ACE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

CONCEPTUAL PLAN

ON

‘Crea ng a Culture of Psychological Safety: Exploring its

Dual Impact on Employee Well-being and Team Learning
in the Workplace’

Prepared By:

Sangam Acharya

EMBA, Fall 2023

Topic

‘Crea ng a culture of psychological safety: Exploring its dual impact on employee well-being and
team learning in the workplace’

Introduc on

In today's rapidly evolving workplaces, the concept of psychological safety is gaining importance
as a crucial determinant of employee performance. As per organiza onal behavior researcher
Amy Edmondson, psychological safety summarizes the belief that a work environment is
conducive to interpersonal risk-taking. This idea is crucial for boos ng teamwork, crea vity, and
overall job happiness. Recognizing the pivotal role of psychological safety is essen al as
organiza ons seek to op mize employee engagement and innova on.

As per Timothy R Clark, psychological safety exists in four stages:

a) Inclusion safety: Team members feel secure as part of the group.

b) Learner safety: Team members can learn by asking ques ons.
c) Contributor safety: Team members feel secure sharing their ideas without worrying about
embarrassment or ridicule.
d) Challenger safety: Team members can ques on others' ideas, including those in authority,
or propose significant changes to ideas, plans, or ways of working.

Including the essence of the stages of psychological safety, this essay will explore the direct link
between psychological safety and employee performance. This essay also focuses on the impact
of psychological safety on the mental health of employees. As workplaces increasingly priori ze
adaptability and crea vity, knowing and promo ng psychological safety is a key strategy for
bringing out the best in individuals and teams.

Theses

1. Psychological safety in the workplace influences the employee mental health, and overall
well-being of employees, which also impacts employee performance.
2. Team psychological safety influences the learning behavior in organiza onal work teams.

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Conceptual Framework of Thesis 1: “Psychological safety in the workplace influences the
employee mental health, and overall well-being of employees, which also impacts
performance”

 Argument 1: Psychological safety increases the mental health of employees

o Present a brief introduc on on what is psychological safety, and how it can be
enhanced in the workplace.
o Explain the impact of different stages of psychological safety on the mental health
of employees.
o Considering employee mental health and well-being as media ng variables
analyze the role of psychological safety on employee performance.
o Present the theories of Psychological Safety Climate (PSC), and relate them to
mental well-being at the workplace (Nguyen et al., 2017)
o Argue that psychological safety is decreased by psychological stress, and highlight
on the causes of psychological stress to employees in an organiza on.
o Highlight the findings of the study by Sasaki et al. (2022)- impacts of psychological
safety on psychological distress, work engagement, job performance, and job
sa sfac on.
o Present some examples of organiza ons where psychological safety can be low,
and how such organiza ons are handling to improve psychological safety and
mental health.
 Argument 2: Good mental health has a posi ve impact on employee performance
o Elaborate the statement that mental health can be considered as a consistent and
stable trait (Wright et al., 1993)
o Present the findings of the study by Ahmadi et al. (2012), de Oliveira et al. (2023)
and Wright et al. (1993)- discussing about the impact that mental health plays on
workplace produc vity and job performance of managers.
o Argue that mental health is related to employee performance, considering
emo onal intelligence as a media ng variable (Lindebaum, 2013).

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 o Argue that employee mental health impacts job performance, and such a
rela onship is mediated by innova ve behavior and work engagement.

Conceptual Framework of Thesis 2: “Team psychological safety influences the learning behavior
in organiza onal work teams”

 Argument 1: Team psychological safety facilitates learning behavior in work teams.

o Define ‘team psychological safety’, as an unspoken agreement in a team, that
encourages people to speak up and take risks without worrying about nega ve
consequences.
o Define ‘team learning’, explaining that it is a collabora ve learning that exists in
the process of social par cipa on rather than the acquisi on of knowledge by
each individual.
o Explain the ‘psychological safety in learning’ theory presented by Clark (2020).
o Discuss the ways how psychological safety builds its path among the team
members, providing some examples by Cauwelier et al. (2016), Edmondson
(1999), and Sharma & Mehta (2023).
o Discuss that team leaders must promote a climate of openness that fosters the
team members’ willingness to engage in learning behavior (Edmondson & Roloff,
2009).
o Argue that a psychological safe environment provides a comfortable environment
to ask ques ons, seek feedback, and discuss the errors freely, which subsequently
helps the team to foster their learning behavior.

 Argument 2: Enhanced team psychological safety fosters a culture of innova on.

o Present the findings of Li et al. (2015): Team psychological safety is posi vely
related to team innova on performance.
o Innova on and open communica on have become vital sources of compe ve
advantage in nearly every industry. Though ul execu ves, managers, consultants,
and clinicians in a variety of industries are seeking to help their organiza ons make

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 changes to create psychological safety as a strategy to promote learning,
innova on, and employee engagement (A. C. Edmondson, 2018).
o Discuss that psychological safety provides the opportunity for produc ve
disagreement, construc ve cri cism, and free exchange of ideas (A. C.
Edmondson, 2018).
o Present the statement that psychological safety also enhances conflict resolu on
which leads to innova on.

References

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