Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams
Method
"In total, 427 team members from 51 teams completed the surveys, an 86-percent response rate" ... "two or three managers outside of each team were identified as recipients of the team's work and were given a short survey I developed to assess team learning behavior and performance; 135 of the 150 observers surveyed returned the survey, a 91-percent response rate."
Population
"'Office Design Incorporated' (ODI), a manufacturer of office furniture with approximately 5,000 employees"
What it does not show
This is the construct-defining study, in an office-furniture manufacturer, not a software population. The author cautions that a single company “suggest[s] caution in drawing conclusions for teams in other organizations” and that 51 teams is small for multivariate analysis. Cross-sectional, so causal direction cannot be established.
Amy C. Edmondson
Team psychological safety is associated with learning behaviour — asking questions, discussing errors, seeking feedback — and that behaviour statistically mediates the relationship between safety and performance as rated by observers outside the team.
Tier II: Cross-sectional field study of 51 real work teams in one company, with surveys plus independent observer ratings of performance. No experimental manipulation, so observational rather than controlled.