Is “Do it right the first time” necessarily right?: The importance of error management culture in the hospitality industry

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is threefold: first, to investigate the extent to which organizational error management culture impacts manager trust and group efficacy; second, to examine whether manager trust and group efficacy mediate the impact of error management culture on employee creativity; and third, to test whether manager trust and group efficacy mediate the impact of error management culture on employees’ organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach: Using a survey methodology, 345 front-line hotel employees in Turkey provided survey data. Amos 22.0 was used for data analysis. Findings: Three major findings emerge. First, error management culture was found to have a significant positive influence on manager trust and group efficacy. Second, manager trust and group efficacy mediated the relationship between error management culture and employee creativity. Third, manager trust and group efficacy were found to mediate the relationship between error management culture and employees’ organizational commitment. Practical implications: First, to promote employee creativity and their commitment to the organization, hotels need to cultivate an error management culture. Second, error management culture should be applied in hotels to build employee trust in their manager and boost their collective belief about group competency. Originality/value: This is the first study that identified employee creativity and organizational commitment as outcomes of organizational error management culture. This is also the first study that examined the mediating effects of manager trust and group efficacy which helps in understanding the underlying mechanisms linking error management culture and employee attitudes. The current study provides significant contributions to understanding error management.