Feeling safe at work: Development and validation of the Psychological Safety Inventory

Rachel A. Plouffe, Natalie Ein, Jenny J.W. Liu, Kate St. Cyr, Clara Baker, Anthony Nazarov, J. Don Richardson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
301 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Psychological safety, defined as perceptions that an individual within a team is supported and feels safe to take interpersonal risks, voice opinions, and share ideas, is vital for organizational effectiveness. However, there is no consensus on how workplace psychological safety should be measured. We developed the Psychological Safety Inventory (PSI) in response to organizational needs to accurately assess psychological safety. A 70-item version of the PSI was administered to 497 employees from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Based on factor analytic findings, we reduced the preliminary PSI to a 30-item, five-factor scale. The PSI showed high reliability and correlated as anticipated with convergent measures. Overall, the PSI is a valid and reliable measure of workplace psychological safety.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)443-455
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Journal of Selection and Assessment
Volume31
Issue number3
Early online date25 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023

Keywords

  • psychological safety
  • psychometrics
  • scale validation
  • teams
  • workplace

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Business,Management and Accounting
  • Applied Psychology
  • General Psychology
  • Strategy and Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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