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https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2026.2623272

Which fosters psychological safety and voicing in online meetings: face-to-face contact or casual conversation?

Feb 6, 2026
Cogent Psychology
Rina Tanaka +2 more

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This study examined how opportunities for member contact during meetings influence speaking behavior and psychological safety, and how these effects are mediated by the degree of virtuality. The study focused on four types of contact. These contacts included initial face-to-face meetings, frequent face-to-face meetings, casual conversations during meetings, and casual conversations outside meetings. An online questionnaire was administered in mid-November 2022 to 300 employed individuals registered with an online survey company. Participants reflected on the workplace online meeting they attended most regularly during the previous three months and completed the questionnaire. The results revealed that chit-chat positively influenced psychological safety and voicing behavior during and outside meetings. The findings suggest that participants’ relationships can be established and maintained by getting to know one another’s personalities through informal conversations, reducing concerns about relationship abandonment and minimizing the impact of voicing conduct. The results suggest that casual conversation during and outside online meetings enhances psychological safety and may increase engagement.

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Understanding peer support: a qualitative interview study of doctors one year after seeking support

Apr 1, 2023
BMC Health Services Research
Ingrid Marie Taxt Horne + 4 more

BackgroundDoctors’ health is of importance for the quality and development of health care and to doctors themselves. As doctors are hesitant to seek medical treatment, peer support services, with an alleged lower threshold for seeking help, is provided in many countries. Peer support services may be the first place to which doctors turn when they search for support and advice relating to their own health and private or professional well-being. This paper explores how doctors perceive the peer support service and how it can meet their needs.Materials and methodsTwelve doctors were interviewed a year after attending a peer support service which is accessible to all doctors in Norway. The qualitative, semi-structured interviews took place by on-line video meetings or over the phone (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) during 2020 and were audiotaped. Analysis was data-driven, and systematic text condensation was used as strategy for the qualitative analysis. The empirical material was further interpreted with the use of theories of organizational culture by Edgar Schein.ResultsThe doctors sought peer support due to a range of different needs including both occupational and personal challenges. They attended peer support to engage in dialogue with a fellow doctor outside of the workplace, some were in search of a combination of dialogue and mental health care. The doctors wanted peer support to have a different quality from that of a regular doctor/patient appointment. The doctors expressed they needed and got psychological safety and an open conversation in a flexible and informal setting. Some of these qualities are related to the formal structure of the service, whereas others are based on the way the service is practised.ConclusionsPeer support seems to provide psychological safety through its flexible, informal, and confidential characteristics. The service thus offers doctors in need of support a valued and suitable space that is clearly distinct from a doctor/patient relationship. The doctors’ needs are met to a high extent by the peer-support service, through such conditions that the doctors experience as beneficial.

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