Psychological Safety

Distinguishing Psychological Safety from Related Constructs

Team psychological safety is not the same as group cohesiveness. Notably, research on groupthink suggested that cohesiveness could reduce—rather than enhance—willingness to disagree and challenge others' views, thereby limiting rather than enabling interpersonal risk taking in a group. Similarly, creating psychological safety is not a matter of “being nice,” nor does the term suggest an absence of pressure or problems. Rather, it describes a climate in which the focus can be on productive—if difficult—discussion that enables early prevention of problems and accomplishment of shared goals because people are less likely to focus on self-protection. Conversation in environments high in psychological safety may be [Page 1330]unusually direct and even confrontational because people are less focused on self-protection and thus less likely to choose their words overly cautiously. For this reason, particular attention has been paid to psychological safety in the clinical psychology literature, as an important element of the therapeutic context.

Team psychological safety thus suggests neither a careless sense of permissiveness, nor an unrelentingly positive affect, but rather confidence that one's team will not embarrass, reject, or punish someone for speaking up. This confidence stems from mutual respect and trust among team members. Team psychological safety thus involves but goes beyond interpersonal trust; it describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.

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