When feeling safe isn’t enough

Abstract

In working to understand the predictors of experiential learning in teams, researchers have focused on one variable more than any other—psychological safety. In virtually all of this work, psychological safety is viewed as a direct predictor of team learning and, through team learning, of team performance. We suggest that this work has overlooked the critical effect the nature of the task environment has on the capacity of psychological safety to have beneficial effects. To investigate this, we conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis of studies examining the relationships between psychological safety, team learning, and team performance. We find that psychological safety is more strongly associated with learning and performance in studies conducted in knowledge-intensive task settings, that is, settings that involve complexity, creativity, and sensemaking. The results of this study suggest that psychological safety may be insufficient to stimulate learning in groups where the task environment does not require learning.

To Get Vaccinated or Not? Psychological Safety as a Catalyst for the Alignment Between Individual Beliefs and Behavior

“…In this study, we argued that it is important to look at psychological safety as a climate variable which exerts contextual influence on individual behavior (see Sanner & Bunderson, 2015). Drawing on the RAM and the concept of social pressure, we suggested a model which specifies the moderating role of psychological safety in the prediction of individual behavior as it occurs in a team context.…”

Team Emergent States: What Has Emerged in The Literature Over 20 Years

“…Many studies (Liu et al, 2014) depict psychological safety as mediating relationships between leadership, composition, design factors, and outcomes. Although scholars have largely assumed psychological safety is universally beneficial across contexts, Sanner and Bunderson (2015) found it more strongly predicts learning and performance in knowledge-intensive contexts. Others have explored boundary conditions of psychological safety-outcome relationships (e.g., task conflict; Kostopoulos & Bozionelos, 2011).…”

From Planning to Performance: The Adaptation Process as a Determinant of Outcomes

“…As a process, learning involves different behaviors, but there is no consensus regarding this matter (e.g., Gabelica, Van den Bossche, Fiore, Segers, & Gijselaers, 2016;Savelsberg, van der Heijden, & Poell, 2009). However, error analysis, the collective process of discussing errors to prevent them, is always a main component of learning, at least, of experiential learning (Sanner & Bunderson, 2015).…”