Correlating Manager Interpersonal Skills with Team Psychological Safety

Psychological safety has been consistently linked to positive workplace outcomes, including increased team learning and task performance (Edmondson, 1999; Newman et al., 2017). Previous research focusing on the development of psychological safety has identified several of its antecedents (Frazier et al., 2017). For instance, leaders have been found to play a critical role in shaping the psychological safety climate within the work teams (Nemanich & Vera, 2009; Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006). However, fewer studies have explored what aspects of positive leadership are beneficial for fostering psychological safety. Thus, the current study draws upon theory and research in counselling psychology to explore the role of leaders’ interpersonal skills in building team psychological safety. Specifically, leaders’ facilitative interpersonal skills (FIS; Anderson et al., 1999), the skills in facilitating interpersonal processes especially in challenging situations, are expected to correlate positively with psychological safety. Anderson et al. (1999, 2009) have developed and validated a performance-based measure of therapist FIS and found that FIS was associated with positive client outcomes. The current research aims to modify and validate an FIS measure for leaders and to explore the relationship between FIS and team psychological safety.

Faculty Supervisor:

Kevin Kelloway

Student:

Partner:

PairCoach Enterprises Inc

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Saint Mary's University

Program: