Safe Today, Tomorrow, and Together: A Dynamic Perspective on Team Psychological Safety

Abstract

There is an increasing focus in organizations on building psychologically safe teams. This follows a large—and rapidly growing—body of research supporting the importance of team psychological safety for effective teamwork. Still, there is a lack of research on the dynamics of team psychological safety. This is somewhat surprising given the ever-changing nature of teams and leaves us with an incomplete understanding of team psychological safety. This dissertation makes several important contributions to the research field. Paper 1 provides a comprehensive overview of the temporal dynamics of team emergent states, of which team psychological safety is one. This literature review shows that team emergent states have no universal pattern, why team emergent states should be measured as emergent, why team emergent states arise, the consequences of temporal dynamics, and why studying the emergent element of these states matters. Overall, the paper raises awareness of the importance of taking the “emergent” in team emergent states seriously. In Paper 2, I explore the dynamic nature of team psychological safety. By studying teams from when they are established and over different time horizons, this paper reveals how temporally dynamic team psychological safety may indeed be and how its emergence and development relate to the practices of the team. Since team psychological safety may both wax and wane, time itself is neither sufficient nor necessarily positive. Instead, team psychological safety reveals itself as a perishable good. Where Papers 1 and 2 emphasize the temporal dynamics of team psychological safety, Paper 3 addresses the within-team dynamics—more specifically, how sharedness among team members (that is, team psychological safety climate strength) moderates the relationship between team psychological safety and team performance. Moreover, explorative analyses reveal how sharedness is not necessarily beneficial. In particular, when psychological safety is low, a safe team member among the unsafe may positively impact team performance.

In sum, this thesis contributes to the research field by identifying the emergent nature of team emergent states in general and team psychological safety in particular and by revising the view of team psychological safety as necessarily being perceived similarly among team members. I discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings. Keywords: team emergent states, team psychological safety, temporal dynamics, team psychological safety climate strength, team performance