Slacking Off in Comfort: A Dual-Pathway Model for Psychological Safety Climate

Abstract

Research on psychological safety climate has primarily focused on its salutary effects on group risk-taking behaviors. We developed a group-level dual-pathway model in which psychological safety climate also exerts a simultaneous negative effect on risk-taking behaviors by diminishing group average work motivation. In a field survey, we found that psychological safety climate was positively related to group learning behavior and voice through a reduction in group average fear of failure but negatively related to them through a reduction in group average work motivation. This dual-pathway model and its mechanisms were conceptually replicated in a laboratory experiment with group creativity as a different risk-taking behavior. In this experiment, we examined the moderating effects of group individualism/collectivism and found that psychological safety climate increased the originality and flexibility dimensions of group creativity through a reduction in group average fear of failure only in groups with a collectivistic orientation and reduced the fluency dimension of and time spent on creativity through a reduction in group average work motivation only in individualistic groups.