An empirical study of psychological safety and performance in technology R&D teams

Abstract

R&D teams are utilized to develop technologies, improve services and operations. Thus, understanding how R&D teams perform successfully is the focus of this study. Psychological safety could facilitate team learning because team members are not afraid to make mistakes and then teams could perform better. Therefore, this study analyzes psychological safety in team performance and examines the mediated effect of team learning on psychological safety and team performance in technology R&D teams. Our research model is assessed using data from a sample of 100 members of 60 technology R&D teams and is analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) method. The results of this study indicate: (1) psychological safety has an effect on team performance and (2) team learning mediates the relationship between psychological safety and team performance. This study also discusses implications for technology R&D teams, based on the results of this study.