Learning From Errors:A Comparative Study Based On The Different Sources Of Errors

Due to the rapid changing nature of business environment,errors are inevitable in most organizations.Since errors will reduce the replicability of own correct experiences and the transferability of vicarious correct experiences,learning from errors is critical for the survival,development and success of organizations,which is particularly desirable in today's challenging work environment.Over the last decade,although some scholars have come to realize the importance of learning from errors and pay more and more attention to this problem,most of the current studies are focused on organization level,in the individual level,learning from errors is still mixed with the general learning behavior,need further clarification and explanation.Employees are the ultimate implementer of the organizational learning,as well as the initial force of exploration and innovation.The deep and comprehensive understanding of employee's learning from errors in organizations is essential.Social learning theory suggested that employees can learn from different sources.However,the limited nature of the individual cognitive resources will force employees to make choices between different learning resources.From whose errors should employees learn?Are there any distinctions in mechanisms and outcomes of learning from different sources?Aiming at filling this gap in current research,this study focuses on the problem of employee's learning from errors and compares the different effects and mechanisms between learning from own errors and learning from colleague's errors.Furthermore,this study also examines the relationships between employee's learning form errors,employee creativity and inclusive leadership.The questionnaire survey method was used in this study and data were collected from two samples,one is from employees of a bank and another is from employees from common companies.Two basis questions are solved:the first question is that is there any differences in the impact of learning from errors of different sources on employee creativity level and is there interaction effect between these two types of learning behaviors?The second question is that what's the effect of inclusive leadership on employee's learning from errors and what's the difference of internal mechanisms through which inclusive leadership exerted influences on two learning behaviors.Furthermore,we also explored the boundary conditions of the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee learning from errors as well as the intermediate role of learning from errors between inclusive leadership and employee creativity.The results of the first study indicated that employee's learning from own errors were conducive to incremental creativity,while employee's leaning from colleague's errors were conducive to radical creativity.Moreover,employee's learning from own errors moderated the impact of learinging from collegues' errors on radical creativity.The results of the second study showed that inclusive leadership affected employee's learning from own errors through its influence on employee's feedback seeking from colleagues,and affected employee's learning from colleague's errors through its influence on both feedback seeking from and voice to colleagues;Task variability would intensify the positive impact of inclusive leadership on employee's learning from both own(through feedback seeking from collegues)and colleague's(through voicing to collegues)errors.The results of the third study demonstrated the mediating role of employee's learning from own and colleagues' errors between the relationship of inclusive leadership and incremental and radical creativity respectively.Our findings extend existing research in several important ways.(1)Drawing on the organization and social learning theories,this study differentiates the types of employee's learning from errors based on the sources of errors,thus goes beyond previous assumption that learning from errors is same with learning from own errors,further clarifies the connotation of employee's learning from errors.(2)Integrating the achievements of creativity literatures,this study compares and elucidates the respective and joint effects of learning from errors of different sources on employee's incremental and radical creativity,highlights the inner differences between learning from own and colleague's errors,and also provides direct empirical evidence for the two-dimensions of creativity as well as the relationship between learning from errors and creativity.(3)Based on the perspective of interpersonal interaction,this study integrates feedback seeking and voice literatures and reveals the distinctive mechanisms of learning from own and colleague's errors under the influence of inclusive leadership,extends that theoretical explanation of the intermediary process between leadership and employee behaviors,and also advances our understanding of the mechanisms through which inclusive leadership exerts its influence on employee's learning from own and colleague's errors.(4)This study enriches our knowledge about the boundary conditions of the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee's learning from errors by investigating the moderating role of task variability,thus deepens our understanding of the situation in which inclusive leadership influences employee's learning from errors.Practically,the results of this study also provide employees with guidance as how to learn from different sources of errors,and provide organizations with guidance as how to manage employee's learning from errors and motivate employee's creativity.