Team Psychological Safety and Conflict Trajectories’ Effect on Individual’s Team Identification and Satisfaction

Abstract

Using a multilevel field study with data collected over a 9-month period, we tested how team psychological safety interacts with levels of team relationship conflict to influence an individual’s team identification and satisfaction with their team. We propose that team psychological safety measured early in a team’s time together influences what team members can expect to experience in subsequent team interactions. We use identification and team conflict theory to theorize that through sense-making processes, team members evaluate early experiences with their team relative to initial levels of team psychological safety, which then influences their levels of team identification. When team members experience high levels of team psychological safety initially followed by an increasing trajectory of relationship conflict within the team over time, we predicted and found that individual’s team identification decreased, resulting in lower satisfaction with their team. The theoretical and practical implications for aligning early perceptions of team’s psychological safety with patterns of perceived relationship conflict and its effect on team identification and satisfaction with the team are discussed.