Measuring organizational learning from errors: Development and validation of an integrated model and questionnaire

Abstract

Errors are an inevitable by-product of human labour. Therefore, organizational learning from errors should be regarded as a strategic goal of HR development. Despite a large number of studies on organizational learning from errors, a thorough understanding of error-related learning processes at work is still missing. In the present article, we present the results of a literature review that was used to derive an integrated model of organizational learning processes in the consequence of errors and to develop the questionnaire to assess the error-related learning climate in organizations. The questionnaire was evaluated on a sample of 383 employees of two companies. Confirmatory factor analyses support the suggested structure of error-related learning climate. Further analyses stress the relevance of constructive error handling in organizations by revealing substantial links between error-related learning climate and the effectiveness of error learning, self-perceptions and error-related behaviours of team members, as well as group cohesion and certain aspects of team performance.