Paradise Lost (and Restored?): A Study of Psychological Safety over Time

Although prior research indicates that psychological safety can fluctuate, questions about when and why remain. To gain insights into the emergence and temporal dynamics of psychological safety, we explored longitudinal data representing more than 10,000 health care workers. Using multilevel growth models, we discovered that clinicians with less than one year of service (i.e., newcomers) enjoyed higher psychological safety than their more-tenured colleagues but lost it over time. High psychological safety at the department level dampened the downward trajectory of newcomers’ psychological safety, and, as they accrued tenure, person-level differences explained an increasing proportion of variance in individuals’ beliefs about interpersonal risk taking. Drawing on these findings, we propose a framework in which situated interactions between individual and group-level climate factors shape and constrain psychological safety. We posit that the influence of these factors varies over time, partially due to dynamic asymmetries of information and differences in the consequences of interpersonal risk taking. For scholars, we hope our insights will motivate new lines of inquiry to elaborate our findings. For practitioners, our study suggests that investments to reinforce psychological safety might generate substantial benefits, especially for new employees.