From the error as a negative event to the error as an organizational learning system in complex organizations

The current thesis intends to deepen the role of errors in the organizational field, viewed as an informational feedback which can contribute to the improvement of perform-ance, to the effective managing of the negative consequences of errors and highlighting new ways to organize and realize the work. The current dissertation tests this new conceptualiza-tion of error in the organizational settings, especially in the complex organizations. The first study, carried out on cross cultural Italian sample, explored the validity of the Error Culture scale. Results confirmed the validity, uniqueness, and generalizability of the EC scale and its influence on several outcomes, namely organizational performance, in-novativeness, errors made. The second study, conducted among hospital workers, tested an overall model in-cluding antecedents (trustworthiness) and a series of outcomes (organizational performance, innovativeness, errors made). The tested model confirmed the influence of trustworthiness on the error culture and the mediating role of error culture dimensions on the outcomes. The third study, among the safety and professional staff of the Italian civil aviation au-thority, deepened the error aversion culture model in a high complexity organization, enriching it with the inclusion of the leadership variables in the error aversion reduction. Results confirmed the hypothesized model regarding the influence of leadership styles and organizational culture dimensions on the aversion approach to individual errors. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed for each of the three studies here presented