Employee Psychological Safety Research Articles

The Content of the Threat Matters: the Differential Effects of Quantitative and Qualitative Job Insecurity on Different Types of Employee Motivation

Given the conceptual differences between different types of job insecurity, it is important to distinguish qualitative job insecurity from quantitative job insecurity when examining their motivational consequences. Building on the approach and avoidance framework, we expect that quantitative job insecurity influences avoid-performance goal orientation (avoidance form of motivation) via psychological safety, whereas qualitative job insecurity influences learning goal orientation (approach form of motivation) via psychological meaningfulness. We also examine the moderating role of organizational justice in such effects. Using two-wave data collected from 281 employees in China, we found that quantitative job insecurity had a positive indirect effect on employee avoid-performance goal orientation via decreased psychological safety, whereas qualitative job insecurity had a negative indirect effect on employee learning goal orientation via decreased psychological meaningfulness. In addition, organizational justice buffered the direct effect of quantitative job insecurity on employee psychological safety and the subsequent indirect effect on employee avoid-performance goal orientation. However, organizational justice did not moderate the influence of qualitative job insecurity on employee outcomes. Our findings provide new insights into the motivational implications of job insecurity.

Empowerment for Participation: Measuring Motivation, Stress, Defense Routines and Engagement

Background: There has been increased attention in concepts such as meaning, self-care, work-life balance and others designed to address human sustainability in the workplace. Nonetheless, world-wide per capita increase in psychological related sick-leave costs companies approximately $748 Billion annually? Approximately 55% of company sick leave is psychosocial related and this is increasing annually. Finding the necessary tools to identify predictors related to psychological safety and ill-health is now more critical than ever before. Furthermore, increasing awareness and reducing the disconnection between an individual’s situational wellbeing and an organization’s need for productivity is paramount. Currently, corporate mental health consists of symptomatic related solutions. Unfortunately, these retroactive models are usually short-lived plasters. Objective: This study aims to present reliability and validity of the Empowerment for Participation (EFP) batch of assessments and its methodology to measure, predict and proactively monitor an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. The study will also briefly introduce three risk assessments: Risk for Burnout, Risk of Anxiety and Risk for Depression, as well as an employee Engagement Potential measure. Study Design, Setting and Method: The EFP batch of assessments, consists of 110 questions. They are used to measure employee motivation, stress, defense routines and motivational positioning (situational adaptiveness) on an individual and aggregate level within a company. This study looks at the reliability and validity of the EFP batch to effectively measure the sustainability or status of an individual in relation to their engagement potential, wellbeing, adaptability, potential risk for burnout, anxiety, and depression. A cohort from four small companies and several unbound individuals (employed but not belonging to the four companies) were included in this study. An empirical design using raw EFP psychometric data to measure value consistency correlated to anti-depressive prescription use or any related diagnosis was used. Results: Reliability and validity results for EFP batch of assessments (N = 73) were analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha for internal consistency: Motivation (Items = 20, α = 0.939), Stress (Items = 20, α = 0.887), Defense Routines (Items = 20, α = 0.870), and PMP (Items = 50, α = 0.944). Discriminant analysis was used on the four risk assessments (extracted from 110 EFP questions) and showed excellent results: Risk for Burnout (α = 0.928, p 0.885. Conclusion: This original study suggests that EFP Batch of Psychometrics and the subsequent derivate risk assessment reports have excellent reliability and validity. Diagnosis is not the primary objective, but rather to highlight a tool that can be used for proactive engagement with employees, and to introduce a sustainable psychosocial wellbeing methodology for employee psychological safety. The purpose of which is to assist individuals in improving their situational self-awareness and to manage their personal situational environments sustainably. As a mental health tool to identify and prevent psychosocial illnesses proactively, the EFP batch produces consistently reliable results to serve as both a diagnosis and counseling tool worthy of major research in the future.

Be Careful How You Do It: The Distinct Effects of Observational Monitoring and Interactional Monitoring on Employee Trust

Research shows that employee trust could be impacted by monitoring measures. We contend that these impacts could be contingent on how monitoring is exercised. Specifically, while the controlling elements in monitoring signal suspicion and undermine employee trust, the interactive elements facilitate the organization–employee reciprocation and strengthen employee trust. We drew evidence from 354 Chinese employees. The results showed that observational monitoring/interactional monitoring was negatively/positively related to employee trust and that employee psychological safety fully mediated these effects. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Interactive Effects of Paternalistic Leadership and Islamic Work Ethics on Employees’ Psychological Safety: Evidence from Pakistan

The current study is a contribution in a research area of paternalistic leadership. It examines the relationship between paternalistic leadership and employees’ psychological safety with the moderating role of Islamic work ethics. A sample of 359 employees was selected to collect the data from the banking sector of Pakistan by using convenient sampling technique. Time lag design was used to get the data to reduce the common method bias. The results of the study confirmed the positive main effects of paternalistic leadership style and Islamic work ethics on employee psychological safety. However, no support was found for the interactive effects of Islamic work ethics in relationship between paternalistic leadership and psychological safety. Study limitations have also been discussed along with future research directions. In addition, this study includes some useful theoretical as well as practical implications.

Different Workplace Currencies and Employee Voice: From the Multidimensional Approach of Leader-Member Exchange.

Building upon social exchange theory and the current voice research, we posit that employee workplace “currencies of exchange” with the leader (i.e., social currency and work-related currency) are key predictors of employee promotive and prohibitive voice. Furthermore, we distinguish between the different roles of social currency and work-related currency in predicting promotive and prohibitive voice, respectively. More importantly, this study further explores the moderating effects of two important individual characteristics, psychological safety and power distance orientation, on the relationships between currencies and voice. We randomly sampled 598 Chinese employees via an online survey platform to test our hypotheses. Our results show that both social currency and work-related currency are determinants of promotive voice and prohibitive voice. Moreover, the boundary conditions for the two kinds of currencies are different. Specifically, employee psychological safety strengthens the influence of social currency on both types of employee voice, while employee power distance orientation could only amplify the relationship between work-related currency and promotive voice. Our research provides important implications for both theory and practice. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Guanxi HRM Practice and Employees' Occupational Well-Being in China: A Multi-Level Psychological Process.

Chinese employees may experience and respond to guanxi human resource management (HRM) practice (e.g., recruiting, selecting, inducting and appraising employees based on personal relationships). Little has been done to examine the linkage between guanxi HRM practice and employees’ occupational well-being. This study investigates the psychological process of how guanxi HRM practice affects employees’ occupational well-being. The theoretical model of this study proposes that employee psychological safety mediates the relationship between guanxi HRM practice and occupational well-being, while collectivistic team culture moderates the relationship between guanxi HRM practice and psychological safety. Multi-level data from 297 employees nested within 42 teams support all hypotheses. This study reveals the cross-level effects of guanxi HRM practice and providing practical suggestions for future research on psychologically safe and healthy work environments.

Constructive Leadership and Employee Innovative Behaviors: A Serial Mediation Model

This study aims to examine the influence of constructive leadership practices on the service innovative behaviors of hotel employees by a serial mediation system that treats employee psychological safety and employee creativity as mediators. Empirical data were collected from full-time frontline hotel employees in Antalya, Turkey. By using both convenience and judgmental sampling methods, this study included 357 hotel employees. The results provide empirical evidence for all suggested hypothesized associations. In particular, the findings display that psychological safety and engagement in creative work tasks play intervening roles (in the form of a chain) in the indirect influence of constructive leadership on employee perceptions regarding their service innovative culture. The current work provides practical contributions for hotel industry professionals who are in the treatment of implementing psychological safety and employee creativity, in order to establish innovative service culture in the hotel setting. The paper is among the first studies to investigate a serial mediation model to analyze which constructive leadership practices influence their innovative service culture.

Supervision Incivility and Employee Psychological Safety in the Workplace.

Much of the supervision incivility research has focused on the supervisor-subordinate dyad when examining the effects of supervision incivility on employee outcomes. Our study examines a trickle-down effect of supervision incivility across three hierarchical levels, i.e., from the department leader (middle manager), through group leader (supervisor), and to group members (employees), and how it affects group psychological safety. Drawing on a sample of 346 employees and 78 group leaders in 78 work groups, our research found a negative relationship between department leader incivility and group psychological safety, and that this negative relationship was mediated by group leader incivility and moderated by group leader attribution for performance-promotion or injury-initiation motives. We further discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

The importance of psychological safety and perceived fairness among hotel employees: The examination of antecedent and outcome variables

This research examines how organizational error management culture influences organizational commitment and employee turnover intention through employee psychological safety and perceived fairness. Data was collected from 173 hotel employees in Hong Kong. Using structural equation modeling, this study found that (1) error management culture positively influences employee psychological safety and perceived fairness; (2) error management culture had significant indirect effect on employee’ s turnover intentions, sequentially mediated by perceived fairness, psychological safety and organization commitment.

Interpersonal antecedents to employee upward voice: mediating role of psychological safety

PurposeDespite the increasing prominence of employee voice in organizational innovation and productivity, employees continue to struggle to influence matters that affect them at work. The purpose of this paper is to model work group context and manager behavior as the predictors of employee upward voice. Further, a mediating role of employee psychological safety is examined in this link.Design/methodology/approachWith data from 575 employees representing various technology firms in India, the authors test the hypothesized relationships using covariance-based structural equation modeling.FindingsResults indicate coworkers upward voice and manager pro-voice behavior to significantly impact employee upward voice with a mediating impact of psychological safety. This implies that perceived psychological safety plays a significant role in explaining the impact, coworkers and manager behavior would have on regulating employee upward voice.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the employee voice literature from an Indian context, where upward communication is culturally discouraged.

A Model of Servant Leadership and Voice Through LMX Differentiation and Psychological Safety

Based on the servant leadership literature, researchers have found a lot of mediators, which can also be used by other leaderships. Researches have generally not uncovered the black box of unique mechanism for the unique characteristics of servant leadership. Integrating categorization theory with servant leadership research, this study tests the influence and mechanisms of servant leadership on team voice climate and employee voice behavior, including the mediating role of LMX differentiation and employee psychological safety, as well as the multilevel moderating role of team work goal progress. Data were collected from 349 subordinates and their immediate supervisors from 74 teams in Beijing, Guangzhou, Yunnan, and Chengdu of China to ensure the external validity of our study. Cross-level investigation reveals that servant leadership has a significant influence on team voice climate through LMX differentiation and employee voice behavior through employee psychological safety, while team work goal progress serves as multilevel moderator and moderated mediator for both team and individual levels relationship.

Organizational Error Management Culture and Employee Creativity: A Person-Culture Fit Model

The effects of organizational culture in dealing with errors on employee's psychological state and creativity have been rarely studied. In the framework of a person-culture model, this paper explored how organizational error management culture works in concert with different individual regulatory foci to enhance employee creativity by increasing employee's psychological safety. Through a multilevel moderated mediation analysis based on the data including 293 frontline employees from 56 hospitality organizations, this empirical study came to conclusion that that promotion focus strengthens the indirect relationship between organizational error management culture and employee creativity via psychological safety. Theoretical contributions to error management literature and creativity literature were discussed, followed by practical implications.

How Leaders’ Transparent Behavior Influences Employee Creativity: The Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Ability to Focus Attention

The present study examines whether and why leaders’ transparent behavior influences employee creativity. Field survey data from 51 teams and 199 employees in a large IT company located in China showed that both psychological safety and ability to focus attention mediated the positive relationship between leaders’ transparent behavior and employee creativity. Furthermore, leaders’ transparent behavior was found to be positively related to employee psychological safety, which in turn affected employee ability to focus attention and creativity. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

The impact of leadership on organizational ambidexterity and employee psychological safety in the global acquisitions of emerging market multinationals

This paper examines the impact of leadership on organizational ambidexterity and employee psychological safety (EPS) based on a sample of 105 global acquisitions of emerging market multinationals. The findings suggest that, compared to the transactional and laissez-faire ones, the charismatic leadership style is more significantly related to organizational ambidexterity and EPS. The results also suggest that transactional leadership is more positively related to ambidexterity and EPS than laissez-faire leadership. In addition, organizational ambidexterity is directly and positively associated with EPS. The implications of these results for both research and practice are discussed in the paper.

Supervisor Prosocial Motivation, Employee Thriving, and Helping Behavior: A Trickle-Down Model of Psychological Safety

Although helping behaviors have increased in importance as work has become more interdependent, employees may be hesitant to help others for fear of it affecting their ability to complete their own tasks. Drawing from social learning theory and self-determination theory, we propose and test a multilevel model that examines the effects of supervisor prosocial motivation and psychological safety on employee psychological safety, thriving, and helping behaviors. Using data collected from 245 employees and 83 supervisors, the results of our study demonstrate support for a positive relationship between supervisor psychological safety and employee psychological safety. We also found positive indirect effects of supervisor prosocial motivation on employee psychological safety. Finally, we found that the relationship between employee psychological safety and both helping behaviors and task performance occurred indirectly through employee thriving. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and also make suggestions for future research directions.

Making great minds think alike: Emerging market multinational firms’ leadership effects on targets’ employee psychological safety after cross-border mergers and acquisitions

This paper examines the impact of leadership on targets’ employee psychological safety (EPS), characterized by employees’ expectation of job and remuneration stability, during the cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by emerging market multinational companies (EMNEs). The M&As by Indian and Chinese companies forms the empirical context of this study and the case survey method is used to examine the effect of leadership on EPS. The results show that the EMNEs’ leadership visibility during the M&A process has no impact on the EPS, whereas, the trust in the EMNEs’ leadership has positive effect on the EPS. The deal status has a moderating effect on the leadership visibility and positively affects the EPS. This research finds evidence of target country differences in terms of the effect of EMNEs’ leadership on EPS and limited evidence of such effect for acquirer nationality differences.

Psychosocial safety climate, work conditions, and emotions in the workplace: A Malaysian population-based work stress study.

We integrated psychosocial safety climate (PSC) with the job demands and resources (JD-R; Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) framework to examine the impact of both job demands and job resources at work on employee depression, anger, and engagement. PSC refers to a climate for the protection of employee psychological health and safety. As PSC theoretically influences the working environment, we hypothesized that PSC would have an indirect effect on specific negative emotions (e.g., anger, depression) via job demands and an indirect effect on positive emotion (e.g., engagement) through job resources. We used a population-based sample consisting of 269 public and private employees from the State of Selangor, Malaysia. Overall, results using structural equation modeling showed that PSC negatively related to job demands and positively related to job resources. In mediated paths, job demands carried the effect of PSC on anger and depression, whereas job resources carried the effect of PSC on engagement. We also showed that job demands related negatively to engagement, and that the effect was carried by anger and depression. Using multigroup analysis, we found that the model was invariant within both the public and private sectors. These findings suggest that JD-R theory may be expanded to include PSC as an antecedent, and that the PSC model is largely valid in an Eastern, Muslim, developing economy setting.