ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (7): 1149-1162.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2021.01149

• Conceptual Framework • Previous Articles     Next Articles

When will employees report their errors? A perspective from secret revealing framework

ZHANG Kaili1, YIN Kui2, TANG Ningyu3,4   

  1. 1School of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China;
    2School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China;
    3Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200030, China;
    4School of Management, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
  • Received:2020-06-30 Online:2021-07-15 Published:2021-05-24

Abstract: Errors are not rare in organizations. However, error detection as the initial and key step of error correction has received limited attention. Focusing on employees' proactive error reporting behavior, this study attempts to examine factors that contribute to employees' error reporting behavior. Drawing upon the secret revealing framework, we propose that two error characteristics error severity and error visibility, have positive relationships with employees' anxiety, rumination, and felt obligation to report, all three of which have positive relationships with error reporting. Thus, anxiety, rumination, and felt obligation mediate the positive relationships between error characteristics and error reporting. Employees' personal characteristics, leadership behavior, and team climate were further proposed to moderate the relationships between error characteristics and employees' anxiety, rumination, and felt obligation to report as well as the indirect relationships between error characteristics and error reporting behavior via anxiety, rumination, and felt obligation to report.

Key words: error reporting, secret revealing, error severity, error visibility, multilevel framework

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