioritize the cognitive factors affecting learning from the failure of serial entrepreneurs. In the qualitative phase, 40 papers were analyzed by meta-synthesis and thematic analysis. In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire was designed to prioritize the identified species and distributed among 10 experts in the field of entrepreneurship who had at least two failures in their careers. To analyze data, the best-worst method, a new technique of fuzzy multi-criteria decision making, was used.
Findings
Twenty-four factors were identified as cognitive determinants, facilitators and barriers, affecting learning from the failure of serial entrepreneurs. Prioritizing the factors, “previous experience” and “temptation of opportunity” were recognized as the most and the least important factors, respectively.
Originality/value
This study adds to the rising interest in understanding the cognitive determinants of serial entrepreneurs’ learning from failure. While the learning from failure has been addressed in the existing literature, the study of these cognitive factors is “under examined.” Thus, this study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by proposing a cognitive facilitators and barriers for serial entrepreneurs’ learning from business failures.
While learning is key for pioneers—firms introducing new products without existing competitors—a lack of competitors limits learning opportunities. To compensate, pioneers in safety-critical industries frequently resort to failure repositories—databases that track failure reports in an industry. However, the sheer volume, inconsistency, and unstructured nature of such failure reports make them difficult to use without clear referents that provide a benchmark and context for interpretation. We investigate how the entry of a competitor enhances pioneers’ learning effectiveness by offering such a stable basis for comparison and analysis. Specifically, we observe changes in failure reports that support our theory that pioneers adjust their learning processes in response to the altered availability and nature of failure information in a repository after competitor entry. Consumer failure reports, which provide unfiltered and unique information, are crucial for understanding and addressing problems that may result in failure. Our analysis of the medical device industry shows that pioneers learn more effectively after a competitor enters the market. Pioneers learn more effectively from consumer reports, especially when not interspersed with less valuable sources, such as expert and internal firm reports. Notably, pioneer learning after competitor entry leads to lower reported alleged future injuries and product malfunctions. These findings contribute to repository-based learning by showing how competition can improve effectiveness and suggesting that distinct consumer feedback is particularly valuable for pioneering firms. Besides adding to the literature on organizational learning, this study also highlights the role of competition in fostering innovation and improving safety.
To err is human and learning from mistakes is essential for finding viable solutions to grand societal challenges through development and innovation. Yet, public organizations often exhibit a punitive zero-error culture, and public employees are stereotyped as error and risk-averse. Little is known about the underlying behavioral mechanisms that determine civil servants’ likelihood of handling errors positively, namely reporting and correcting them instead of ignoring and hiding them to avoid blame. Based on the transactional theory of stress coping, we argue that individuals’ error-handling strategies relate to both rational and emotional evaluations of error-specific and consequential contextual factors. Using a conjoint survey experiment conducted with N = 276 civil servants in Germany (Obs. = 1,104), this study disentangles the effects of error-related, individual, and organization-cultural factors as decisive drivers of individuals’ error response. We find that error characteristics (type and harmfulness) determine error-handling behavior, which is revealed to be independent from organizational error culture and individual error orientation, providing important and novel insights for theory and practice.
المستخلص يقدم البحث نموذجاً متعدد المستويات لاستكشاف كيف أن ثقافة إدارة الخطأ تؤثر على سلوك العمل الاستباقي بإبعاده الأربعة (الوقاية من المشاكل، صوت العامل، تحمل المسؤولية، وإبداع العامل) من خلال الدور الوسيط للتمكين النفسي. وقد تم توزيع استمارة الاستبيان في عينة من مؤسسات القطاع العام في محافظة المثنى ضمت (283) فرد موزعين على (49) وحدة تنظيمية. وقد أجرى الباحثان تحليل النمذجة الخطية الهرمية لاختبار تأثير ثقافة إدارة الخطأ في التمكين النفسي وسلوك العمل الاستباقي. كما اختبرت الدراسة التأثيرات الوسيطة عابرة المستويات للتمكين النفسي بين ثقافة إدارة الخطأ وسلوك العمل الاستباقي. وقد أظهرت نتائج تحليل البيانات بان ثقافة إدارة الخطأ تمتلك تأثير معنوي في التمكين النفسي وسلوك العمل الاستباقي. علاوة على ذلك، فان النتائج أظهرت بان التمكين النفسي يتوسط العلاقة بين ثقافة إدارة الخطأ وسلوك العمل الاستباقي. وفي ضوء هذه النتائج صيغت مجموعة من الاستنتاجات والتوصيات الهادفة.الكلمات المفتاحية: ثقافة إدارة الخطأ، التمكين النفسي، سلوك العمل الاستباقي، التحليل المتعدد المستويات AbstractThe present study proposed a multilevel model to explore how error management culture influenced employees’ proactive work behaviors (problem prevention, voice, taking charge, and individual innovation) through the mediation of psychological empowerment. With questionnaires were administered to a sample of 283 employees from 49 work units of ten public organizations in the province of Muthanna, we conducted multilevel analysis to examine our hypotheses. The authors conducted HLM path analysis to test the effect of error management culture on the psychological empowerment and proactive work behaviors. The study also examined cross-level mediation effects of psychological empowerment between error management culture and proactive work behaviors. The results of data analysis reveal that error management culture has a significant effects on the psychological empowerment and proactive work behaviors. Moreover, psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between error management culture and proactive work behaviors. According to these findings, a set of conclusions and recommendations were formulated. Keywords: Error management culture, Psychological empowerment, Proactive work behaviors, Multilevel analysis
هدف البحث الحالي إلى تحديد طبيعة التأثير المباشر لأبعاد ثقافة إدارة الخطأ (الاتصال حول الخطأ، والتعلم من الخطأ، وتحليل الخطأ، وجدارة الخطأ، وتوقع الخطأ، والمخاطرة بالخطأ) على أداء استعادة الخدمة، وكذلك التأثير المباشر لأبعاد الاستقامة التنظيمية (التفاؤل التنظيمي، والثقة التنظيمية، والتعاطف التنظيمي، والنزاهة التنظيمية، والتسامح التنظيمي) على أداء استعادة الخدمة مع اختبار الدور المعدّل للشغف بالعمل، إذ تم تجميع البيانات الأولية من عينة عشوائية بسيطة قوامها (357) مفردة من العاملين بالخطوط الأمامية في فنادق القاهرة الكبري، بمعدل استجابة (87%). وتم تحليل البيانات باستخدام أسلوب الإحصاء الوصفي ومعامل الارتباط ألفا وارتباط بيرسون وأسلوب تحليل المسار ونموذج المعادلة الهيكلية. وتوصل البحث إلى وجود تأثير معنوي إيجابي مباشر لأبعاد ثقافة إدارة الخطأ على أداء استعادة الخدمة، ووجود تأثير معنوي إيجابي مباشر لأبعاد الاستقامة التنظيمية على أداء استعادة الخدمة، وأن شعور العاملين بالشغف بالعمل زاد من مستوى العلاقة بين ثقافة إدارة الخطأ وأداء استعادة الخدمة، كما حسّن الشغف بالعمل مستوى العلاقة بين الاستقامة التنظيمية وأداء استعادة الخدمة. ويوصي البحث بضرورة تنمية ثقافة إدارة الخطأ لدى العاملين بالفندق والتدريب عليها بشكل مستمر، وكذلك توفير مناخ عمل قائم على التفاؤل والثقة والتسامح والتعاطف والنزاهة في مواجهة أي تحديات أو شكاوي العملاء، مع ضرورة الحفاظ علي شغف العاملين بأداء أعمالهم مما ينصب علي أداء أفضل لاستعادة الخدمة وعدم ترك العملاء متذمرين بل جعلهم راضين عن الخدمة وأكثر ولاءً للفندق. وأخيراً تم اقتراح عدد من البحوث المستقبلية في هذا الصدد.
الكلمات الرئيسية
ثقافة إدارة الخطأ؛ الاستقامة التنظيمية؛ أداء استعادة الخدمة؛ الشغف بالعمل؛ فنادق الخمس نجوم بالقاهرة الكبري
In the course of financial and value for money audits, public sector auditors are facing different types of errors: accounting and economic errors, respectively. This study examines the relations between error culture in public sector audit organizations, auditors’ communication of accounting and economic errors, and performance of the auditee. The analyses of survey data from German local public sector auditors show that a strong error culture within the audit organization positively affect the auditors’ communication of errors to the auditee, regardless of the error type. Additionally, a strong error culture positively mediates the performance of the audited institution through the auditors’ communication of economic errors. This implies that it is important for public sector audit organizations to build a strong error culture. In addition to its practical contrition, the study provides novel theoretical insights as it demonstrates that the error management of one organization (audit entity) matters for the performance of another organization (audited entity).
Purpose
Although the innovative behaviour of public employees is critical for the creation of public value and meeting of public interests, the authors are uncertain about the role of the human resource (HR) system in affecting individual behaviour as past studies tended to discuss innovation at the organisational level of analysis. Based on corporate human resource management (HRM) literature, the authors draw from the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model to examine the influence of innovation-based HR practices on work-related risk propensity and innovative behaviour and the moderating role of perceived error tolerance of public sector organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Dyadic data were collected from supervisors and their subordinates in various public sector organisations in the UAE. The authors collected valid responses from 100 managers and 200 employees.
Findings
This study's findings demonstrate that the HR system in the public sector shapes employees' behaviour at the individual level of analysis, consistent with the corporate HRM literature. The authors reveal that innovation-based HR practices significantly promote employees' innovative work behaviour because they trigger their inclination and disposition to take risks. Furthermore, the authors provide evidence that such risk-taking propensity at work is heightened under the conditions of a high level of error tolerance by the organisational management.
Practical implications
This study's findings point out the importance of implementing innovation-based HR practices, such as recruitment, reward and training, to drive public sector employees' innovative work behaviour as they could galvanise their risk-taking propensity and, subsequently, innovative behaviour. Public sector managers also need to develop an innovation culture tolerant toward employees' mistakes to further foster employees' work innovativeness. Policy wise, this study's findings could be integrated into the national innovation strategy to drive the national growth in the UAE.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the drivers behind innovative behaviour among public employees, which is a less researched area, especially in a non-Western context.
In this study, we integrate coping theory with the exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect (EVLN) model of responses to dissatisfaction in the context of occupational injuries, and delineate the psychological mechanisms and resulting behaviors of coping with the experience of occupational injuries. Specifically, we categorize individuals' psychological coping mechanisms with occupational injuries into emotion-oriented and problem-oriented coping, and suggest that emotion-oriented coping leads to neglect and loyalty (compliance) behaviors, and problem-oriented coping leads to exit and voice behaviors. We also provide example behaviors of each case in the context of occupational injury. In addition, constructive and active coping behaviors such as loyalty (compliance) and speaking behaviors are more likely to appear when individuals have high self-efficacy, perceived organizational support awareness, and job engagement. Finally, in organizations where the psychological safety climate and empowerment climate are strong, we propose that the self-efficacy, perceived organizational support, and job engagement of individuals who have experienced occupational injury are more maintained or less reduced than in organizations without those.
While prior research has established a link between the attention an organization allocates to the external environment and its adaptations to environmental change, the nature of the cognitive processes that underlie this link remains underexamined. In this study, we explore how patterns of attentional engagement—that is, the extent to which attention allocation is focused and/or consistent over time—influence the organization’s formulation of strategic responses to discontinuous change. We advance a situated perspective on attentional engagement by suggesting how the type of learning and cognitive processes are situated in different attentional-engagement structures, and can, in turn, lead to heterogeneous strategic responses to the same discontinuous change. Specifically, we formulate a theoretical model elaborating how varied levels of attentional focus and attentional consistency affect whether organizations respond by breaking, reinforcing, hedging, or maintaining the status quo. Subsequently, we develop and test our arguments using a dataset covering U.S. banking firms from 2002 to 2010—a period that includes the U.S. housing crisis.
Higher psychological safety (i.e., a common feeling among team members to take interpersonal risks without any fear of negative consequences) is related to increased learning in teams, yet there is no comprehensive study in engineering education to see how individual and team-average psychological safety are related to students' team experience, and particularly how that relationship differs based on gender, race/ethnicity, citizenship status, previous programming skills, attended semester, and students' GPA. This study addresses these questions using multi-linear regression and multi-level modeling. Individual psychological safety was significantly related to racial/ethnic identifications of Asian, "Black, African-American" (a single choice as presented to students), and Hispanic/Latino, being an international student, attended semester, and GPA. Team member effectiveness was significantly related to GPA, previous programming skills, attended semester, a racial identification of Black, African-American, and team-average psychological safety. The results of this study help engineering instructors understand what is happening in teams and add to our knowledge about the team experiences of minoritized students.
Everyone working in and with organizations will, from time to time, experience frustrations and problems when trying to accomplish tasks that are a required part of their role. This is an unusual routine - a recurrent interaction pattern in which someone encounters a problem when trying to accomplish normal activities by following standard organizational procedures and then becomes enmeshed in wasteful and even harmful subroutines while trying to resolve the initial problem. They are unusual because they are not intended or beneficial, and because they are generally pervasive but individually infrequent. They are routines because they become systematic as well as embedded in ordinary functions. Using a wide range of case studies and interdisciplinary research, this book provides researchers and practitioners with a new vocabulary for identifying, understanding, and dealing with this pervasive organizational phenomenon, in order to improve worker and customer satisfaction as well as organizational performance.
Despite the considerable amount of research that has examined rework causation in construction, it remains an inherent problem that can potentially result in adverse project outcomes. This situation has arisen as studies have tended to ignore the social organization of errors (i.e. the pattern of relationships and social interactions between and among individuals and teams). Instead, studies have adopted a ‘reductionist view’ of rework causation by identifying its proximal and root causes rather than addressing the conditions resulting in its manifestation. This paper uses a case study approach with a sense-making lens to create a series of narratives of rework events that arose while constructing a transport mega-project. By making sense of the context surrounding the error events, it is revealed rework manifests from failures in ‘negotiated order’ which stems from role ambiguity, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and break-downs in communications and interactions between people and organizations. As a consequence of these findings, their theoretical and practical implications arising from the research are discussed.
The relation of shame and guilt to anger and aggression has been the focus of considerable theoretical discussion, but empirical findings have been inconsistent. Two recently developed measures of affective style were used to examine whether shame-proneness and guilt-proneness are differentially related to anger, hostility, and aggression. In 2 studies, 243 and 252 undergraduates completed the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory, the Symptom Checklist 90, and the Spielberger Trait Anger Scale. Study 2 also included the Test of Self-Conscious Affect and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. Shame-proneness was consistently correlated with anger arousal, suspiciousness, resentment, irritability, a tendency to blame others for negative events, and indirect (but not direct) expressions of hostility. Proneness to “shame-free” guilt was inversely related to externalization of blame and some indices of anger, hostility, and resentment.
The relations among 3 moral affective personality characteristics—shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and empathic responsiveness—were examined in 4 independent studies of undergraduates. Results indicate that shame and guilt are distinct affective experiences that have important and quite different implications in the interpersonal realm. There was a substantial positive correlation between shame-proneness and guilt-proneness. Nonetheless, as predicted, other-oriented empathic responsiveness was negatively related to proneness to shame but positively correlated with proneness to guilt. In contrast, an index of more self-oriented personal distress was positively linked to shame-proneness. Taken together, these results add a new dimension to the ugliness of shame but suggest that guilt may not be that bad after all, at least in the interpersonal domain.
There has long been interest in describing emotional experience in terms of underlying dimensions, but traditionally only two dimensions, pleasantness and arousal, have been reliably found. The reasons for these findings are reviewed, and integrating this review with two recent theories of emotions (Roseman, 1984; Scherer, 1982), we propose eight cognitive appraisal dimensions to differentiate emotional experience. In an investigation of this model, subjects recalled past experiences associated with each of 15 emotions, and rated them along the proposed dimensions. Six orthogonal dimensions, pleasantness, anticipated effort, certainty, attentional activity, self-other responsibility/control, and situational control, were recovered, and the emotions varied systematically along each of these dimensions, indicating a strong relation between the appraisal of one’s circumstances and one’s emotional state. The patterns of appraisal for the different emotions, and the role of each of the dimensions in differentiating emotional experience are discussed.
Outlines a theory of action in which an action sequence is represented by a parent schema and numerous child schemas, in which several action schemas can be active at any one time, and in which each schema has a set of triggering conditions and an activation value. The path from intention to action consists of the activation of the parent schema that corresponds to the intention, the activation of child schemas for the component parts of the action sequence, and then the appropriate triggering of schemas when the conditions match those required for their operations. This action system allows slips to be organized into 3 major categories and a number of subcategories. The 3 major categories of slips are (a) errors in the formation of the intention (e.g., mode and description errors); (b) faulty activation of schemas (e.g., loss of intention and misordering of action components); and (c) faulty triggering (e.g., spoonerisms, blends, and intrusions of thoughts). (35 ref)
Several independent lines of research bear on the question of why individuals avoid decisions by postponing them, failing to act, or accepting the status quo. This review relates findings across several different disciplines and uncovers 4 decision avoidance effects that offer insight into this common but troubling behavior: choice deferral, status quo bias, omission bias, and inaction inertia. These findings are related by common antecedents and consequences in a rational-emotional model of the factors that predispose humans to do nothing. Prominent components of the model include cost-benefit calculations, anticipated regret, and selection difficulty. Other factors affecting decision avoidance through these key components, such as anticipatory negative emotions, decision strategies, counterfactual thinking, and preference uncertainty, are also discussed.
Recent research has indicated strong relations between people's appraisals of their circumstances and their emotional states. The present study examined these relations across a range of unpleasant situations in which subjects experienced complex emotional blends. Subjects recalled unpleasant experiences from their pasts that were associated with particular appraisals and described their appraisals and emotions during these experiences. Situations defined by particular appraisals along the human agency or situational control dimensions were reliably associated with different levels of anger, sadness, and guilt, as predicted. However, predicted differences in emotion were not observed for situations selected for appraisals along the certainty or attention dimensions. Most subjects reported experiencing blends of two or more emotions, and correlation/regression analyses indicated that even in the context of these blends, patterns of appraisal similar to those observed previously (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985, 1987) characterized the experience of the individual emotions. The regressions further indicated that appraisals along some dimensions were more important to the experience of particular emotions than were appraisals along other dimensions. These central appraisals are compared with the adaptive functions their associated emotions are believed to serve, and the implications of these findings are discussed. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45362/1/11031_2004_Article_BF00993115.pdf
Objectives: To survey operating theatre and intensive care unit staff about attitudes concerning error, stress, and teamwork and to compare these attitudes with those of airline cockpit crew. Design: Cross sectional surveys. Setting: Urban teaching and non-teaching hospitals in the United States, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Major airlines around the world. Participants: 1033 doctors, nurses, fellows, and residents working in operating theatres and intensive care units and over 30 000 cockpit crew members (captains, first officers, and second officers). Main outcome measures: Perceptions of error, stress, and teamwork. Results: Pilots were least likely to deny the effects of fatigue on performance (26% v 70% of consultant surgeons and 47% of consultant anaesthetists). Most pilots (97%) and intensive care staff (94%) rejected steep hierarchies (in which senior team members are not open to input from junior members), but only 55% of consultant surgeons rejected such hierarchies. High levels of teamwork with consultant surgeons were reported by 73% of surgical residents, 64% of consultant surgeons, 39% of anaesthesia consultants, 28% of surgical nurses, 25% of anaesthetic nurses, and 10% of anaesthetic residents. Only a third of staff reported that errors are handled appropriately at their hospital. A third of intensive care staff did not acknowledge that they make errors. Over half of intensive care staff reported that they find it difficult to discuss mistakes. Conclusions: Medical staff reported that error is important but difficult to discuss and not handled well in their hospital. Barriers to discussing error are more important since medical staff seem to deny the effect of stress and fatigue on performance. Further problems include differing perceptions of teamwork among team members and reluctance of senior theatre staff to accept input from junior members.
In this study, we investigated a neglected form of extrarole behavior called taking charge and sought to understand factors that motivate employees to engage in this activity. Taking charge is discretionary behavior intended to effect organizationally functional change. We obtained both self-report and coworker data for 275 white-collar employees from different organizations. Taking charge, as reported by coworkers, related to felt responsibility, self-efficacy, and perceptions of top management openness. These results expand current understanding of extrarole behavior and suggest ways in which organizations can motivate employees to go beyond the boundaries of their jobs to bring about positive change.
Why do some observers of organizational wrongdoing choose to report it? This question has received little research attention despite its prominence in the popular media. This paper attempts to show that whistle-blowing is a form of prosocial behavior. Empirical studies in the social-psychological literature of prosocial behavior provide clues about personality and situational variables predictive of whistle-blowing. Latané's and Darley's (1968, 1970) bystander intervention framework is modified for whistle-blowing decisions. Propositions for future research are offered.
Charitable organizations play a vital role in our society, as is evidenced by their enormous economic and social impact. Yet, for many of them, soliciting adequate resources to carry out their mandates is a continuing struggle. Confronted with a growing need for their services, fierce competition from other charities, and shrinking support from government agencies, charities may turn to marketers for help in developing effective promotional strategies. Unfortunately, marketing literature is unable to provide meaningful guidance because scant research attention has hampered a fuller understanding of why people help. The authors integrate relevant research in marketing, economics, sociology, and social psychology to advance theoretical understanding of helping behavior. They develop research propositions regarding specific promotional strategies that charitable organizations can employ to elicit help.
An Error Orientation Questionnaire (EOQ) was developed, consisting of eight scales on attitudes to and on coping with errors at work. In Study I (representative sample of a German city, N=478) six scales were developed with the help of a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL techniques. They comprise error competence, learning from errors, error risk taking, error strain, error anticipation, covering up errors. All constructs were validated. In a second study, items were added to the scales and two additional scales, ‘error communication’ and ‘thinking about errors’, were included. The scales were translated into English and Dutch and 160 students in the Netherlands filled out both language versions (Study II). The 8-factor solutions in English and Dutch were replicated. The issue of language equivalence of these two language versions were taken up (equivalence across correlations exists). Potentially biasing variables did not influence the solutions. Practical uses of the EOQ are pointed out. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Under what conditions will women raise and promote gender-equity issues in their work organizations? We used structural equation modeling to analyze responses from a sample of over a thousand female managers to address this question. The results suggest that the perceived favorability of the organizational context fosters a willingness to sell gender-equity issues in organizations. The contextual factors that influenced willingness to sell were perceptions of a high degree of organizational support and of a warm and trusting relationship with critical decision makers, which enhanced the perceived probability of selling success and diminished the perceived image risk in selling. Organizational norms for issue selling also increased willingness to sell gender-equity issues by deflating perceived image risk. Individual differences did not predict willingness to sell gender-equity issues. We address the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
This research explores how group- and organizational-level factors affect errors in administering drugs to hospitalized patients. Findings from patient care groups in two hospitals show systematic differences not just in the frequency of errors, but also in the likelihood that errors will be detected and learned from by group members. Implications for learning in and by work teams in general are discussed.
This paper presents a model of team learning and tests it in a multimethod field study. It introduces the construct of team psychological safety—a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking—and models the effects of team psychological safety and team efficacy together on learning and performance in organizational work teams. Results of a study of 51 work teams in a manufacturing company, measuring antecedent, process, and outcome variables, show that team psychological safety is associated with learning behavior, but team efficacy is not, when controlling for team psychological safety. As predicted, learning behavior mediates between team psychological safety and team performance. The results support an integrative perspective in which both team structures, such as context support and team leader coaching, and shared beliefs shape team outcomes.
In this article, we examine learning within a cooperative system. We focus on the role of learning from errors in a context where regular attrition of group members occurs. Specifically, the study involved observation of distributed activity in the team navigation of a large naval vessel. Analyses revealed frequent individual errors; however, successful detection and correction of errors also occurred. Thus, the cooperative system simultaneously allowed high component error and ensured low system output error. This robustness is an especially valuable feature for distributed systems because it provides for needed on-the-job learning while maintaining a high level of overall performance. Errors were observed to function as opportunities for instruction based on a novice's demonstrated "need to know." The distributed system was found to contain certain design tradeoffs that are exploited for their utility in learning (viz., distributing knowledge across the team and providing multiple perspectives for error detection). The results are applicable to the design of computer-supported cooperative tasks and provide guidelines for task organization that facilitates performance while incorporating the ability to learn from errors.
Although persons who have labored to change self-concepts in naturally occurring situations have often experienced difficulty, researchers have reported considerable success in this endeavor. The present study sought to reconcile these contradictory findings by examining how 46 female undergraduates responded behaviorally and psychologically when they received feedback that disconfirmed their self-conceptions. Results show that self-discrepant feedback produced changes in self-ratings only when Ss had no opportunity to reject and refute it. If Ss had opportunity to behaviorally discredit discrepant feedback, they did so and subsequently displayed minimal self-rating change. The authors propose some important differences between transitory fluctuations and enduring changes in self-ratings and suggest some conditions that must be met before lasting self-concept changes will occur. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated dominant simplifying strategies people use in adapting to different information processing environments. It was hypothesized that judges operating under either time pressure or distraction would systematically place greater weight on negative evidence than would their counterparts under less strainful conditions. 6 groups of male undergraduates (N = 210) were presented 5 pieces of information to assimilate in evaluating cars as purchase options. 3 groups operated under varying time pressure conditions, while 3 groups operated under varying levels of distraction. Data usage models assuming disproportionately heavy weighting of negative evidence provided best fits to a signficantly higher number of Ss in the high time pressure and moderate distraction conditions. Ss attended to fewer data dimensions in these conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Prior research has typically attempted to distinguish one emotion from another by identifying distinctive expressions, physiology, and subjective qualities. Recent theories claim emotions can also be differentiated by distinctive action tendencies, actions, and motivational goals. To test hypotheses from both older and more recent theories, 100 Ss were asked to recall experiences of particular negative emotions and answer questions concerning what they felt, thought, felt like doing, actually did, and wanted. Results support hypotheses specifying characteristic responses for fear, sadness, distress, frustration, disgust, dislike, anger, regret, guilt, and shame. The findings indicate that discrete emotions have distinctive goals and action tendencies, as well as thoughts and feelings. In addition, they provide empirical support for hypothesized emotion states that have received insufficient attention from researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Observers' perceptual sensitivity to critical target events can deteriorate when they must remain alert for prolonged periods. The dominant characterization of this sensitivity decrement has been the R. Parasuraman and D. R. Davies (1977) taxonomy of vigilance, which attributes the decline in perceptual ability to the type of discrimination (successive-absolute vs simultaneous-comparative judgment) and the event rate (rate of stimulus presentation) required for task completion. According to the model, sensitivity decrements occur chiefly in tasks that couple successive discrimination with a high event rate. This meta-analysis of 42 vigilance studies attempted to refine the taxonomy by identifying other task characteristics related to the sensitivity decrement. The analysis confirmed that the magnitude of this sensitivity decrement is substantial and that it is a function of the type of discrimination and the event rate, but it also revealed that the current taxonomy should be revised to incorporate a new dimension: the sensory–cognitive distinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The purpose of this study was to examine individual and team performance in situations requiring sustained attention. Eighty research participants arrayed in 20 four-person teams worked for 2 separate 3-hr sessions on a naval-command-and-control simulation. The results of the study replicated the past literature on the vigilance decrement and extended the literature by documenting a postcritical signal decrement as well. The study also showed that problems in the area of sustained attention generalize from situations involving individual decision makers to contexts where decisions are made by teams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Virtually all current theories of choice under risk or uncertainty are cognitive and consequentialist. They assume that people assess the desirability and likelihood of possible outcomes of choice alternatives and integrate this information through some type of expectation-based calculus to arrive at a decision. The authors propose an alternative theoretical perspective, the risk-as-feelings hypothesis, that highlights the role of affect experienced at the moment of decision making. Drawing on research from clinical, physiological, and other subfields of psychology, they show that emotional reactions to risky situations often diverge from cognitive assessments of those risks. When such divergence occurs, emotional reactions often drive behavior. The risk-as-feelings hypothesis is shown to explain a wide range of phenomena that have resisted interpretation in cognitive-consequentialist terms.
The importance of hospitals learning from their failures hardly needs to be stated. Not only are matters of life and death at stake on a daily basis, but also an increasing number of U.S. hospitals are operating in the red. This article reports on in-depth qualitative field research of nurses' responses to process failures in nine hospitals. It identifies two types of process failures—errors and problems—and discusses implications of each for process improvement. A dynamic model of the system in which front-line workers operate reveals an illusory equilibrium in which small process failures actually erode organizational effectiveness rather than driving learning and change in hospitals. Three managerial levers for change are identified, suggesting a new strategy for improving hospitals' and other service organizations' ability to learn from failure.
This paper contributes to a growing body of research on shared cognition by examining shared beliefs about failure in organizational work groups. We argue that the popular ideal of organizational learning from failure is likely to be impeded by powerful psychological and organizational barriers to engaging in behaviors through which this can occur. We hypothesize that people hold tacit beliefs about appropriate responses to mistakes, problems and conflict, and that these are shared within and vary between organizational work groups (H1). These shared beliefs vary in the extent to which they take a learning approach to failure – specifically in the extent to which they endorse identifying, discussing, and analysing mistakes, problems, and conflicts. We also hypothesize that effective coaching, clear direction and a supportive work context influence beliefs related to failure (H2), and that beliefs about failure influence group performance (H3). These hypotheses combine to suggest a theoretical model of antecedents and consequences of shared beliefs about failure in work groups. The paper presents empirical evidence from a recent field study to test the model and finds support for Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. Hypothesis 4 – that shared beliefs about failure mediate between the antecedents and the outcome of group performance – was not supported. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We propose that research on problem-solving behavior can provide critical insight into mechanisms through which organizations resist learning and change. In this paper, we describe typical front-line responses to obstacles that hinder workers’ effectiveness and argue that this pattern of behavior creates an important and overlooked barrier to organizational change. Past research on quality improvement and problem solving has found that the type of approach used affects the results of problem-solving efforts but has not considered constraints that may limit the ability of front-line workers to use preferred approaches. To investigate actual problem-solving behavior of front-line workers, we conducted 197 hours of observation of hospital nurses, whose jobs present many problem-solving opportunities. We identify implicit heuristics that govern the problem-solving behaviors of these front-line workers, and suggest cognitive, social, and organizational factors that may reinforce these heuristics and thereby prevent organizational change and improvement.
The approach to the problem of oncogenesis of tumorigenic viruses is compared and analyzed from the position of the Altshtein-Vogt hypothesis and from that of the general theory of oncogenesis advanced by the present author. In contrast to the hypothesis of Altshtein-Vogt dealing mainly with the problem of oncogene origin, the general theory of oncogenesis not only defines concretely the origin of the oncogene and the essence of its product, but also makes it possible to understand why, when and how integration of the oncogene with the genome of the cell leads to the transformation of the cell into a benign cell and when into a malignant tumour cell. An analysis of the essence of the "oncogene position effect" from this standpoint shows that an integration, similar in its mechanism but differing in polarity, of the genome of other viruses with the cell genome should lead to the formation of a corresponding antiviral stable (life-long) immunity or also to the emergence of pseudoautoimmune disease of the type caused by "slow" viruses.
Individual differences in proneness to shame and proneness to guilt are thought to play an important role in the development of both adaptive and maladaptive interpersonal and intrapersonal processes. But little empirical research has addressed these issues, largely because no reliable, valid measure has been available to researchers interested in differentiating proneness to shame from proneness to guilt. The Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory (SCAAI) was developed to assess characteristic affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses associated with shame and guilt among a young adult population. The SCAAI also includes indices of externalization of cause or blame, detachment/unconcern, pride in self, and pride in behavior. Data from 3 independent studies of college students and 1 study of noncollege adults provide support for the reliability of the main SCAAI subscales. Moreover, the pattern of relations among the SCAAI subscales and the relation of SCAAI subscales to 2 extant measures of shame and guilt support the validity of this new measure. The SCAAI appears to provide related but functionally distinct indices of proneness to shame and guilt in a way that these previous measures have not.
There has long been interest in describing emotional experience in terms of underlying dimensions, but traditionally only two dimensions, pleasantness and arousal, have been reliably found. The reasons for these findings are reviewed, and integrating this review with two recent theories of emotions (Roseman, 1984; Scherer, 1982), we propose eight cognitive appraisal dimensions to differentiate emotional experience. In an investigation of this model, subjects recalled past experiences associated with each of 15 emotions, and rated them along the proposed dimensions. Six orthogonal dimensions, pleasantness, anticipated effort, certainty, attentional activity, self-other responsibility/control, and situational control, were recovered, and the emotions varied systematically along each of these dimensions, indicating a strong relation between the appraisal of one's circumstances and one's emotional state. The patterns of appraisal for the different emotions, and the role of each of the dimensions in differentiating emotional experience are discussed.
Proposes a theory of motivation and emotion in which causal ascriptions play a key role. Evidence is presented indicating that in achievement-related contexts there are a few dominant causal perceptions, and it is suggested that the perceived causes of success and failure share the 3 common properties of locus, stability, and controllability, with intentionality and globality as other possible causal structures. The perceived stability of causes influences changes in expectancy of success; all 3 dimensions of causality affect a variety of common emotional experiences, including anger, gratitude, guilt, hopelessness, pity, pride, and shame. Expectancy and affect, in turn, are presumed to guide motivated behavior. The theory therefore relates the structure of thinking to the dynamics of feeling and action. Analysis of a created motivational episode involving achievement strivings is offered, and numerous empirical observations are examined from this theoretical position. The strength of the empirical evidence and the capability of this theory to address prevalent human emotions are stressed, and examples of research on parole decisions, smoking cessation, and helping behavior are presented to illustrate the generalizability of the theory beyond the achievement-related theoretical focus. (3½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Evidence for the role of affective states in social judgments is reviewed, and a new integrative theory, the affect infusion model (AIM), is proposed as a comprehensive explanation of these effects. The AIM, based on a multiprocess approach to social judgments, identifies 4 alternative judgmental strategies: (a) direct access, (b) motivated, (c) heuristic, and (d) substantive processing. The model predicts that the degree of affect infusion into judgments varies along a processing continuum, such that judgments requiring heuristic or substantive processing are more likely to be infused by affect than are direct access or motivated judgments. The role of target, judge, and situational variables in recruiting high- or low-infusion judgmental strategies is considered, and empirical support for the model is reviewed. The relationship between the AIM and other affect-cognition theories is discussed, and implications for future research are outlined.
182 undergraduates described personal embarrassment, shame, and guilt experiences and rated these experiences on structural and phenomenological dimensions. Contrary to popular belief, shame was no more likely than guilt to be experienced in "public" situations; all 3 emotions typically occurred in social contexts, but a significant proportion of shame and guilt events occurred when respondents were alone. Analyses of participants' phenomenological ratings clearly demonstrated that shame, guilt, and embarrassment are not merely different terms for the same affective experience. In particular, embarrassment was a relatively distant neighbor of shame and guilt, and the differences among the 3 could not be explained simply by intensity of affect or by degree of moral transgression. Finally, participants generally were their own harshest critics in each type of event, evaluating themselves more negatively than they believed others did.
Learning from experience, the cyclical interplay of thinking and doing, is increasingly important as organizations struggle to cope with rapidly changing environments and more complex and interdependent sets of knowledge. This paper confronts two central issues for organizational learning: 1.(1) how is local learning (by individuals or small groups) integrated into collective learning by organizations? and2.(2) what are the differences between learning practices that focus on control, elimination of surprises, and single-loop incremental “fixing” of problems with those that focus on deep or radical learning, double-loop challenging of assumptions, and discovery of new opportunities?We articulate these relationships through an analysis of learning practices in high-hazard organizations, specifically, problem investigation teams that examine the most serious and troubling events and trends in nuclear power plants and chemical plants. Our analysis suggests a four-stage model of organizational learning reflecting different approaches to control and learning.
An observational field study gives an account of error types, error handling time and use of support in case of an error situation when working with computers in the office. Subjects were 198 clerical employees from 11 companies and seven small firms in Germany. The analyses are based on 1155 observed errors which were concordantly classified into an error taxonomy by two independent re-raters. Clerical employees spent approximately 10 per cent of their computer working time handling errors. Error handling time is also positively related to indicators of emotional strain. Although the tasks performed were largely routine, more than 11 per cent of all errors required the use of supports such as advisory services, co-workers, on-line help and menus or user manuals. Different error classes showed variations in the amount of support used and in error handling time. On the basis of the results, we discuss how the error taxonomy and measures of the human error handling process can be of practical use for evaluation in software ergonomics and for improving human error handling while interacting with computers.
This paper proposes a model of individual feedback seeking behaviors (FSB). Individuals are posited to seek feedback while negotiating their organizational environments in the pursuit of valued goals. The model portrays several motivations for FSB based on the value of feedback to individuals and outlines two predominant strategies of FSB, monitoring and inquiry. The costs and benefits of each strategy are discussed. Hypotheses concerning both an individual's level of FSB and subsequent strategy choice are subsequently derived. FSB is proposed as an important component of the feedback process. The concluding discussion focuses on the contribution of this perspective to the current organization behavior feedback literature.
This paper examines how the inconsistency of organizational conditions affects people's willingness to engage in experimentation, a behavior integral to innovation. Because failures are inevitable in the experimentation process, we argue that conditions giving rise to psychological safety reduce fear of failure and promote experimentation. Based on this reasoning, we suggest that inconsistent organizational conditions - when some support experimentation and others do not - inhibit experimentation behaviors. An exploratory study in the field, followed by a laboratory experiment, found that individuals under high evaluative pressure were less likely to experiment when normative values and instrumental rewards were inconsistent in supporting experimentation. In contrast, individuals under low evaluative pressure responded to inconsistent conditions with increased experimentation. Our results suggest that evaluative pressure fundamentally alters an individual's experience of and response to uncertainty and that understanding experimentation behavior requires examining effects of multiple organizational conditions in combination.
This paper is concerned with defining organizational processes necessary to operate safely technologically complex organizations that can do great physical harm to themselves and their surrounding environments. The paper first argues that existing organizational research is little help in understanding organizational processes in such organizations It then identities nuclear powered aircraft earners as examples of potentially hazardous organizations with histories of excellent operations The paper then examines a set of components of "risk" identified by Perrow (1984) and antecedents to catastrophe elucidated by Shrivastava (1986) and discusses how carriers deal with these factors to lessen their potentially negative effects. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.
▪ Abstract In keeping with traditional sociological concerns about order and disorder, this essay addresses the dark side of organizations. To build a theoretical basis for the dark side as an integrated field of study, I review four literatures in order to make core ideas of each available to specialists in the others. Using a Simmelian-based case comparison method of analogical theorizing, I first consider sociological constructs that identify both the generic social form and the generic origin of routine nonconformity: how things go wrong in socially organized settings. Then I examine three types of routine nonconformity with adverse outcomes that harm the public: mistake, misconduct, and disaster produced in and by organizations. Searching for analogies and differences, I find that in common, routine nonconformity, mistake, misconduct, and disaster are systematically produced by the interconnection between environment, organizations, cognition, and choice. These patterns amplify what is known about so...
Knowledge of results plays a major role in almost all learning and motivational theories of task performance. Central to all these is the belief that it is necessary to feed back to employees information about the degree to which they have or have not met performance standards. In particular, information about performance that falls short of the standard (typically termed negative feedback) is a necessary but not sufficient condition for corrective action. However, reactions to negative feedback frequently do not produce the desired effect of improving performance even in cases where the person is capable of better performance. This article presents a model of negative feedback incorporating situational and individual characteristics that appear to impact motivation to respond to negative feedback.
La connaissance de re´sultats joue un rôle majeur dans la plupart des apprentissages et des motivations comme l’indiquent les the´ories de la performance a` la tâche. Leur est centrale la croyance qu’il est ne´cessaire de renvoyer aux employe´s un feedback relatif au degre´ avec lequel ils ont, ou non, accompli les standards de performance. En particulier, l’information relative a` la performance qui est en de c¸a des standards (appele´e typiquement feedback ne´gatif) est une condition ne´cessaire, mais non suffisante, pour une action corrective. Ne´anmoins, des re´actions aux feedbacks ne´gatifs ne produisent pas souvent l’effet de´sire´ d’une ame´lioration des performances, mêmes dan les cas ou la personne est capable d’une meilleure performance. Cet article pre´sente un mode`le de feedback ne´gatif qui incorpore des caracte´ristiques de l’individu et de la situation qui semblent avoir un impact sur une motivation a` re´pondre au feedback ne´gatif.
Tandis que l'étude des erreurs a apporté une importante contribution à notre compréhension de l'action humaine, l'évaluation de l'activité et la détection des lapsus ont été largement ignorées en psychologie. Dans cet article, j'examine les nombreuses manières dont les erreurs furent détectées dans un corpus de près de 600 lapsus et fautes quotidiennes recueillies dans une étude de journal intime. Utilisant cette collection, je propose une taxonomie théorique des modes de détection qui vise à décrire les manières selon lesquelles les individus réalisent leurs propres erreurs dans une large variété de tâches quotidiennes. Les erreurs sont classées depuis les échecs au niveau sensori-moteur, jusqu'aux trous de mémoire et erreurs de jugement. Le résultat aboutit à un cadre général, descriptif à l'intérieur duquel il est possible de ranger les mécanismes de détection selon trois grandes catégories: détection Fondée sur l'Action, détection Fondée sur les Résultats et enfin, détection à travers des Fontions Limitatives. La relation entre le type d'erreur et le mode de détection, les raisons d'un échec de détection et les implications pratiques de la recherche sont également proposés à la discussion.
On a étudié la détection des erreurs par les utilisateurs d'ordinateur à partir de la théorie de l'action. On a effectué, pour des raisons de validités externe et interne, à la fois une recherche sur le terrain et deux expériences de laboratoire exploitant un traitement de texte. La problématique portait sur le taux de détection de différents types d'erreurs, l'impact de la complexité de la tâche sur la détection des erreurs et la question de la détection programmée des erreurs. Les résultats débouchent sur un meilleur taux de détection (96,5%) dans la recherche de terrain (par rapport au taux obtenu dans les expériences). Les erreurs apparaissant dans les tâches complexes étaient plus difficiles à détecter. En outre, la moitié de la totalité des erreurs pouvaient être détectées par les seuls utilisateurs. Pas plus de 22% des erreurs étaient détectées avec l'aide du système informatique. Ce sont les erreurs dans les travaux complexes que la détection aidée par le système déjouait le plus difficilement. On propose, comme application pratique, une stratégie de gestion des erreurs qui ferait appel à un processus de traitement des erreurs relevant du software.
Error management training explicitly allows participants to make errors. We examined the effects of error management instructions (“rules of thumb” designed to reduce the negative emotional effects of errors), goal orientation (learning goal, prove goal, and avoidance goal orientations) and attribute x treatment interactions on performance. A randomized experiment with 87 participants consisting of 3 training procedures for learning to work with a computer program was conducted: (a) error training with error management instructions, (b) error training without error management instructions; and (c) a group that was prevented from making errors. Results showed that short-and medium-term performance (near and far transfer) was superior for participants of the error training that included error management instructions, compared with the two other training conditions. Thus, error management instructions were crucial for the high performance effects of error training. Prove and avoidance goal orientation interacted with training conditions.
The way in which humans detect their own errors has been a relatively neglected issue. The following study presents data on the relationship between types of errors and behavioural patterns of error detection, with the aim to define the psychological mechanism that allows the detection of errors. The results suggest that different kinds of psychological mechanisms are involved in the detection of different types of error. Effect of practice as a function of the distribution of attentional resources among levels of control of human behaviour is also discussed.
Two experiments examine how the identification of technology as a causal factor in an organizational accident influences judgments of organizational accountability. In study 1, organizations were found to be held less accountable for their actions when a misfortune was rooted in a computer error than when rooted in human error. The predicted mechanism for this effect, counterfactual thinking, was confirmed. Specifically, technologically induced accidents were found to generate fewer counterfactual thoughts of better possible outcomes than similar accidents resulting from human error. Study 2 replicated the findings of study 1 in a more natural setting and using a less intrusive measure for counterfactual thoughts.
It is now well recognized that employees can develop multiple work-relevant commitments, and that commitment itself is a multidimensional construct. Unfortunately, there remains considerable disagreement, both within and across work commitment literatures (e.g., organizational, occupational, union), about what commitment is, its dimensionality, how it develops, and how it affects behavior. We argue that commitment should have a “core essence” regardless of the context in which it is studied, and that it should therefore be possible to develop a general model of workplace commitment. We propose such a model based on the propositions that commitment (a) is a force that binds an individual to a course of action of relevance to a target and (b) can be accompanied by different mind-sets that play a role in shaping behavior. We demonstrate how this model helps to explain existing research findings and can serve as a guide for future research and for the management of workplace commitments.
Two approaches to the problem of human fallibility exist: the person and the system approaches. The person approach focuses on the errors of individuals, blaming them for forgetfulness, inattention, or moral weakness. The system approach concentrates on the conditions under which individuals work and tries to build defences to avert errors or mitigate their effects. High reliability organisations - which have less than their fair share of accidents - recognise that human variability is a force to harness in averting errors, but they work hard to focus that variability and are constantly preoccupied with the possibility of failure.
Drawing on an appraisal-tendency framework (J. S. Lerner & D. Keltner, 2000), the authors predicted and found that fear and anger have opposite effects on risk perception. Whereas fearful people expressed pessimistic risk estimates and risk-averse choices, angry people expressed optimistic risk estimates and risk-seeking choices. These opposing patterns emerged for naturally occurring and experimentally induced fear and anger. Moreover, estimates of angry people more closely resembled those of happy people than those of fearful people. Consistent with predictions, appraisal tendencies accounted for these effects: Appraisals of certainty and control moderated and (in the case of control) mediated the emotion effects. As a complement to studies that link affective valence to judgment outcomes, the present studies highlight multiple benefits of studying specific emotions.
NASA
Crew resource management (CRM) programs were developed to address team and leadership aspects of piloting modern airplanes. The goal is to reduce errors through team work. Human factors research and social, cognitive, and organizational psychology are used to develop programs tailored for individual airlines. Flight crews study accident case histories, group dynamics, and human error. Simulators provide pilots with the opportunity to solve complex flight problems. CRM in the simulator is called line-oriented flight training (LOFT). In automated cockpits CRM promotes the idea of automation as a crew member. Cultural aspects of aviation include professional, business, and national culture. The aviation CRM model has been adapted for training surgeons and operating room staff in human factors.