Why psychological safety at work boosts employees and productivity

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health posited by US psychologist Abraham Maslow, “safety” comes directly after “physiological”. So, once our needs for air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sleep and bodily health have been met, we look for safety.

It may not seem that safety is something we need to look for in most workplaces – certainly those that are office-based – but “psychological safety” and a psychologically safe environment are extremely important to employees and leaders. Without this feeling of safety, employees don’t speak up and productivity and engagement can suffer, as can the business. But how is psychological safety created and what can businesses do to ensure it?

What is psychological safety?

Psychological safety is a term coined by one of the pioneers of counselling and psychotherapy, Carl Rogers, in 1954 in the context of enabling somebody to nurture their creativity, says Linda Breathnach, a counselling psychotherapist.

“He emphasised the importance of having an environment where external evaluation didn’t exist,” adds Breathnach. “He talked about enabling a sense of freedom so as to facilitate creative thought. He wasn’t encouraging nonconformity in behaviour but more the freedom to think creatively and in a nonconformist way.

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“It has since evolved through the decades as a concept, culminating in research by Dr Amy Edmondson in 1999 where she discovered that the teams who had the best outcomes were also the teams that made and admitted the most mistakes, while other teams with poorer outcomes were also less likely to admit mistakes.

“She defined psychological safety as ‘the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking’.”

Dr Melrona Kirrane is associate professor of organisational psychology at DCU Business School and academic director of the DCU leadership development programme for women, Let’s Lead! She says that, with psychological safety, “you’re trying to create an atmosphere where it’s okay to be wrong, it’s okay to question, it’s okay to disagree and you won’t pay a price for it”.

“In some workplaces it’s important to speak up and people need to feel able to speak up – for example, if there’s a life-and-death situation, such as with a flight crew, if the first officer doesn’t speak up to contradict the captain and there’s a threat to the safety of the flight,” says Kirrane.

Similarly, in hospital settings, if a patient is given the wrong prescription staff should be able to speak up – if they are fearful of doing so there could be a huge price to pay.

Importance in the workplace

Psychological safety is important for four reasons, according to Deirdre O’Shea, professor of work and organisational psychology at Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick: it helps to get things done (and improve how things are done) in organisations; it promotes learning; it improves overall work experience; and it is important for leaders to cultivate to improve team performance.

“Psychological safety creates a work environment where people feel safe and, indeed, motivated to contribute their knowledge in a timely and candid way,” says O’Shea. “This is very important for learning in organisations and for improving how things are done.”

Building safety into the culture

Psychological safety can’t be created overnight, says Breathnach; it involves a consistent form of leadership, “with an environment of clarity around expectations and an absence of blame”.

“It [requires] creating a space where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth and learning rather than failure,” she adds. “An emphasis on appreciation rather than fault-finding and negativity will also foster a culture of psychological safety.”

Some research has focused on leader behaviours and their association with psychological safety, says O’Shea.

“Behaviours such as listening, demonstrating competence and transparency in terms of sharing relevant information, and being open to feedback are positively associated with psychological safety in teams,” she adds. “Recently research has shown that feedback seeking and feedback sharing are effective in terms of increasing psychological safety.

“What we know less about at the moment is how other team members play a part in creating a sense of psychological safety. We also know less about how psychological safety changes over time – for example, with new team members, new leaders and organisational change processes.”

Happiness and productivity

The recent rise in “quiet quitting”, a term that has trended widely on social media, may well be attributable to a lack of psychological safety in the workplace, says Breathnach.

“Quiet quitting was a trend that encouraged just ‘turning up’ and doing the minimum that a person’s contract requires, with no room for volunteering for special projects, trying new things or taking risks in our learning or growth,” she explains.

“If somebody doesn’t experience psychological safety their motivation to achieve productively will naturally be hindered. High-performing teams often have a sense of psychological safety and happiness in their work.”

Destroying that sense of safety

Breathnach says psychological safety might be damaged or destroyed in atmospheres of micromanagement, distrust, blame, inconsistency, lack of transparency and/or broken promises.

“Communication breakdowns and a lack of diversity or inclusion can also cause psychological safety to be broken,” she says. “If a person doesn’t feel trusted and is afraid of being criticised or blamed for making a mistake they are not going to take risks in trying new things and working creatively is certainly not something they are going to feel empowered in doing.”

Self-serving behaviours where a leader puts their interests above those of their team or organisation have been shown to reduce psychological safety, says O’Shea.

“Perceptions of high ‘power distance’ are negatively related to psychological safety,” she adds.

Striking a balance

Leaders and managers have a vital role to play in creating and maintaining a sense of psychological safety in the workplace, says Breathnach.

“How they respond to steps taken by an employee and if they are consistent and trusting in their approach, using strong communication skills, can have a huge influence on a person’s freedom to take risks in how they grow and evolve,” she adds.

“This can become more difficult for a leader or manager to engage in as an approach if they themselves don’t have the freedom to follow model this behaviour because of toxic elements of an organisational culture that might be much bigger than them but they can still strive to make a difference one individual at a time by modelling best practice in leadership themselves.”

Companies are commercial entities, so performance and accountability are really important, says Kirrane.

“It can’t be like a country club where everyone is safe all the time, in that nothing threatens them,” she adds. “Edmondson makes the point that it is about safety but not at the expense of accountability and performance.

“She says that a psychologically safe environment is not one that has an endless forgiveness for mistakes and errors but it is one that doesn’t come down on you like a ton of bricks for the first mistake. But accountability is still key.

“When both those elements are in place you get people into a learning zone. If you’ve too much accountability – pressure for performance and targets, for example – people are just anxious all the time. But if it’s all about psychological safety then it’s a country club environment.”