PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND TRUST. A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Working in an environment that feels safe is one of the most important aspects when studying performant teams. Team or group members must trust each other while working together on various tasks. This trust is gained over time, after successfully passing through all phases of team development. In this theoretical paper, we discussed the concept of psychological safety in the relation between trust and performance. We approached both Edmondson's idea of interpersonal trust as a prerequisite for psychological safety and the idea that psychological safety might be a mediator that influences the well‐known relationship between interpersonal trust and team performance. After making the required theoretical clarifications, we concluded that further investigation is needed to have a clear conclusion on this topic.

Keywords

• psychological safety
• trust
• performance
• teams
• groups
• members
• relations
• organisations