The Moderating Role of Intragroup Trust and Team Transformational Leadership on the Relationship between Psychological Safety and Learning Behaviour in Teams

Abstract

The study investigated the moderating role of intragroup trust and team transformational leadership on the relationship between team psychological safety and learning behaviour in teams. Fifty seven work teams comprising four hundred and fifty six respondents in teams of seven to nine members were purposively sampled from five financial institutions in Accra. Ghana. Team members completed questionnaires on Team Psychological Safety (Edmondson. 1999). Intragroup trust (Simons & Peterson, 2000) and Team Transformational Leadership (Carless, Wearing. & Mann. 2000), whereas team leaders provided ratings of the teams' learning behaviour (Edmondson, 1999). Team members’ responses were aggregated and matched to their respective team leaders for each team. Hierarchical regression and moderation analysis were run on data at the team level of analysis. Results indicated a positive relationship between team psychological safety and team learning behaviour with team transformational leadership moderating the relationship as predicted. However, intragroup trust did not moderate the relationship between team psychological safety and team learning behaviour. It was concluded that a team will feel psychologically safe when there is some amount of trust among team members. However, no additional trust within the team may be necessary in reaping the positive effects of team psychological safety on team learning behaviour. Furthermore, team transformational leadership facilitates learning in the team by creating a climate where team members' opinions, questions and help are welcomed at no interpersonal risk.