The serial mediating role of organizational justice and organizational silence in the relationship between error management culture and organizational learning: a research in aviation company

The aviation industry's complexity and reliance on human factors heighten error risks, necessitating robust error management. Sustaining safety requires transparent error reporting, learning from mistakes, implementing preventive measures, and fostering an organizational culture that leverages errors as learning opportunities. This study aims to analyze the relationship between error management culture and organizational learning and to evaluate the mediating roles of organizational justice and organizational silence. Within this scope, data were collected from employees working in a ground service company operating at Antalya Airport using structured scales and analyzed through the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling method. The findings indicate that an error management culture enhances perceptions of organizational justice and learning levels while reducing silence behaviors. Moreover, organizational justice and organizational silence act as serial mediators between error management culture and organizational learning. In this context, the study highlights that error management culture emerges as a strategic approach that promotes justice, minimizes silence, and supports an effective learning environment beyond mere error control.