The Relationship between Error Reporting and Reporters' Psychological Well-beings: Based on Secret Revealing Framework

Abstract

Abstract: Errors are defined as employees' deviations from work goals or standards; after error commission, employees are more likely to hide than to reveal their personal errors. As such, our study treats errors as workplace secrets. Applying the secret revealing framework, we propose that error reporting can reduce employees' error-related anxiety and rumination, which can ultimately enhance their psychological well-beings. Furthermore, with the incorporation of error literature, we propose that error severity works as the boundary condition to affect the above relationships. We test our hypotheses with a field study (N₁=449) and an experimental design (N₂=120). Results show that error reporting is negatively related to error-related anxiety and rumination; error reporting is positively related with psychological well-being via the reduction of error-related rumination; error severity moderates the above direct and indirect effects to make the relationships stronger under high error severity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Key words: error reporting, secret revealing, error-related anxiety, error-related rumination, error severity

Zhang Kaili, Wang Yumei, Tang Ningyu. The Relationship between Error Reporting and Reporters' Psychological Well-beings: Based on Secret Revealing Framework[J]. Management Review, 2023, 35(8): 209-220.

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