title: Learning from Errors and Error Management Culture in Teams
Creators: name: Horvath, Dorothee
Publisher: name: UNSPECIFIED
Year: 2020

description: The topic of errors has received increasing attention in recent years. Most errors are easily corrected, however, some of them result in severe negative consequences, such as extensive economic or societal damage, or even the loss of lives. The negative connotation one has when thinking about errors is therefore not surprising. Errors, however, can even have positive consequences, such as innovation, performance, or learning. It is widely acknowledged that errors can be a rich source of learning. Nevertheless, little is known about which errors prompt learning the most. We believe that the extent of learning from errors depends, among others, on error characteristics and the context in which the error was made. In particular, we propose that more learning from errors occurs when error consequences are severe (as opposed to mild), when the error was made by oneself (as opposed to someone else), and when more error management culture is experienced. We also expect differences between countries in learning from error. In Chapter 2 of this dissertation, we focus on the role of error characteristics in learning from errors. To test whether the amount of learning from errors depends on the severity of error consequences and the agent who made the error, we conducted two vignette experiments (Study 1, N = 121 from Germany; Study 2, N = 118 from the United States) in which participants responded to error scenarios that happen to employees at work. As expected, people learned more from errors in terms of affective error learning (self-reports) and cognitive error learning (recall of error situations) if consequences were severe (Study 1 and Study 2) and if the error was made by themselves (Study 1). In Chapter 3 of this dissertation, we sought to replicate the results we found in Chapter 2 and extend them by investigating the role of contextual factors in learning from errors (only affective error learning). For this purpose, we conducted vignette experiments in the United States, Germany, and Hungary (N = 588). We found that more affective learning from errors occurred when more error management culture was experienced. Furthermore, we found differences between countries in affective learning from errors such that participants from the United States learned more from errors than participants from Hungary or Germany. This relationship was mediated by error management culture. We were also able to replicate the results regarding severity of error consequences and agent (who made the error). In Chapter 4 of this dissertation, we shift the focus from the individual to the team and investigate whether error management culture not only benefits learning from errors (as shown in Chapter 3), but also performance-related outcomes. In particular, we conducted an experiment with teams (N = 180 participants (60 triads)), in which we sought to replicate the pattern of results concerning error management culture and performance found in previous field studies. Furthermore, we aimed to induce an error management culture. We were able to induce an error management culture by fostering a positive view on errors and exploration. We also found error management culture to benefit performance in a creative problem-solving task. However, the effects of our manipulations persisted over time only when culture strength (i.e., agreement about culture between group members) was high. With our studies, we aim to contribute to a better exploitation of the rich information inherent in errors. Our insights can be used as a starting point to develop interventions that aim at improving the way people deal with errors in organizations, as well as to raise attention to the importance of culture specific issues.