Perceived Psychological Safety and Causal Attributions of Errors of Working Students: The Mediating Role of Error Orientation

Given that causal attributions of errors contain different motivational and behavioral implications for learning from errors, it is highly relevant for organizations to thoroughly understand the factors that promote functional attributions. This study set out to investigate whether perceived psychological safety is an antecedent of functional and dysfunctional causal attributions of errors and whether this association is mediated by error orientation. A total of 148 German and Swedish working students served as a convenience sample for the current cross-sectional survey study. Participants answered an online survey measuring their perception of psychological safety, error orientation, and causal attributions of errors. Partial correlation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression, and hierarchical binary logistic regression were performed to analyze the data. It was found that perceived psychological safety negatively predicted the orientation toward covering errors as well as the avoidant error orientation, whereas it did not predict the learning from errors orientation. No evidence of error orientation being related to causal attributions of errors, nor a direct or indirect link between perceived psychological safety and causal attributions was found. The results imply that organizations benefit from creating a psychologically safe work environment in that it reduces the counterproductive error orientations