Papers by Dorothee Horvath
Safety science, Sep 1, 2024
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Journal of Business and Psychology
An organizational climate of error management is associated with favorable organizational outcome... more An organizational climate of error management is associated with favorable organizational outcomes, including firm success, innovation, and safety. But how can an error management climate be induced? The present research used newly formed teams in a controlled setting as a model and tested the effect of two brief interventions on team climate and performance. In three-person teams, 180 participants worked on two team tasks that required communication and coordination, under 1 of 3 experimental conditions. Two of these were designed to induce an error management climate either indirectly, via the communication of social norms, or more directly, via explicit encouragement of experimentation and learning from errors. The third condition served as an error avoidant comparison group. In line with predictions, the climate induction increased processes of error management climate as perceived by teams, which in turn positively affected objectively measured team performance (mediation effec...
Frontiers in Psychology
Field studies indicate that error management culture can be beneficial for organizational perform... more Field studies indicate that error management culture can be beneficial for organizational performance. The question of whether and how error management culture can be induced remained unanswered. We conducted two experiments with newly formed teams, in which we aimed to induce error management culture and to explore whether we would also find beneficial effects of error management culture on performance in an experimental setting. Furthermore, we tested whether culture strength moderates the relationship between error management culture and performance. In Study 1, we used two tasks that require rational problem solving. In Study 2, we used a task that requires creative problem solving. We successfully manipulated error management culture in terms of an effect on perceived error management culture within the teams. While we did not find a direct effect of error management culture on performance, Study 2 revealed an indirect effect via communication in the teams. To our surprise, cul...
The topic of errors has received increasing attention in recent years. Most errors are easily cor... more 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 ...
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Errors can be a source of learning. However, little is known to what extent learning from errors ... more Errors can be a source of learning. However, little is known to what extent learning from errors depends on error characteristics and the context in which the error was made. We tested the assumption that more learning occurs from errors with severe consequences and when the error was made by oneself. We further investigated if and how learning from errors and organizational error culture differs between countries. In two vignette studies (Study 1, N = 118 from the United States; Study 2, N = 588 from the United States, Hungary, and Germany), participants responded to error scenarios that happened to employees at work. As expected, people learned more from errors in terms of affective error learning (Studies 1 and 2) and cognitive error learning (Study 1) if consequences were severe and if the error was made by themselves. Furthermore, we found differences between countries (Study 2) in that participants from the United States learned more from errors and reported more error management culture than participants from Hungary or Germany. Furthermore, the relationship of country and learning was mediated by error management culture. With our studies, we aim to contribute to a better exploitation of the learning potential inherent in errors.
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Errors at work can lead to learning but little is known about error attributes and person attribu... more Errors at work can lead to learning but little is known about error attributes and person attributes that make learning more or less likely. This research tested the role of severity of error consequences (error attribute) and trait negative affectivity (person attribute) for learning from error. In two experimental vignette studies, participants responded to written error scenarios that typically happen to university students (Study 1, N = 216) or to employees at work (Study 2, N = 121). In support of the view that error consequences need to be severe enough to attract attention, severity of error consequences increased both affective learning (perceived utility of the error; Studies 1 and 2) and cognitive learning (correctly recalled error scenarios; Study 2). In both studies, trait negative affectivity was associated with decreased affective learning when error consequences were severe (interaction effect). The results suggest that some errors at workat least errors with minor consequencesmay not receive much attention and are easily forgotten. To fully exploit learning opportunities, organizations should give attention to all errors and take them seriously, irrespective of severity of immediate error consequences.
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Papers by Dorothee Horvath