Error management culture: impact on cohesion, stress, and turnover intentions

Abstract

An error management culture involves organizational practices related to communicating about errors, sharing error knowledge, quickly detecting and handling errors, and helping in error situations. Building on error management research, this study examined the influence of organizational error management culture on the turnover intentions of frontline service employees. The study also investigated the underlying mechanism that links this culture with turnover intentions. Data were collected from 345 frontline employees of hotels in Turkey. Structural Equation Modeling results revealed that employee perceptions of organizational error management culture have a direct and significantly negative impact on their turnover intentions. Furthermore, results showed that this relationship is mediated through perceived group cohesion and work stress. Using the job demands-resources model as a theoretical framework, this study revealed that organizational error management culture leads to increased group cohesion; increased group cohesion lowers work stress; and lower work stress lowers turnover intentions. This study contributes to the services management literature by demonstrating how organizational error management culture impacts employee turnover intentions.