Feeling comfortable, safe and supported in the workplace has long been considered non-negotiable, especially for younger workers. It’s a concept called “psychological safety,” which is about avoiding interpersonal harm at work—such as confidently taking risks or admitting when you don’t know the answer—without fear that you’ll be judged or put down.
“It doesn’t mean there are no consequences, it just means you won’t be made fun of, laughed at, or made to feel bad about,” said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. wealth. “It’s hard to say that’s a good thing.”
But it turns out that being too soft can actually be a bad thing.
Cappelli found that the case for psychological safety is “much narrower” than most people imagine, especially given the recent emphasis on belonging and comfort at work. But work is ultimately a business, he said, and the psychological safety of a “no bad ideas” culture can fool people into thinking there are no consequences for poor performance.
Over the summer he published Research Discuss this topic with Tel Aviv University management professors Liat Eldor and Michal Hodor. Using cognitive psychology data, the trio found that employees’ feelings of comfort and security in creative work may cause performance on daily tasks to suffer.
In a published paper, he defined these feelings of “psychological safety” as “shared beliefs that people are free to take interpersonal risks in teams, such as asking for help or exposing mistakes, without any negative consequences.” But , companies tend to go too far when they give employees no sense of responsibility for poor work.
The study authors noted that while “moderate” psychologically safe workplaces were associated with better performance on daily tasks, “high” psychologically safe workplaces were associated with decreased performance. In an analysis of 474 knowledge workers, they found that high levels of psychological safety were associated with better performance—only up to a point, namely the 80th percentile. In addition to this, employee performance will also decline.
For routine tasks, a culture of high psychological safety may harm role performance because “it first focuses employees’ attention on more novel tasks, thereby distracting employees from core tasks, and second, encourages them to break through in routine tasks.” boundaries, and doing so would be counterproductive,” the researchers wrote.
What’s the solution? Collective Accountability – When everyone takes responsibility for every decision or action, good or bad, performance picks up.
Hurt feelings are a cost of doing business
Cappelli said that despite the shock value, the claim was rather mild. “Jobs that require you to take risks – that’s where creativity comes from – if people feel like you’re going to make them feel bad for making mistakes, coming up with ideas that don’t work or ideas that initially sound stupid, then they’re going to feel suffocated . ”
The misconception is that anything that makes people feel bad creates psychological insecurity – which is completely unsustainable for any worker.
“Can you imagine a scenario where you give someone a bad performance review and they No Feeling interpersonal hurt? ” he offered. “Or do you say, ‘We have to fire you, sorry, but don’t feel too bad?’ The real consequences of a particularly poor performance will inevitably create some sense of lack of psychological safety, which is why you can’t Take it to 100 percent. You need to take the consequences with real teeth.”
But there is a danger for either side to go too far. “The idea of making people feel bad about relationships as a strategy is a bad idea,” he said. “But it’s foolish to think there won’t be any bad feelings at all.”
That means the key isn’t to sweat the details, but to strike a good balance: don’t coddle workers, but don’t belittle their efforts either. But Cappelli said managers have enough on their plate that they don’t have to spiral into anxiety over where to draw the line between safe and unsafe.
“For most jobs, it’s probably not a big deal unless you’re constantly making people feel like they’re going to be laughed at, made fun of, or hurt interpersonally,” he said. “That’s not the way you should manage.”
Svlook
