Psychological safety describes the feeling of employees that they are allowed to express their personality and opinions within their organisation and their team, to articulate criticism of team members and superiors, and to suggest creative and unorthodox solutions. Studies in the field of organisational psychology have demonstrated various positive effects of psychological safety – on the commitment and dedication of individual employees as well as on the performance, innovation, and learning ability of the company as a whole. The newly launched research project will examine psychological safety from a communications perspective and show in which communicative settings employees feel psychologically safe and how strategic internal organisational communication can contribute to such a working climate. A systematic literature analysis, problem-centred qualitative interviews, and a quantitative online survey of employees are planned to address these questions.

The project is funded by the Academic Society for Management & Communication, an initiative of the Guenter Thiele Foundation for Communication & Management. Around € 32,000 will be provided for the one-year duration of the project. The project is led by Principal Investigators Sabine Einwiller and Jens Hagelstein and supported by Jeannine Huber and Raphaela Stibor.