Initiative climate, psychological safety and knowledge sharing as predictors of team creativity: A multilevel study of research and development project teams

Psychological safety and psychosocial safety climate in workplace: A bibliometric analysis and systematic review towards a research agenda

INTRODUCTION

Research on workplace safety has seen significant growth in academic and industry-focused literature over the past 20 years. However, the extant literature on workplace safety tends to focus on safety outcomes of physical accidents and injuries while relegating its conceptual and theoretical development to the background. Psychological safety and psychosocial safety climate in the workplace are essential to workers' health and safety. These concepts are crucial in enabling job satisfaction, work engagement, and performance productivity. Progressing the literature on this subject is necessary to keep abreast with the changing dynamics of the post-COVID challenges, such as working from home, isolation, and stress from AI, among others. A significant gap in the extant literature burrows in the lack of conceptual clarity of workplace safety from a psychological perspective and the poor understanding of its substantive effects on organizations. Hence, re-examining workplace safety's conceptual and theoretical foundations from a psychological lens offers a more nuanced understanding of its potential to contribute to employee well-being and organizational resilience, pursuing a better work-life safe and more comfortable working environment.

METHOD

This study: (a) synthesizes the theoretical propositions and empirical findings from 990 research articles published between 2000 and 2023 to map the existing body of knowledge about psychological safety and psychosocial safety climate, including their theoretical underpinnings and mechanisms, to offer a state-of-the-art overview of the scope of workplace occupational health and safety research from a psychological perspective; (b) applied a data-based research design adhering to PRISMA; (c) compiled descriptive synthesis and textual narrative syntheses through bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review; and (d) opens the black box of workplace safety research by presenting significant findings to inform future conceptual, theoretical, and methodological research as well as the practice of workplace safety through the lens of psychology.

RESULTS

This study's findings further offer managerial implications to workplace safety policy-making and human resource management practices to enhance employees' psychological safety and eliminate workplace psychosocial hazards.

Dimensionalized goal orientation, innovation climate, and knowledge sharing behavior in higher education research teams

Knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) in the work process is governed by achievement goals and organizational environments. It is of great value to focus on whether achievement goal orientation can effectively predict the employees knowledge sharing in the context of team innovation climate. On the basis of the data from 29 scientific research teams in China's higher education, a multi-layer linear model is constructed to investigate the cross-level relationship. The study finds that learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance proof orientation (PPO) contribute to knowledge sharing, performance avoidance orientation (PAO) tends to be knowledge hiding, and their political skills (PS) consolidate the connections. Team innovation climate not only promotes knowledge sharing behavior, but also activates the traits related to individuals' shared behavior in performance proof orientation, which has enhanced the relationship between achievement goal orientation and knowledge sharing, but has no effect on learning goal orientation and performance avoidance orientation.

Using the design-thinking method to develop and validate a peer evaluation scale for team-based learning (PES-TBL) for nursing students

BACKGROUND

Peer evaluation in team-based learning provides meaningful information about the learning process and dynamics. Despite the importance of peer evaluation in learner-centred learning, there is a lack of valid and reliable scales that reflect students' experiences in the classroom.

OBJECTIVES

To develop and validate a peer evaluation scale for team-based learning.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional methodological study.

SETTING

Four universities located in Gwangju, Republic of Korea.

PARTICIPANTS

Eight nursing students exposed to team-based learning voluntarily participated in a design-thinking project, and eight nursing professors were selected for content validity. For the validation of the Scale, 722 nursing students were randomly selected.

METHODS

The design-thinking method was implemented to develop the Scale, and a questionnaire was used to assess the Scale's construct validity and reliability. The construct validity was examined in a split-half analysis with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Cronbach's alpha, McDonald's omega, and composite reliability were investigated for the peer evaluation scale for team-based learning.

RESULTS

A 12-item tool, with each item using a 5-point scale for peer evaluation, was developed through the empathise, define, ideate, prototype, and test stages of the design-thinking method. Exploratory factor analysis identified three factors from the 12 items: responsibility, initiative, and collaboration. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the tool had acceptable convergent and discriminant validity, thus confirming good construct validity. All values for reliability were >0.70.

CONCLUSIONS

This study was noteworthy in that it employed the design-thinking method to reflect learners' opinions in developing a peer evaluation instrument. Moreover, the study demonstrated adequate evidence of reliability and validity. Consequently, the developed Scale can be effectively applied to team-based learning assessments for nursing students.

Unraveling the relationship between workplace dignity and employees’ tacit knowledge sharing: the role of proactive motivation

Purpose

Drawing on social exchange theory (SET) and proactive motivation model, this study aims to examine the relationship between workplace dignity and employees’ tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) and assess the mediating role of psychological safety and organizational identification in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Data are collected in the three waves from 307 first-line supervisors and professionals of high- and medium-high-tech manufacturing organizations of Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modelling technique is applied using SmartPLS 4 software to test hypothesized relationships.

Findings

Results reveal that workplace dignity is directly and positively related to TKS and psychological safety and organizational identification mediate this relationship.

Practical implications

This study highlights the importance of workplace dignity as a vital determinant of TKS. Findings of this research underscore the need for enactment of humanistic and employee-oriented organizational policies and practices that signal workplace dignity which can result in increased psychological safety and enhanced organizational identification leading towards higher TKS.

Originality/value

This research proffers novel understanding of the nexus between an embryonic socio-emotional element of workplace context, namely, workplace dignity and TKS. This study not only advances knowledge management literature from dignity perspective but also contributes to SET and proactive motivation model.

Do we need friendship in the workplace? The effect on innovative behavior and mediating role of psychological safety

Employees spend a huge time of their lives at work. As a result, friendships are often formed between individuals in the workplace. Workplace friendship is a fundamental value of human nature. Forming friendships in the workplace is vital to increase satisfaction and engagement at work. The present study proposes and tests a theoretical framework to explore the workplace friendship mechanisms and their impact on the innovative behavior of employees in the Omani service sector, and to clarify the mediating role of psychological safety. The data was gathered from the employees of private service sector in Oman. An online questionnaire form was distributed to the participants and 405 valid questionnaires were analyzed by SmartPLS software using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that workplace friendship aspects namely, friendship opportunity and friendship prevalence positively affected innovative behavior. Furthermore, friendship prevalence was positively correlated in relation to psychological safety. However, psychological safety did not have a mediating role between workplace friendship and innovative behavior. The findings are meaningful for the academic research and also give some practical suggestions for managers from a new viewpoint for the evaluation of workplace friendship in the context of the service sector, in order to achieve psychological safety, and to promote the innovative behavior of employees in this sector.

Motivations to share knowledge in professional service teams: the moderating role of project stage

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of three-perspective motivations including task interdependence, normative conformity, affective bonding on team knowledge sharing (KS) and the moderating effects of project stage on the proposed model paths.

Design/methodology/approach

The quantitative method was applied through surveying senior auditors representing 263 audit teams in Vietnam.

Findings

Findings show that task interdependence has salient effect on team KS. Normative conformity and affective bonding become more important when projects move to later stages where knowledge shared is more tacit and the team involves more social interactions.

Research limitations/implications

This study puts forth the limitations related to the study scope of financial statement auditing teams that may influence the generalization.

Practical implications

This study recommends auditing managers to be aware of diverse motivations for team KS and their increasingly important role in specific project stages.

Originality/value

The novelty of the research is to integrate three knowledge-sharing motivations based on economics, social and psychological perspectives and to affirm the dynamic nature of KS within team projects.