Hospitality organizations are faced with the possibility of errors every day, writes Priyanko Guchait of the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. But organizations that value growth, change, experimentation, innovation, and learning – that is, entrepreneurial companies as opposed to bureaucratic companies – tend to have more positive attitudes towards errors. He explains in The Hotel Yearbook's upcoming edition on Talent Development how to assess employees' error management skills.

"To err is human, to forgive is divine." The famous quote by Alexander Pope, an English poet known for his satirical style, is in fact ironic when related to the hospitality industry. Individuals often do not forget the errors which occur as part of their overall guest experience.

Hospitality organizations are faced with the possibility of errors every day and are very familiar with the negative consequences these can produce, such as stress, accidents, loss of time, faulty products, quality and performance problems, negative word-of-mouth, customer dissatisfaction, increased costs, and loss of revenue. Therefore, taking a proactive approach to mitigate these is often attempted in organizations by the use of sophisticated technologies, rigid systems, and strict policies focused on controlling employee behavior. However, the truth is that total elimination of errors is impossible. Although it is difficult to predict what (when) specific errors will occur, they will occur once in a while. In hospitality organizations, however, often times errors occur because of the very nature of the work (high work load, time pressure, and fatigue). Errors may also occur through no fault of an individual, but still the individual may be responsible to resolve the error. Errors can happen anywhere in a hospitality organization: external errors involving customers – both front of house (e.g. servers placing wrong orders), back of house (cooks overcooking meat) – and internal errors involving employees, managers, and department (errors in accounts, finance, and HR departments). Therefore, it is important that organizations not only focus on error prevention but also on error management (i.e., ask the question – what needs to be done after an error has occurred). Error management is an approach that attempts to deal with errors and their consequences after an error has occurred.

Error management is a strategy that focuses on minimizing the negative consequences of errors by early detection and quick error correction, and on preventing similar errors in the future by analyzing the causes of and learning from errors. Research has made it clear that error management in fact predicts organizational performance. Open communication about errors is the most important error management practice, allowing for the development of shared understanding about errors, potential error situations, and effective error handling strategies. This methodology also results in quick error detection and makes it possible to receive help from others in these situations. All these factors result in quick, smooth, and well-coordinated error handling.

Thus, error management is crucial for organizational effectiveness and success, as this approach focuses on decreasing negative consequences (e.g. time loss) and increase positive consequences (e.g. learning and innovation). Organizations which use this approach need to make sure that their employees possess error management skills, as individuals play an active role in the error management approach.

One way to make sure that the employees are effective in individual error management is to assess their error management skills (error orientation). The goal is for employees not to panic, get stressed, blame others, or freeze as errors occur but to correct errors quickly and effectively, learn from the situation, share information so others can learn, and seek feedback and help in error situations.

Therefore, it is important to assess how an individual copes and thinks about errors at work. An individual's error management skills can be assessed by asking questions that focus on eight categories:

  1. Error competence: Do they have the knowledge and ability to deal with errors immediately, when they occur, and reduce error consequences?
  2. Learning from errors: Do they have the ability to prevent errors in the long term by learning from them, planning, and changing work processes?
  3. Error risk taking: Do they risk making mistakes in order to try something new and innovative? Do they have the flexibility and openness toward errors? Do they have an achievement-oriented attitude? Do they take responsibility despite negative consequences?
  4. Error strain: Do they get stressed when errors occur? Do they fear the occurrence of errors and react to errors with high emotions?
  5. Error anticipation: Do they anticipate errors? Do they have a realistic view that errors will occur once in a while in their work? Do they have the ability to foresee potential errors? Do they have a positive attitude to errors (i.e. errors provide important information that can result in learning and innovation)?
  6. Covering up errors: Do they cover up errors? Do they consider errors as a threat?
  7. Error communication: Do they share error information with others so that they do not make similar errors? Do they ask for help and feedback in error situations?
  8. Error analysis: Do they think about errors? Do they think how the error could have been prevented? Do they think how to correct the error effectively?

Organizations that value growth, change, experimentation, innovation, and learning (entrepreneurial companies as opposed to bureaucratic companies) tend to have more positive attitudes towards errors and are more likely to use the error management approach. Thus, hospitality organizations that value this approach can introduce the issue of errors and error management in their selection procedures. Error management skills can be assessed during the selection process – either by using the self-reported individual error management questionnaire, or by developing situational and behavioral interview questions around the eight categories. Additionally, training programs (awareness and skill-building) can be designed (using training methods such as role playing and simulation) to develop employees' error management skills. Assessing and developing an individual's error management skills is important as it may have an impact on an employees' job performance, organizational performance, and customer/client satisfaction.