Error management as a specific strain buffer for cognitive demands
通过两项实地研究，发现高错误管理能消除认知需求与压力之间的正向关系，但对工作量无效，为组织减轻认知压力提供了具体手段。
Cognitive demands are increasingly prevalent in today’s complex work environments. With research having established that cognitive demands lead to strain, we introduce and test error management as a strain buffer for cognitive demands. We examined our theoretical model with two field studies. Across both studies, we found that when error management was low, cognitive demands were positively related to strain, while the relationship between cognitive demands and strain vanished when error management was high. This interaction was unique for cognitive demands, as error management did not influence strain in response to workload. Errors in cognitively demanding tasks were seen as more internal, but more controllable and less stable than errors when working with high workloads. Yet, we could not find error management influencing error attributions as we assumed to be the underlying theoretical mechanism. In sum, we suggest error management as a tangible mean by which organizations and employees can mitigate the strain-inducing effect of cognitive demands, which needs further research to be better understood.