The Interplay between Learning Orientation, Openness and Psychological Safety in Team Learning

Team learning has long been a central interest in team scholarship. Within this work, a number of emergent states have been considered in their influence on team effectiveness. In particular, team learning orientation is known to be positively related to team learning. However, it is less understood exactly how team learning orientation fosters team learning or whether there is conceptual overlap between team learning orientation and other emergent states related to team learning such as team psychological safety. To explore these questions, we designed a time-lagged, survey-based study of teams in the sales division of a large financial services firm, and tested a moderated mediation model of team learning that includes team learning orientation, team openness, and team psychological safety. Our results demonstrates that the relationship between team learning orientation on team learning is mediated by team psychological safety and further, that the relationship between team learning orientation and team psychological safety is moderated by the level of team openness. The mediation effect was only present when team openness was low, but not when it was high. Therefore, we reveal some initial patterns of interaction and discrimination among key team emergent states that are related to team learning.