For all its benefits, too much psychological safety in the workplace may lead to lower job performance, according to research summarized in a Jan. 3 Harvard Business Review article.
The concept of psychological safety has been around for decades and refers to the idea of creating an environment where individuals feel safe or secure in expressing themselves without fear of interpersonal harm. Many studies have linked psychological safety to higher levels of creativity, asking for help and learning new things. However, a key caveat exists in previous research: Most studies have focused only on "average" effects of psychological safety.
"But psychological safety is not an 'either/or' outcome; it is a question of degree," the authors wrote. "Situations where it may be very useful can mask other situations where it may actually be harmful if we are only looking at averages."
Thus, researchers looked at what psychological safety looks like and how much is useful across front-line jobs in retail, nursing, finance, software, pharmaceuticals and startups. They found that job performance declined when moving from average to high levels. This could be the result of people taking unnecessary risks in environments where leaders promote "no bad ideas" messaging, and the notion that people will not be held accountable for their mistakes, which may be especially concerning in jobs that require sticking to standards and rules, the authors said.
Very low levels of psychological safety are also a concern and should be addressed in any workplace, but excessively high levels may be counterproductive in many jobs, the authors concluded.