Why should errors be tolerated? Perceived organizational support, organization-based self-esteem and psychological well-being

Purpose On the basis of conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a framework linking an organizational factor, organizational error tolerance, with employees’ psychological well-being through gains of psychological resources: perceived organizational support (POS) and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). Design/methodology/approach Across three-wave data collected from 220 hotel frontline employees, this study tests the proposed model using structural equation modeling through AMOS. Findings Employees’ perceived organizational error tolerance positively influenced their psychological well-being through significant sequential mediation effects of POS and OBSE. Practical implications This study contributes to the existing literature of psychological resources, positive psychology and error management by providing insights into how organizational practice in error situations can be positively related to employees’ psychological well-being. Originality/value This paper identifies error-related organizational practices as precursor of individual psychological well-being and explores the non-work-related outcome variable of error management for the first time. The examination of the linkage between organizational error tolerance and employees’ psychological well-being via the underlying mechanism of psychological resources provides the insight into how resources dynamics play important roles in influencing employees’ psychological well-being.