Learning from errors: The role of context, emotion, and personality

This study examined the effect of negative emotionality on learning from errors and the underlying mechanisms. Specifically, negative emotionality was expected to impair learning from errors through the mediation mechanism of motivation to learn. Perceived managerial intolerance of errors was hypothesized to be positively associated with negative emotionality. In addition, emotional stability was proposed to be a moderator in the association between perceived managerial intolerance of errors and negative emotionality. Learning and performance goal orientation were theorized to be the moderators in the link between negative emotionality and motivation to learn.;All the hypotheses were tested in a laboratory simulation with 127 undergraduate students registered for two business courses. Participants were asked to perform two rounds of decision-making tasks as department managers at a furniture factory in a business simulation. Participants completed two questionnaires and their performance in the second task round was recorded as learning performance.;Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze data. The findings from this study suggest that negative emotionality does influence learning from errors. Contrary to the prediction, though, negative emotionality was found to stimulate motivation to learn and promote learning from errors. As predicted, perceived managerial intolerance of errors was positively related to negative emotionality. No moderator effects of emotional stability and goal orientation were found in this study. However, data supported the main effects of the three personality factors. In particular, emotional stability was negatively associated with negative emotionality. Learning and performance goal orientation were positively related to motivation to learn. Moreover, exploratory data analyses were conducted at the level of specific negative emotions and revealed differentiated effects of specific negative emotions on learning from errors. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the results of this study in terms of their implications for theory and practice on learning from errors.;Key Words: learning from errors; negative emotionality; perceived managerial intolerance; emotional stability; goal orientation; laboratory simulation; PLS.