Learning from errors and error management in organizations: antecedents, processes, and outcomes
Final Report Abstract
Errors are ubiquitous and occur in all organizations. Although organizations typically seek to prevent errors, human error cannot be eliminated completely. It is, therefore, important for organizations to supplement their error prevention strategies with strategies that aim at an effective management of errors after they have occurred. Previous research has shown that effective strategies of error management, such as open communication about errors, quick error detection, and quick damage control, minimize negative error consequences and maximize positive ones, such as learning and innovation. In the present project, we aimed at building on this research and extending in various aspects. These included error characteristics that support learning as well as their interactions with person characteristics, performance effects of an error management culture in teams, and how to induce an error management culture. To explore our questions, we used a variety of methods, such as online vignette experiments, online and lab experiments with teams, training experiments with individuals, and survey-based field studies. We found that severity of error consequences increases learning from error, and that people learn more from errors made by themselves than from errors made by others. There are also individual and cross-cultural differences in learning from error. In our team studies, error management culture tended to be particularly beneficial for creative problem-solving tasks. We also found that inducing an error management culture in teams is much more difficult than expected but is possible with encouraging exploration and learning from error. These findings illuminate the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of error management and learning from error and they promote the development of effective interventions to induce error management culture in organizations which, in turn, may contribute to more safety and innovativeness in organizations.
Publications
- (2017, September 13-15). Error orientation across cultures: Evidence from the GLOBE-study. Industrial and Organizational Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society 10th conference, Dresden, Germany
Klamar, A., Horvath, D., Funken, R., Frese, M., & Keith, N.
- (2017, September 13-15). Ungenutztes Potenzial von Fehlern: Wovon hängt ab, wie viel wir aus ihnen lernen? [Unused potential of errors: What affects how much we learn from errors?]. Industrial and Organizational Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society 10th conference, Dresden, Germany
Horvath, D., Keith, N., Klamar, A., & Frese, M.
- (2018). The role of error management culture for firm and individual innovativeness. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 67(3), 428-453
Fischer, S., Frese, M., Mertins, J. C., & Hardt‐Gawron, J. V.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12129) - (2018, April 19-21). Learning from errors: Experimental evidence from the U.S., Germany, and Hungary. Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 33rd Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, USA
Horvath, D., Klamar, A., Keith, N., & Frese, M.
- (2018, August 10-14). Error management culture, communication, and team performance: A virtual lab study. In C. Seckler & P. Verdin (Chairs), Errors in organizations: Bridging research streams to explore new grounds. [Symposium]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, USA
Klamar, A., Horvath, D., & Keith, N.
- (2018, September 15-20). Der Effekt von Fehlermanagementkultur auf Teamleistung [The effect of error management culture on team performance]. In D. Horvath and A. Klamar (Chairs), Fehlermanagementkultur, Fehlerorientierung und Lernen aus Fehlern: Neue Erkenntnisse [Error management culture, error orientation, and learning from error: new findings] [Symposium]. German Psychological Society 51st congress, Frankfurt, Germany
Klamar, A., Horvath, D., Keith, N., & Frese, M.
- (2019, April 4-6). Comparing outcomes of errorrelated trainings – An experimental lab study . Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 34th Annual Conference, National Harbor, MD, USA
Klamar, A., Horvath, D., Keith, N., & Frese, M.
- (2019, May 29-June 01). Severity of error consequences and its effect on learning from errors. European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) 19th Congress, Turin, Italy
Klamar, A., Horvath, D., & Keith, N.
- (2019, September 25-27). Lernen aus Fehlern, aber wie? Ein Vergleich verschiedener Arten fehlerbezogener Trainings [Learning from errors, but how? A comparison of different types of error-related training] Industrial and Organizational Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society 11th conference, Braunschweig, Germany
Horvath, D., Klamar, A., Keith, N. & Frese, M.
- (2020). The more severe the merrier: Severity of error consequences stimulates learning from error. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 93(3), 712-737
Keith, N., Horvath, D., & Klamar, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12312) - (2020, June 16-30). How to induce error management culture: Experimental evidence from newly formed team Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 35th Annual Conference, Austin, TX, USA
Horvath, D., Klamar, A., Keith, N., & Frese, M.
- (2021). Are all errors created equal? Testing the effect of error characteristics on learning from errors in three countries. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(1), 110-124
Horvath, D., Klamar, A., Keith, N., & Frese, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2020.1839420)
