Team psychological safety and team performance: A moderated mediation analysis of psychological empowerment

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between team psychological safety and team performance and to test the mediating effect of learning orientation and moderating effect of psychological empowerment on that relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 50 teams and 345 team members from 20 different organizations. The moderated mediation analysis of psychological empowerment was tested using hierarchical regression analysis (PROCESS Macro) in SPSS.

Findings

The results show that higher the psychological empowerment, higher is the effect of psychological safety and learning orientation on team performance. Results supported the moderated mediation analysis of psychological empowerment.

Practical implications

Given that psychological empowerment and learning orientation of team members will effect team performance, organizational efforts to foster psychological empowerment should be rewarding. Focusing on channelizing team psychological safety to improve team members’ relationship, openness and comfort with each other will increase team performance.

Originality/value

The study incorporated learning orientation and psychological empowerment to redefine the relationship between psychological safety and team performance.

Citation

Jha, S. (2019), "Team psychological safety and team performance: A moderated mediation analysis of psychological empowerment", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 903-924. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2018-1567