Psychological Safety in Teams

Is yours a learning organization?

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

An organization with a strong learning culture faces the unpredictable deftly. However, a concrete method for understanding precisely how an institution learns and for identifying specific steps to help it learn better has remained elusive. A new survey instrument from professors Garvin and Edmondson of Harvard Business School and assistant professor Gino of Carnegie Mellon University allows you to ground your efforts in becoming a learning organization. The tool's conceptual foundation is what the authors call the three building blocks of a learning organization. The first, a supportive learning environment, comprises psychological safety, appreciation of differences, openness to new ideas, and time for reflection. The second, concrete learning processes and practices, includes experimentation, information collection and analysis, and education and training. These two complementary elements are fortified by the final building block: leadership that reinforces learning. The survey instrument enables a granular examination of all these particulars, scores each of them, and provides a framework for detailed, comparative analysis. You can make comparisons within and among your institution's functional areas, between your organization and others, and against benchmarks that the authors have derived from their surveys of hundreds of executives in many industries. After discussing how to use their tool, the authors share the insights they acquired as they developed it. Above all, they emphasize the importance of dialogue and diagnosis as you nurture your company and its processes with the aim of becoming a learning organization. The authors' goal--and the purpose of their tool--is to help you paint an honest picture of your firm's learning culture and of the leaders who set its tone.

Reaping the benefits of task conflict in teams: The critical role of team psychological safety climate.

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Past research suggests that task conflict may improve team performance under certain conditions; however, we know little about these specific conditions. On the basis of prior theory and research on conflict in teams, we argue that a climate of psychological safety is one specific context under which task conflict will improve team performance. Using evidence from 117 project teams, the present research found that psychological safety climate moderates the relationship between task conflict and performance. Specifically, task conflict and team performance were positively associated under conditions of high psychological safety. The results support the conclusion that psychological safety facilitates the performance benefits of task conflict in teams. Theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Learning behaviours in the workplace: The role of high‐quality interpersonal relationships and psychological safety

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract Organizational learning is an important means for improving performance. Learning is a process, that is, often relational in the sense of relying on interactions between people to determine what needs improving and how to do it. This study addresses the question of how the quality of work relationships facilitates learning behaviours in organizations through the ways it contributes to psychological safety. Data collected from 212 part‐time students who hold full‐time jobs in organizations operating in a wide variety of industries show that capacities of high‐quality relationships (measured at time 1) are positively associated with psychological safety, which, in turn, are related to higher levels of learning behaviours (measured at time 2). The results also show that experiences of high‐quality relationships (measured at time 1) are both directly and indirectly (through psychological safety) associated with learning behaviours (measured at time 2). These findings shed light on the importance of quality relationships in the workplace for cultivating and developing perceptions of psychological safety and ultimately learning behaviours in organizations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Employee Voice and Silence

Sat, 04 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

When employees voluntarily communicate suggestions, concerns, information about problems, or work-related opinions to someone in a higher organizational position, they are engaging in upward voice. When they withhold such input, they are displaying silence and depriving their organization of potentially useful information. In this article, I review the current state of knowledge about the factors and motivational processes that affect whether employees engage in upward voice or remain silent when they have concerns or relevant information to share. I also review the research findings on the organizational and individual effects of employee voice and silence. After presenting an integrated model of antecedents and outcomes, I offer some potentially fruitful questions for future research.

The Influence of Psychological Safety and Confidence in Knowledge on Employee Knowledge Sharing

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This research empirically examines the influence of psychological safety on knowledge sharing among coworkers in manufacturing and service operations contexts. Reconciling conflicting findings in the literature, we demonstrate that whereas psychological safety is an important antecedent of knowledge sharing, the relationship between psychological safety and knowledge sharing is moderated by the level of confidence that employees have in what they know. The greater this confidence, the lesser is the importance of psychological safety in facilitating knowledge sharing. Linking this result to social network theory, we find that psychological safety increases with the frequency of communication among coworkers and that the confidence of employees in their knowledge is related to the codifiability of the knowledge involved. We further investigate direct and indirect antecedents of psychological safety. This research offers insights into actions that managers can take to enhance psychological safety and, consequently, motivate their employees to share knowledge.

Thick as thieves: The effects of ethical orientation and psychological safety on unethical team behavior.

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The purpose of this study was to uncover compositional and emergent influences on unethical behavior by teams. Results from 126 teams indicated that the presence of a formalistic orientation within the team was negatively related to collective unethical decisions. Conversely, the presence of a utilitarian orientation within the team was positively related to both unethical decisions and behaviors. Results also indicated that the relationship between utilitarianism and unethical outcomes was moderated by the level of psychological safety within the team, such that teams with high levels of safety were more likely to engage in unethical behaviors. Implications are discussed, as well as potential directions for future research.

Speaking up in ad hoc multiteam systems: Individual-level effects of psychological safety, status, and leadership within and across teams

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Speaking up in high-risk organizations plays a pivotal role in the mitigation of errors and can make the difference between life and death. To date, speaking up has been studied mostly within teams. However, many high-risk organizations rely on the effective collaboration across teams in ad hoc multiteam systems (MTS). This study widens the scope of research from teams to MTS and empirically compares the mechanisms involved in speaking up within versus across teams in ad hoc MTS-aircrews. In a sample of 1490 aircrew members of a European airline, we found that crewmembers’ individual level perceptions of psychological safety mediated both the relationship between status and speaking up and between perceived leader inclusiveness and speaking up within teams. Across teams, however, psychological safety and leader inclusiveness—as perceived by pursers in their role as boundary spanners—showed no effect. Instead, it was pursers’ within-team perceptions of psychological safety that mediated between status and speaking up across teams. Teams in ad hoc MTS may thus serve as safe harbours supporting their members also in interactions across team boundaries. Implications of findings for research on MTS and practical recommendations to improve speaking up within and across teams in ad hoc MTS are discussed.

Innovation is not enough: climates for initiative and psychological safety, process innovations, and firm performance

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract This paper contributes to the discussion on contingencies of process innovations by focusing on and introducing organizational‐level constructs of climate for initiative and psychological safety. We argue that process innovations, defined as deliberate and new organizational attempts to change production and service processes, need to be accompanied by climates that complement the adoption and implementation of such innovations. Our study of 47 mid‐sized German companies examines the relation between process innovations, climates for initiative and psychological safety, and firm performance. Results show that climates for initiative and psychological safety were positively related to two measures of firm performance—longitudinal change in return on assets (holding prior return on assets constant) and firm goal achievement—and moderated the relation between process innovations and firm performance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Mixed Effects of Inconsistency on Experimentation in Organizations

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT

This paper examines how the inconsistency of organizational conditions affects people's willingness to engage in experimentation, a behavior integral to innovation. Because failures are inevitable in the experimentation process, we argue that conditions giving rise to psychological safety reduce fear of failure and promote experimentation. Based on this reasoning, we suggest that inconsistent organizational conditions—when some support experimentation and others do not—inhibit experimentation behaviors. An exploratory study in the field, followed by a laboratory experiment, found that individuals under high evaluative pressure were less likely to experiment when normative values and instrumental rewards were inconsistent in supporting experimentation. In contrast, individuals under low evaluative pressure responded to inconsistent conditions with increased experimentation. Our results suggest that evaluative pressure fundamentally alters an individual's experience of and response to uncertainty and that understanding experimentation behavior requires examining effects of multiple organizational conditions in combination.

Leader personality traits and employee voice behavior: Mediating roles of ethical leadership and work group psychological safety.

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership were examined in a study of 894 employees and their 222 immediate supervisors in a major financial institution in the United States. The leader personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness were positively related to direct reports' ratings of the leader's ethical leadership, whereas neuroticism was unrelated to these ratings. Ethical leadership influenced followers' voice behavior as rated by followers' immediate supervisors. This relationship was partially mediated by followers' perceptions of psychological safety. Implications for research on ethical leadership and means to enhance ethical behavior among leaders and nonleaders are discussed.

Making it safe: the effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract This paper introduces the construct of leader inclusiveness —words and deeds exhibited by leaders that invite and appreciate others' contributions. We propose that leader inclusiveness helps cross‐disciplinary teams overcome the inhibiting effects of status differences, allowing members to collaborate in process improvement. The existence of a professional hierarchy in medicine and the differential status accorded to those in different disciplines is well established in the health care literature, as is the need for quality improvement. We build on this foundation to suggest that profession‐derived status is positively associated with psychological safety (H1)—a key antecedent of speaking up and learning behavior—in health care teams. We hypothesize that this effect varies across teams (H2), and furthermore, that leader inclusiveness predicts psychological safety (H3) and moderates the relationship between status and psychological safety (H4). Finally, we suggest psychological safety predicts engagement in quality improvement work (H5) and mediates the relationship between leader inclusiveness and engagement (H6). Survey data collected in 23 neonatal intensive care units involved in quality improvement projects support our hypotheses. These results provide insight into antecedents of and strategies for fostering improvement efforts in health care and other sectors in which cross‐disciplinary teams engage in collaborative learning to improve products or services. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Effects of Threat Sensitivity and Face Giving on Dyadic Psychological Safety and Upward Communication1

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The tendency for individuals in organizational hierarchies to fail to communicate negatively valenced information has been well documented, but the psychological mechanisms behind the phenomenon have not. With the increasing emphasis on organizational transparency, the need to understand why organizational participants regularly fail to transfer critical task-relevant information is pressing. Two measures of how individuals give (face giving) and react to (threat sensitivity) negatively valenced information are developed and are shown to significantly affect upward communication. These effects are mediated by 2 dyadic psychological safety constructs based on Edmondson's (1999) team psychological safety construct. Self psychological safety mediated the effect of supervisor face giving on admission of errors and help seeking, and other psychological safety mediated the effect of supervisor face giving and supervisor threat sensitivity on the likelihood that a subordinate will raise disagreement, give candid feedback, and point out errors to a supervisor.

Transformational Leadership and Creative Problem‐Solving: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety and Reflexivity

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract Previous research has pointed to the importance of transformational leadership in facilitating employees' creative outcomes. However, the mechanism by which transformational leadership cultivates employees' creative problem‐solving capacity is not well understood. Drawing on theories of leadership, information processing and creativity, we proposed and tested a model in which psychological safety and reflexivity mediate the effect of transformational leadership and creative problem‐solving capacity. The results of survey data collected at three points in time indicate that transformational leadership facilitates the development of employees' creative problem‐solving capacity by shaping a climate of psychological safety conducive to reflexivity processes. However, the findings also indicate that psychological safety is related both directly and indirectly, through reflexivity, to employees' creative problem‐solving capacity. This study sheds further light on the ways in which transformational leaders help to develop and cultivate employees' capacity for creative problem‐solving.

Managing diversity at work: Does psychological safety hold the key to racial differences in employee performance?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Previous diversity research has neglected the role of psychological mechanisms that underlie the relationship between diversity climate and employee performance. Drawing on social and racial identity theories, we hypothesized that psychological safety mediates the relationship between diversity climate and employee performance. Furthermore, we proposed that race moderates both stages of the mediation, whereby the relationships between diversity climate and psychological safety and between psychological safety and performance are stronger for minorities than for W hites. Results, based on a survey of employees and their colleagues, revealed that the relationship between diversity climate and employee performance was mediated by psychological safety. We also found that the diversity climate–psychological safety and psychological safety–extra‐role performance relationships were moderated by race, such that these relationships were stronger for minorities than for W hites. Further, the indirect effects of diversity climate on extra‐role behaviours via psychological safety were also moderated by race, such that these relationships were stronger for minorities than for W hites. For efficient management of diversity in organizations, research and practical implications are also discussed. Practitioner Points In the midst of increasing workforce diversity, the study highlights the importance of a psychologically safe work environment where employees feel confident in expressing their true selves without fear of being judged as inferior or incompetent. By necessitating the creation of psychologically safe work environments, the study establishes psychological safety as a principal motivator of employee performance behaviours in a racially diverse work setting. The study cautions organizational practitioners that when dealing with racial diversity, one size does not fit all. Rather, positive organizational contexts (such as diversity climate and psychological safety) hold a greater significance for minorities and are more effective in shaping their performance behaviours.

Cognition-based and affect-based trust as mediators of leader behavior influences on team performance.

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We develop a model in which cognitive and affective trust in the leader mediate the relationship between leader behavior and team psychological states that, in turn, drive team performance. The model is tested on a sample of 191 financial services teams in Hong Kong and the U.S. Servant leadership influenced team performance through affect-based trust and team psychological safety. Transformational leadership influenced team performance indirectly through cognition-based trust. Cognition-based trust directly influenced team potency and indirectly (through affect-based trust) influenced team psychological safety. The effects of leader behavior on team performance were fully mediated through the trust in leader variables and the team psychological states. Servant leadership explained an additional 10% of the variance in team performance beyond the effect of transformational leadership. We discuss implications of these results for research on the relationship between leader behavior and team performance, and for efforts to enhance leader development by combining knowledge from different leadership theories.

Fair and Just Culture, Team Behavior, and Leadership Engagement: The Tools to Achieve High Reliability

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

BACKGROUND: Disparate health care provider attitudes about autonomy, teamwork, and administrative operations have added to the complexity of health care delivery and are a central factor in medicine's unacceptably high rate of errors. Other industries have improved their reliability by applying innovative concepts to interpersonal relationships and administrative hierarchical structures (Chandler 1962). In the last 10 years the science of patient safety has become more sophisticated, with practical concepts identified and tested to improve the safety and reliability of care. OBJECTIVE: Three initiatives stand out as worthy regarding interpersonal relationships and the application of provider concerns to shape operational change: The development and implementation of Fair and Just Culture principles, the broad use of Teamwork Training and Communication, and tools like WalkRounds that promote the alignment of leadership and frontline provider perspectives through effective use of adverse event data and provider comments. METHODS: Fair and Just Culture, Teamwork Training, and WalkRounds are described, and implementation examples provided. The argument is made that they must be systematically and consistently implemented in an integrated fashion. CONCLUSIONS: There are excellent examples of institutions applying Just Culture principles, Teamwork Training, and Leadership WalkRounds--but to date, they have not been comprehensively instituted in health care organizations in a cohesive and interdependent manner. To achieve reliability, organizations need to begin thinking about the relationship between these efforts and linking them conceptually.

Silence in organizations and psychological safety : a literature review

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMT

In the business world, employees can contribute with information, ideas, concerns, opinions and proposals to their managers in respect of: (1) the way work could be performed, (2) what should / should not be done in the workplace, (3) how a particular decision can be implemented, and (4) how an organizational policy should be formed and executed (Rego, 2013). However, due to a diverse set of factors, employees often choose to remain silent in the workplace. One of these factors is psychological safety, which describes employees’ perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in the workplace (Edmondson, 2014). The following paper is essentially a literature review and its aim is to, firstly, make a brief approach to factors reported in the literature that may affect employee voice and silence, followed up by an explanation of the types of silence that can be engaged by employees. Besides that, the authors will also make an approach to physical and psychological safety. Lastly, it will be reported some links, mentioned in the literature, between employee silence and psychological safety.

Organizational Error Management Culture and Its Impact on Performance: A Two-Study Replication.

Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The authors argue that a high-organizational error management culture, conceptualized to include norms and common practices in organizations (e.g., communicating about errors, detecting, analyzing, and correcting errors quickly), is pivotal to the reduction of negative and the promotion of positive error consequences. Organizational error management culture was positively related to firm performance across 2 studies conducted in 2 different European countries. On the basis of quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional data from 65 Dutch organizations, Study 1 revealed that organizational error management culture was significantly correlated with both organizational goal achievement and an objective indicator of economic performance. This finding was confirmed in Study 2, using change-of-profitability data from 47 German organizations. The results suggest that organizations may want to introduce organizational error management as a way to boost firm performance.

The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work

Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Building on Kahn's (1990) ethnographic work, a field study in a U.S. Midwestern insurance company explored the determinants and mediating effects of three psychological conditions — meaningfulness, safety and availability — on employees' engagement in their work. Results from the revised theoretical framework revealed that all three psychological conditions exhibited significant positive relations with engagement. Meaningfulness displayed the strongest relation. Job enrichment and work role fit were positively linked to psychological meaningfulness. Rewarding co‐worker and supportive supervisor relations were positively associated with psychological safety, whereas adherence to co‐worker norms and self‐consciousness were negatively associated. Psychological availability was positively related to resources available and negatively related to participation in outside activities. Finally, the relations of job enrichment and work role fit with engagement were both fully mediated by the psychological condition of meaningfulness. The association between adherence to co‐worker norms and engagement was partially mediated by psychological safety. Theoretical and practical implications related to psychological engagement at work are discussed.

Psychological Antecedents of Promotive and Prohibitive Voice: A Two-Wave Examination

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The present study demonstrates how three psychological antecedents (psychological safety, felt obligation for constructive change, and organization-based self-esteem) uniquely, differentially, and interactively predict supervisory reports of promotive and prohibitive “voice” behavior. Using a two-wave panel design, we collected data from a sample of 239 employees to examine the hypothesized relationships. Our results showed that felt obligation was most strongly related to subsequent promotive voice; psychological safety was most strongly related to subsequent prohibitive voice; and organization-based self-esteem was reciprocally related to promotive voice. Further, although felt obligation strengthened the positive effect of psychological safety on both forms of voice, organization-based self-esteem weakened this effect for promotive voice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The competitive imperative of learning

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Most executives believe that relentless execution--efficient, timely, consistent production and delivery of goods or services--is the surefire path to customer satisfaction and positive financial results. But this is a myth in the knowledge economy, argues Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor. She points to General Motors, which for years has remained wedded to a well-developed competency in centralized controls and efficient execution but has steadily lost ground, posting a record 38.7 billion loss in 2007. Such an execution-as-efficiency model results in employees who are exceedingly reluctant to offer ideas or voice questions and concerns. Placing value only on getting things right the first time, organizations are unable to take the risks necessary to improve and evolve. By contrast, firms that put a premium on what Edmondson calls execution-as-learning focus not so much on how a process should be carried out as on how it should evolve. Since 1980 General Electric, for instance, has continued to reinvent itself in every field from wind energy to medical diagnostics; and it enjoyed a 22.5 billion profit in 2007. Organizations that foster execution-as-learning provide employees with psychological safety. No one is penalized for asking for help or making a mistake. These companies also employ four distinct approaches to day-to-day work: They use the best available knowledge (which is understood to be a moving target) to inform the design of specific process guidelines. They encourage employee collaboration by making information available when and where it's needed. They routinely capture data on processes to discover how work really happens. Finally, they study these data in an effort to find ways to improve execution. Taken together, these practices form the basis of a learning infrastructure that makes continual learning part of business as usual.

Deep-Level Team Composition and Innovation

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This study proposes and tests a process model linking deep-level team composition and innovation. Two cognitive styles, sequential thinking and connective thinking, are the deep-level team attributes hypothesized to affect team innovation. Psychological safety and cooperative learning are hypothesized to link cognitive styles and innovation at the team level. Findings from a sample of 83 natural innovation teams with dual-source data indicate that sequential thinking contributes to decreases in team innovation by inhibiting psychological safety, while connective thinking helps improve team innovation through increased cooperative learning. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

CEO relational leadership and strategic decision quality in top management teams: The role of team trust and learning from failure

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

In this study, we examine a complex pathway through which CEOs, who exhibit relational leadership, may improve the quality of strategic decisions of their top management teams (TMTs) by creating psychological conditions of trust and facilitating learning from failures in their teams. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses of survey data collected from 77 TMTs indicate that (1) the relationship between CEO relational leadership and team learning from failures was mediated by trust between TMT members; (2) team learning from failures mediated the relationship between team trust and strategic decision quality. Supplemented by qualitative data from two TMTs, these findings suggest that CEOs can improve the quality of strategic decisions their TMTs make by shaping a relational context of trust and facilitating learning from failures.

High‐quality relationships, psychological safety, and learning from failures in work organizations

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract How can organizations support employees to engage in learning from failures? In this paper, we draw on the concept of high‐quality relationships to explore the relational underpinnings of learning from failures in organizations. We focus on relational coordination as a specific manifestation of high‐quality relationships and examine how the relational dimensions of relational coordination—shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect—foster psychological safety and thus enable organizational members to engage in learning from failures. The results of two separate studies support our mediation model where psychological safety mediates the link between high‐quality relationships and learning from failures in organizations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Psychological Safety: The History, Renaissance, and Future of an Interpersonal Construct

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Psychological safety describes people’s perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace. First explored by pioneering organizational scholars in the 1960s, psychological safety experienced a renaissance starting in the 1990s and continuing to the present. Organizational research has identified psychological safety as a critical factor in understanding phenomena such as voice, teamwork, team learning, and organizational learning. A growing body of conceptual and empirical work has focused on understanding the nature of psychological safety, identifying factors that contribute to it, and examining its implications for individuals, teams, and organizations. In this article, we review and integrate this literature and suggest directions for future research. We first briefly review the early history of psychological safety research and then examine contemporary research at the individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis. We assess what has been learned and discuss suggestions for future theoretical development and methodological approaches for organizational behavior research on this important interpersonal construct.

Leadership Behavior and Employee Voice: Is the Door Really Open?

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We investigate the relationships between two types of change-oriented leadership (transformational leadership and managerial openness) and subordinate improvement-oriented voice in a two-phase study. Findings from 3,149 employees and 223 managers in a restaurant chain indicate that openness is more consistently related to voice, given controls for numerous individual differences in subordinates' personality, satisfaction, and job demography. This relationship is shown to be mediated by subordinate perceptions of psychological safety, illustrating the importance of leaders in subordinate assessments of the risks of speaking up. Also, leadership behaviors have the strongest impact on the voice behavior of the best-performing employees.

Teams make it work: how team work engagement mediates between social resources and performance in teams.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

In this study we analyze the mediating role of team work engagement between team social resources (i.e., supportive team climate, coordination, teamwork), and team performance (i.e., in-role and extra-role performance) as predicted by the Job Demands-Resources Model. Aggregated data of 533 employees nested within 62 teams and 13 organizations were used, whereas team performance was assessed by supervisor ratings. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as expected, team work engagement plays a mediating role between social resources perceived at the team level and team performance as assessed by the supervisor.

Inclusive Leadership and Employee Involvement in Creative Tasks in the Workplace: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

This study examines how inclusive leadership (manifested by openness, accessibility, and availability of a leader) fosters employee creativity in the workplace. Using a sample of 150 employees, we investigated the relationship between inclusive leadership (measured at Time 1), psychological safety, and employee involvement in creative work tasks (measured at Time 2). The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicate that inclusive leadership is positively related to psychological safety, which, in turn, engenders employee involvement in creative work.

Disrupted Routines: Team Learning and New Technology Implementation in Hospitals

Sat, 01 Dec 2001 00:00:00 GMT

This paper reports on a qualitative field study of 16 hospitals implementing an innovative technology for cardiac surgery. We examine how new routines are developed in organizations in which existing routines are reinforced by the technological and organizational context All hospitals studied had top-tier cardiac surgery departments with excellent reputations and patient outcomes yet exhibited striking differences in the extent to which they were able to implement a new technology that required substantial changes in the operating-room-team work routine. Successful implementers underwent a qualitatively different team learning process than those who were unsuccessful. Analysis of qualitative data suggests that implementation involved four process steps: enrollment, preparation, trials, and reflection. Successful implementers used enrollment to motivate the team, designed preparatory practice sessions and early trials to create psychological safety and encourage new behaviors, and promoted shared meaning and process improvement through reflective practices. By illuminating the collective learning process among those directly responsible for technology implementation, we contribute to organizational research on routines and technology adoption.

Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The next level of breakthrough thinking in organizational learning, leadership, and change Harvard professor Amy Edmondson shows how leaders can make organizational learning happen by building teams that learn. Based on years of research and case studies from Verizon, Bank of America, and Children's Hospital, Edmondson outlines the factors that typically prevent groups from learning, such as the fear of failure, groupthink, power structures, and information hording. She shows how leaders can control these factors by encouraging reflection, creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive routines that inhibit the sharing of ideas, among others. Leaders can use practical management strategies to help organizations realize the benefits inherent in both success and failure.

Psychological Safety, Knowledge Sharing, and Creative Performance in Healthcare Teams

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We examined how psychological safety fosters knowledge‐sharing processes and enables team creative performance. Using a multi‐respondent design, we tested our hypotheses using survey data collected from 73 patient‐centred healthcare teams working in the field on rare diseases. The data were analysed using latent class regression analysis. We confirmed that a high level of psychological safety within the team is a significant predictor of creative team performance and is mediated by the sharing of two types of knowledge: information and know‐how.

Structure and Learning in Self-Managed Teams: Why “Bureaucratic” Teams Can Be Better Learners

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

This paper considers the effect of team structure on a team's engagement in learning and continuous improvement. We begin by noting the uncertain conceptual status of the structure concept in the small groups literature and propose a conceptualization of team structure that is grounded in the long tradition of work on formal structure in the sociology and organization theory literatures. We then consider the thesis that, at least in self-managed teams dealing with stable tasks, greater team structure—i.e., higher levels of specialization, formalization, and hierarchy—can promote learning by encouraging information sharing, reducing conflict frequency, and fostering a climate of psychological safety; that is, we examine a mediated model in which the effect of structure on learning and improvement in teams is mediated by psychological safety, information sharing, and conflict frequency. This model was largely supported in a study of self-managed production teams in a Fortune 100 high-technology firm, although the observed pattern of mediation was more complex than anticipated. Higher structure was also associated with actual productivity improvements in a subsample of these teams. The theory and results of this study advance our understanding of team learning and underscore the importance of team structure in research on team processes and performance.

Increasing Trust, Psychological Safety, and Team Performance Through Dyadic Leadership Discovery

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In this article, the author uses a case-based argument to explore the idea that team members have grounded rationality, which may be actively learned by team leaders through a process of leadership discovery. The analysis reveals evidence that leaders using dyadic discovery methods learn more and more effectively customize leadership behaviors to increase trust, psychological safety, and team performance. A comparison of dyadic and group-level discovery cases lends support to the theory that dyadic-level discovery is psychologically safer and more consistently effective than is group-level discovery in most work team settings. This is an important finding, as many “action” and “organization development” methods presently rely on group-level interventions as a means of uncovering individual-level rationality.

Learning from failure in health care: frequent opportunities, pervasive barriers

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

The notion that hospitals and medical practices should learn from failures, both their own and others', has obvious appeal. Yet, healthcare organisations that systematically and effectively learn from the failures that occur in the care delivery process, especially from small mistakes and problems rather than from consequential adverse events, are rare. This article explores pervasive barriers embedded in healthcare's organisational systems that make shared or organisational learning from failure difficult and then recommends strategies for overcoming these barriers to learning from failure, emphasising the critical role of leadership. Firstly, leaders must create a compelling vision that motivates and communicates urgency for change; secondly, leaders must work to create an environment of psychological safety that fosters open reporting, active questioning, and frequent sharing of insights and concerns; and thirdly, case study research on one hospital's organisational learning initiative suggests that leaders can empower and support team learning throughout their organisations as a way of identifying, analysing, and removing hazards that threaten patient safety.

Why and When Leaders’ Affective States Influence Employee Upward Voice

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Although researchers have argued that employees often carefully examine social contexts before speaking up to leaders, the role of leaders’ affective states has received little attention. The current research addresses this important issue from an emotion-as-social-information perspective by exploring whether, why, and when leaders’ affect influences employees’ voice behavior. By collecting data of 640 daily interactions from both sides of 85 leader–employee dyads using the experience sampling method through mobile surveys, we found that leaders’ positive affect was positively related to employees’ voice behavior. Furthermore, such a relationship could be accounted for through employees’ psychological safety directly via the emotional contagion mechanism (through employees’ own positive affect) but not directly via the signaling mechanism (through employees’ assessment of leaders’ positive affect); and the effects of both employees’ own positive affect and their assessments of leaders’ positive affect on psychological safety were stronger when the leader–member exchange relationship was weak. Interestingly, we also found that leaders’ negative affect was positively related to employees’ voice, but neither emotional contagion nor signaling mechanisms explained this effect. These findings highlight the important role of leaders’ affect in the voice process and also provide insights for when employees would choose to speak up to their leaders.

Behavioral integrity for safety, priority of safety, psychological safety, and patient safety: A team-level study.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

This article clarifies how leader behavioral integrity for safety helps solve follower's double bind between adhering to safety protocols and speaking up about mistakes against protocols. Path modeling of survey data in 54 nursing teams showed that head nurse behavioral integrity for safety positively relates to both team priority of safety and psychological safety. In turn, team priority of safety and team psychological safety were, respectively, negatively and positively related with the number of treatment errors that were reported to head nurses. We further demonstrated an interaction effect between team priority of safety and psychological safety on reported errors such that the relationship between team priority of safety and the number of errors was stronger for higher levels of team psychological safety. Finally, we showed that both team priority of safety and team psychological safety mediated the relationship between leader behavioral integrity for safety and reported treatment errors. These results suggest that although adhering to safety protocols and admitting mistakes against those protocols show opposite relations to reported treatment errors, both are important to improving patient safety and both are fostered by leaders who walk their safety talk.

The role of transformational leadership in enhancing team reflexivity

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Team reflexivity, or the extent to which teams reflect upon and modify their functioning, has been identified as a key factor in the effectiveness of work teams. As yet, however, little is known about the factors that play a role in enhancing team reflexivity, and it is thus important to develop theorizing around the determinants of reflexivity. From an applied perspective, leadership is a very relevant factor. The current study is a first step in the development of such a model, and addresses this important gap in our understanding of team reflexivity by focusing on the role of leader behavior. We examined the extent to which transformational leadership influences team reflexivity, and in turn, team performance, in a field study conducted among 32 intact work teams from nine organizations. Team members rated reflexivity and leadership, while external managers rated team performance. We hypothesized and tested a mediational model proposing that transformational leadership is related to the adoption of a shared vision by the team. This in turn relates to team reflexivity, which leads to higher team performance. Results support this model.

A Socio‐Psychological Perspective on Team Ambidexterity: The Contingency Role of Supportive Leadership Behaviours

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract In addressing the notion of team ambidexterity, we propose that socio‐psychological factors (i.e., team cohesion and team efficacy) may help team members to resolve paradoxical challenges and to combine exploratory and exploitative learning efforts. In addition, we theorize that senior executives may play an important role in facilitating the emergence of ambidexterity at lower hierarchical levels. In doing so, we develop a multilevel contingency framework and propose that the effectiveness of teams to achieve ambidexterity is contingent upon supportive leadership behaviours at the organizational‐level. Using multilevel, multisource, and temporally separated data on 87 teams within 37 high‐tech and pharmaceutical firms, we not only reveal how team cohesion and efficacy may matter for the emergence of team ambidexterity but also show that the effectiveness of supportive leadership behaviours from senior executives varies across cohesive and efficacious teams.

Humble Leadership: Implications for Psychological Safety and Follower Engagement

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Humility has emerged as a focus of leadership research in recent years, culminating with the theory of humble leadership. The current study added to the humble leadership literature by examining the relations among leader humility, psychological safety, and employee engagement. The study particularly examined the three constructs in the context of a mediational model. Data were collected from 140 workers who reported their perceptions of their immediate supervisor's humility, as well as their own psychological safety and work engagement. Results showed that the relation between humble leadership and employee engagement was fully mediated by psychological safety. Thus, by acknowledging limitations and mistakes, recognizing followers’ strengths and contributions, and modeling teachability, leaders can create an environment in which followers can act without fear of negative ramifications and can fully engage in their work.

Psychological Safety and Error Reporting Within Veterans Health Administration Hospitals

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

OBJECTIVE: In psychologically safe workplaces, employees feel comfortable taking interpersonal risks, such as pointing out errors. Previous research suggested that psychologically safe climate optimizes organizational outcomes. We evaluated psychological safety levels in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospitals and assessed their relationship to employee willingness of reporting medical errors. METHODS: We conducted an ANOVA on psychological safety scores from a VHA employees census survey (n = 185,879), assessing variability of means across racial and supervisory levels. We examined organizational climate assessment interviews (n = 374) evaluating how many employees asserted willingness to report errors (or not) and their stated reasons. Finally, based on survey data, we identified 2 (psychologically safe versus unsafe) hospitals and compared their number of employees who would be willing/unwilling to report an error. RESULTS: Psychological safety increased with supervisory level (P < 0.001, η = 0.03) and was not meaningfully related to race (P < 0.001, η = 0.003). Twelve percent of employees would not report an error; retaliation fear was the most commonly mentioned deterrent. Furthermore, employees at the psychologically unsafe hospital (71% would report, 13% would not) were less willing to report an error than at the psychologically safe hospital (91% would, 0% would not). CONCLUSIONS: A substantial minority would not report an error and were willing to admit so in a private interview setting. Their stated reasons as well as higher psychological safety means for supervisory employees both suggest power as an important determinant. Intentions to report were associated with psychological safety, strongly suggesting this climate aspect as instrumental to improving patient safety and reducing costs.

Interactions Within Groups and Subgroups: The Effects of Demographic Faultlines

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT

We investigated the effects of intragroup and cross-subgroup communications in an experimental field study on demographic faultlines. The results indicated that faultlines explained more variance in perceptions of team learning, psychological safety, satisfaction, and expected performance than single-attribute heterogeneity indexes. In addition, cross-subgroup work communications were effective for groups with weak faultlines but not for groups with strong faultlines. Overall, this study extends the original faultline model, documents the utility of the concept of faultlines, and identifies some of their effects on work group outcomes.

A Meta‐Analysis of Voice and Its Promotive and Prohibitive Forms: Identification of Key Associations, Distinctions, and Future Research Directions

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT

This article reports meta‐analyses intended to clarify and enhance our understanding of voice and its promotive and prohibitive forms. We find that undifferentiated constructive voice is associated with a wide range of antecedents that fit in Morrison's (2014) five categories: (a) dispositions, (b) job and organizational attitudes and perceptions, (c) emotions, beliefs, and schemas, (d) supervisor and leader behavior, and (e) contextual factors. However, relative weight analyses reveal a highly dominant variable within each category (personal initiative, felt responsibility, engagement, leader–member exchange, and positive workplace climate). We also find that undifferentiated constructive voice has a moderate zero‐order association with job performance that is nonsignificant when task performance and organizational citizenship behavior are also considered. Finally, we explore how associations vary as a function of whether voice is promotive or prohibitive. First, there are significant differences in associations with over a third of the antecedents (core self‐evaluations, felt responsibility, organizational commitment, detachment, psychological safety, ethical leadership, and leader openness). Second, although promotive voice has a positive association with job performance, the opposite is true for prohibitive voice. We conclude with suggestions to enhance our understanding of voice, especially with respect to efforts needed to clarify and distinguish promotive and prohibitive voice.

Authoritarian leadership and employee silence in China

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Abstract We examine the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence behaviour with 324 employees in 16 state-owned manufacturing enterprises in China. We draw from theories of motivation and person–environment fit to explain the mediating roles of psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem, and the moderating effects of power distance orientation. Regression analyses show that authoritarian leadership has a positive relationship with employee silence behaviour. Mediation analyses show that both psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem partially mediate the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence. Moderation analysis revealed that the direct relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence behaviour is stronger for employees with high (as opposed to low) power distance orientation. Additionally, moderated-mediation analyses show that the mediating effects of both psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem are stronger for employees with low (as opposed to high) power distance orientation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Trust in work teams: An integrative review, multilevel model, and future directions

Fri, 07 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Summary This article presents an integrative review of the rapidly growing body of research on trust in work teams. We start by analyzing prominent definitions of trust and their theoretical foundations, followed by different conceptualizations of trust in teams emphasizing its multilevel, dynamic, and emergent nature. We then review the empirical research and its underlying theoretical perspectives concerning the emergence and development of trust in teams. On the basis of this review, we propose an integrated conceptual framework that organizes the field and can advance knowledge of the multilevel nature of trust in teams. Our conclusion is that trust in teams resides at multiple levels of analysis simultaneously, is subject to factors across levels in organizations, and impacts performance and other relevant outcomes both at the individual and team levels. We argue that research should not only differentiate between interpersonal trust between members from collective trust at the team level but also emphasize the interplay within and between these levels by considering cross‐level influences and dynamics. We conclude by proposing 4 major directions for future research and 3 critical methodological recommendations for study designs derived from our review and framework.

Mere listening effect on creativity and the mediating role of psychological safety.

Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT

While research suggests that individuals may increase their own creativity by listening to other's ideas, the effects of being listened to by others have remained understudied to date. We hypothesized that listening behavior of superiors may positively impact employees to explore new ideas flexibly, leading to higher levels of creativity. We further hypothesized this link to be mediated by psychological safety. Therefore, we developed and tested a mediated model of listening behavior, psychological safety, and creativity at the individual level. In a series of five complementary studies, we found evidence for the hypothesized effects, while excluding alternative explanations such as reversed causality with experimental designs. A meta-analysis of all our studies provided compelling evidence that listening was related to creativity, N = 744, k = 5, r¯ = .39, 95% CI [.13; .60]. Together, our results suggest that supervisor listening may be an underrated aspect of management that fosters creativity.

Effects of Leader Humility on the Performance of Virtual Groups

Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Personal humility contributes to leadership effectiveness in a number of situations. However, causal mechanisms linking leader humility to positive outcomes appear to vary by task and by context. The present study investigated a mediation model where leader humility was hypothesized to lead to both a sense of psychological safety in the group and an increased sense of liking for the leader when conducting a highly interdependent task in a virtual environment. In turn, psychological safety and liking for the leader were theorized to positively affect the flow of information in the group, thereby improving group performance. Findings from three experimental studies supported the idea that leader humility positively affects psychological safety in virtual groups and increases liking for the leader. However, psychological safety and liking for the leader only mediated the intent to improve the flow of information in the group. While actual information flow and group performance under a humble leader were in the anticipated direction, the results were not statistically significant, even after controlling for the age and gender of group members. Reasons for humble leaders’ lack of effect on information flow and group performance during the conduct of a conjunctive task in a virtual environment are discussed and future research directions are identified.

Speaking up about patient safety concerns: the influence of safety management approaches and climate on nurses’ willingness to speak up

Thu, 28 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

BACKGROUND: Speaking up is important for patient safety, but healthcare professionals often hesitate to voice their concerns. Direct supervisors have an important role in influencing speaking up. However, good insight into the relationship between managers' behaviour and employees' perceptions about whether speaking up is safe and worthwhile is still lacking. AIM: To explore the relationships between control-based and commitment-based safety management, climate for safety, psychological safety and nurses' willingness to speak up. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey study, resulting in a sample of 980 nurses and 93 nurse managers working in Dutch clinical hospital wards. To test our hypotheses, hierarchical regression analyses (at ward level) and multilevel regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Significantly positive associations were found between nurses' perceptions of control-based safety management and climate for safety (β=0.74; p<0.001), and between the perceived levels of commitment-based management and team psychological safety (β=0.36; p<0.01). Furthermore, team psychological safety is found to be positively related to nurses' speaking up attitudes (B=0.24; t=2.04; p<0.05). The relationship between nurse-rated commitment-based safety management and nurses' willingness to speak up is fully mediated by team psychological safety. CONCLUSION: Results provide initial support that nurses who perceive higher levels of commitment-based safety management feel safer to take interpersonal risks and are more willing to speak up about patient safety concerns. Furthermore, nurses' perceptions of control-based safety management are found to be positively related to a climate for safety, although no association was found with speaking up. Both control-based and commitment-based management approaches seem to be relevant for managing patient safety, but when it comes to encouraging speaking up, a commitment-based safety management approach seems to be most valuable.

Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Attributions on Employees’ Creative Performance: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This study contributes to the growing literature on individual-level outcomes of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Employing a sample of 339 subordinate–supervisor dyads, we explored the differential impact of CSR attributions on employees’ creative performance in the telecom industry. We also introduced and tested the role of psychological safety as a mediator underlying this relationship. The results indicate that although intrinsic CSR attributions are not directly related to creative performance, extrinsic CSR attributions have a significant negative effect on creative performance. We also found that psychological safety mediates the positive relationship between intrinsic CSR and creative performance and the negative relationship between extrinsic CSR and creative performance. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.

Speaking Up When Water Is Murky: An Uncertainty-Based Model Linking Perceived Organizational Politics to Employee Voice

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Employee voice is thought to result from a cognitive calculus of costs and benefits. However, it is not known whether and when employees speak up in contexts where the costs and benefits of voice are not readily assessed. The purpose of this research is to answer this question by exploring the impact of employees’ perceived organizational politics (POP)—a social context in which complicated interpersonal relationships make it difficult to predict the outcomes of voice—on promotive and prohibitive voice. Results from an experimental scenario study and a time-lagged field study revealed that POP is negatively related to the two types of voice through psychological uncertainty, even after controlling for psychological safety and felt obligation to voice. Furthermore, job autonomy weakened the negative influence of psychological uncertainty on promotive voice, whereas job security weakened the negative influence of psychological uncertainty on prohibitive voice. Not only do the findings demonstrate psychological uncertainty as a viable mechanism that links unpredictable social contexts such as POP to employee voice, but they also offer insight into the remedies that might mitigate its negative impact. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Exploring the Influence of Ethical Leadership on Voice Behavior: How Leader-Member Exchange, Psychological Safety and Psychological Empowerment Influence Employees’ Willingness to Speak Out

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The study of voice behavior examines the inclination of staff and team members to speak up and contribute ideas to the team. In this article, we investigate how factors such as leader-member exchange (LMX), psychological safety and psychological empowerment influence such behavior. Our findings, which are based on a sample of 308 employees working for a state-owned telecommunications company in China, indicate that ethical leadership promotes employees' voice behavior through enhanced LMX, which also leads to greater feelings of psychological safety and psychological empowerment. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.