Psychological safety and its strong correlation to both group development and safety culture

Abstract

The world is evolving faster than ever before, and as Lauren Bacall once put it “standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world”. Times have and will continue to change, and perhaps so must leadership. Accidents have occurred at least as long as humans have been alive. There are several different types and magnitudes of accidents, likewise, are the causes of those and the affected occupational aspects as different. Despite decades going by, whilst procedures and protocols are followed, or even the fact that the evolution of civilization and technology continues - accidents still do and will occur. More often than not, these could potentially be related to Group Development, Safety Culture, and especially, Psychological Safety. The latter is characterized by the fear of reprimands or being viewed as incompetent, thus choosing to remain silent rather than to speak up. Within every single industry, accident occur, yet they often are a cause of the same elements. Whether that includes human factors or socio-technological systems - humans are humans and emotions control our behaviors and decisions to some extent regardless of occupational industries. Although the Titanic and Costa Concordia accidents were a century apart - the outcomes and causes of the accidents were yet relatively closely related. Psychological safety is defined by Amy C. Edmondson as “the shared belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”. Nonetheless, Edmondson acknowledges the fact that psychological safety is insufficient for organizations or companies to become successful or productive. Instead, there is also a need for a high level of commitment to excellence and psychological safety as necessary foundations to build successful groups or teams on, which is also confirmed by Susan Wheelan. In this study, 75 respondents returned the survey that included the previously validated questionnaires of Psychological Safety, Group Development (GDQs), and Safety Culture (SCOPE-PC). Thereby, analyzing the correlation between the aforementioned within the maritime industry. The results indicate a statistical significance of Psychological Safety being, in fact, strongly correlated to Group Development (Multiple-RGD = 0,852) and Safety Culture (Multiple-RSC = 0,846). Meaning, teams with higher levels of psychological safety are not only more likely to find themselves in a more mature group-development stage, but they are also more likely to share higher qualities of safety culture. This shows an indication of psychological safety being in fact an important nominator in the equation that strongly affects whether teams become more successful or not. Correspondingly, a high level of psychological safety could not only facilitate better team dynamics and organizations, but also make the industry safer. Though, on the condition that people feel safe opening up, offering ideas, sharing knowledge, and having the possibility of speaking up without the risk of humiliation or punishment. Psychological Safety, Group Development, and Safety Culture are all broad subjects and topics within themselves. Thus, making it practically impossible to go into detail for each, within the scope of one study alone. However, this research investigates the correlation between Psychological Safety, Group Development, and Safety Culture within the maritime industry - through a quantitative approach