Psychological Safety Scale

What it measures

Measures the shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking — that members can speak up, ask questions, admit errors, and offer ideas without fear of ridicule or punishment. One of the most important team-level constructs in organisational psychology — Google's Project Aristotle identified psychological safety as the single most important factor distinguishing high-performing teams. In service and consumer research, psychological safety in frontline service teams predicts customer-oriented service climate, willingness to handle failures proactively, and quality of customer interactions.

Representative items

• If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you. (R)
• Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
• People on this team sometimes reject others for being different. (R)
• It is safe to take a risk on this team.
• It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help. (R)

Citation

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.