A model of leadership motivations, error management culture, leadership capacity, and career success

Abstract

We integrated ideas from literature on error management culture, leadership motivation, and career development to create several contributions for the research literature. First, we examined two situational factorserror management/aversion culture perceptionsthat affect employees' leadership-relevant motivations. Second, we distinguish between two types of leader motivations, motivation to lead (MTL) and motivation to develop leadership skills (MTDL). We offer evidence of discriminant and predictive validity of the two leadership motivations on key leadership processes and outcomes. Third, we tested a linkage model in which error management/aversion perceptions influenced leadership motivations (MTL and MTDL) and these motivations predicted leadership capacity and leader career success (i.e., promotions, increased leadership responsibility, and pay increases). Based upon multisource data collected from 151 employees and their supervisors from diverse occupations and organizations over a period of 1 year, we found that error management perceptions were positively associated with social-normative MTL (the motive to lead out of a sense of duty and obligation) and with MTDL whereas perceptions of error aversion were negatively related with affective-identity and noncalculative MTL. MTDL was distinguishable from MTL and demonstrated better predictive validity on leadership capacity and career success than MTL. We discuss a number of implications for both theory and practice. Practitioner PointsCreating a culture in which errors are constructively managed enhances leadership motivations, leadership capacity (leader behaviour, development, and potential), and career success. In managing leadership development and performance, distinguishing between motivation to be a leader and motivation to develop leadership skills is important, both in terms of how these motivations are influenced by error management and aversion and in terms of the how the motivations influence leadership capacity and success. Motive to lead out of a sense of duty is key.

Error Management Culture Scale: Translation and Validity of a Brazilian Version

“…The results of our analysis suggest that the Brazilian version of the EMCS has a one-factor structure, but can also be represented in terms of four facets. The structure we uncovered is in line with the findings of the original study of the EMCS by van Dyck et al (2005) and with other studies using the scale (Cigularov et al, 2010;Fruhen & Keith, 2014;Jung & Yoon, 2017;Maurer et al, 2017). The Cronbach's alpha indicated that the Brazilian version has good internal consistency.…”

“…Frese and Keith (2015), and van Dyck et al (2005) argued that organizations in which specific error management practices are pervasive are more likely to display competitive advantages, such as learning, resilience, and innovation. In addition, the development of an error management culture can help to increase the motivation and the capacity of the leadership, as well as contributing to the professional development and career success of employees (Maurer et al, 2017;Mourão, 2018).…”

“…They reported alpha coefficients (from 0.83 to 0.84), but no information about validity. Maurer et al (2017) used an abridged 15-item version of the EMCS, consisting of nine items on error management (alpha = 0.89) and six items on error aversion (alpha = 0.90). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of all scales used in the study indicated good fit indexes (CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.06).…”

“…The Error Management Culture Scale (EMCS) has been used abroad (Cigularov, Chen, & Rosecrance, 2010;Fischer, Frese, Mertins, & Hardt-Gawron, 2018;Fruhen & Keith, 2014;Jung & Yoon, 2017;Maurer, Hartnell, & Lippstreu, 2017;van Dyck et al, 2005;Wang, Guchait, Madera, & Pasamehmetoğlu, 2018). These studies demonstrated that error management culture promotes organizational and individual innovation (Fischer et al, 2018), safety behavior (Cigularov et al, 2010), social-normative motivation to lead, motivation to develop leadership skills (Maurer et al, 2017), job satisfaction (Jung & Yoon, 2017), manager trust and group efficacy (Wang et al, 2018) and good firm performance (van Dyck et al, 2005), and reduces work-related pain (Cigularov et al, 2010) and accident rates in low and high-risk situations (Fruhen & Keith, 2014). Mourão (2018), error management culture connected with leadership style and the professional development of subordinates.…”

Valores e entrincheiramento organizacional: um estudo em uma seguradora

“…Os valores pessoais revelam a disposição do indivíduo em atender a interesses coletivos e/ou individuais (Parks-Leduc, Feldman, & Bardi, 2015;Porto & Tamayo, 2008), bem como podem ser uma perspectiva de entendimento das inclinações individuais para terem um vínculo mais próximo com a carreira (Maurer, Hartnell, & Lippstreu, 2017) e com a organização (Blustein, 2013).…”