"Psychological Safety, Learning, and Performance: A Comparison of Direct and Contingent Effects"

Abstract

In working to understand the predictors of experiential learning in teams, researchers have focused on one variable more than any other – psychological safety, or a shared belief that team members can take risks without fear or embarrassment. In virtually all of this work, psychological safety is viewed as having a direct effect on team learning and performance. We contrast this direct effects model with an alternative, contingent effects model in which psychological safety does not directly motivate learning but, rather, removes barriers of fear and defensiveness that can stifle experiential learning efforts when team members are otherwise motivated to learn. We present the results of a meta-analysis designed to critically evaluate these alternative models. We find that the relationships between psychological safety and both team learning and team performance are generally positive across published studies, but that the magnitude of these relationships varies considerably. In analyzing this variability, we find that psychological safety is more strongly associated with learning and performance in studies conducted in task settings that we would expect to more strongly motivate learning. The results of this study suggest that psychological safety alone may be insufficient to stimulate learning and that learning motivators must also be present.