Error Management Climate as a Driver of Employee Innovation Behavior: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment
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Abstract
Background/problem: Organizations increasingly recognize that innovation depends not only on formal R&D investments but also on individual employees’ innovative behaviors. However, the organizational conditions that foster such behaviors remain incompletely understood.
Objective/purpose: This study explores the relationship between the error management climate and innovation behavior among junior employees in China’s small and medium-sized game software development enterprises by collecting data from these employees, with psychological empowerment as a mediating mechanism.
Design and Methodology: Drawing on error management theory, psychological empowerment theory, and innovation research, this study developed and tested a mediation model using survey data from 479 junior employees in China. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap mediation analysis were employed to test the hypothesized relationships.
Results: Learning from errors showed the largest indirect effect on innovation behavior through psychological empowerment (indirect effect = .08, 95% CI [.03, .14], p = .00). Thinking about errors also demonstrated a significant indirect effect (0.06, 95% CI [.03, .11], p = .00). Error competence (0.07, 95% CI [0.03, 0.13], p = .00) and error communication (0.05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.11], p = .01) both showed significant indirect effects despite their non-significant direct effects.
Conclusion and Implications: These findings highlight the psychological mechanisms through which an organizational atmosphere that tolerates errors promotes innovation, and indicate that enterprises should create a tolerance-for-errors environment to enhance the empowerment and innovative behavior of junior employees, especially those who may be more sensitive to the signals of the organizational atmosphere.
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