Psychological Safety and Team Effectiveness – A Quantitative Study of IT Teams from Sweden and The United States

The modern economy has put an emphasis on team-led work in both large- and small-scale projects. This has led to ways to maximize the effectiveness of teams, with an increasing focus being put on one key concept: psychological safety. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between psychological safety and team effectiveness through the use of a cross-sectional study design on an IT population. Team effectiveness was assessed using a comprehensive framework, which defines team effectiveness through team performance, team satisfaction, and team viability. Furthermore, team learning was evaluated as a mediator. Finally, a cross-cultural comparison was done on psychological safety between a competitive-driven work culture (USA) and a consensus-driven work culture (Sweden). We analyzed data collected from 128 participants (Sweden, n1 = 43; USA, n2 = 85) that are a part of information technology teams. The results indicate that psychological safety positively and significantly correlates with team effectiveness and its sub-dimensions, with team learning serving as a partial mediator for team viability and the combined measure of team effectiveness. In addition, no significant differences between the United States and Sweden in regard to the reporting of psychological safety was found. The results from this study add to the growing body of evidence of a relationship between psychological safety and the effectiveness of a work team. Additionally, it deepens the insight into the construct of team effectiveness especially team satisfaction and team viability which have not been addressed to a great extent in previous research. In the future, studies should focus on examining these relations longitudinally to gain information on causality.