An empirical study of psychological safety and performance in technology R&D teams

R&D teams are utilized to develop technologies, improve services and operations. Thus, understanding how R&D teams perform successfully is the focus of this study. Psychological safety could facilitate team learning because team members are not afraid to make mistakes and then teams could perform better. Therefore, this study analyzes psychological safety in team performance and examines the mediated effect of team learning on psychological safety and team performance in technology R&D teams. Our research model is assessed using data from a sample of 100 members of 60 technology R&D teams and is analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) method. The results of this study indicate: (1) psychological safety has an effect on team performance and (2) team learning mediates the relationship between psychological safety and team performance. This study also discusses implications for technology R&D teams, based on the results of this study.

I. INTRODUCTION

Team is a primary mechanism for completing organizational tasks. According to [12], there are two advantages to use of teams. First, teamwork can authorize people to employ their abilities, which have connection with ambition and team cohesiveness. Second, team managers can focus on strategic issues rather than supervising team members. Therefore, the team becomes important mechanism in organizational operation [16]. Teams amplify effectiveness in organizations for finishing tasks and make teamwork reach the goal. Katzenbach and Smith showed the discipline of teams is a result of the collective performance of a team, which exceeds the sum of performance of individual members. In other words, team and performance are inseparable [8]. Team performance is the record of outcome achieved in carrying out a specified work aspect during a specified term. In particular, psychological safety is imperative for performance in a team.