Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration: Psychological Safety and Learning in Diverse Teams

A.  Edmondson; Kate  Roloff

Chapter | Team Effectiveness in Complex Organizations: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives and Approaches | 2008

Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration: Psychological Safety and Learning in Diverse Teams

by A. Edmondson and Kate Roloff

Abstract

We review research on psychological safety and team learning to identify core ideas and findings in these closely related literatures and to propose a model in which a negative relationship between team member diversity and team collaboration is moderated by psychological safety. We argue that when team members with diverse backgrounds must work together to accomplish challenging goals, psychological safety will facilitate their ability to overcome barriers to communication created by their differences. Although psychological safety may be of intrinsic value for all employees because it allows them to voice ideas, concerns, and questions at work, this chapter emphasizes the especially critical role of psychological safety in diverse teams. We hypothesize that the—potentially negative—effects of diversity on team collaboration and performance are mitigated by psychological safety.

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Groups and Teams; Social and Collaborative Networks; Performance Improvement; Learning; Diversity;

Format: Print

Citation:

Edmondson, A., and Kate Roloff. "Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration: Psychological Safety and Learning in Diverse Teams." In Team Effectiveness in Complex Organizations: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives and Approaches, edited by E. Sales, G. G. Goodwin, and C. S. Burke.Organizational Frontiers Series. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008.

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Overcoming Barriers to Collaboration: Psychological Safety and Learning in Diverse Teams

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