Fostering Psychological Safety in Global Virtual Teams: The Role of Team-Based Interventions and Digital Reminder Nudges

Psychological safety (PS), the feeling of being comfortable to express one’s ideas or opinions in teams, is a key determinant of successful global virtual teams (GVT). Even though considerable knowledge exists about its antecedents, it is unknown how team-based interventions (TBI) and technology-based interventions (digital reminder nudges, DRN) foster PS among team members. Based on a survey involving 235 participants, our data show that TBI and DRN foster psychological safety in GVT. However, only the effect of TBI on psychological safety can be explained with a higher-quality coordination process. It remains unclear what causal mechanism explains the effect of DRN. These findings contribute to the literature on PS by showing that TBI facilitate effective coordination processes and to the literature on digital nudges by demonstrating that technology-based reminders drive PS.