A master thesis from Aalborg University
Organisational characteristics' influence on psychological safety: A mixed method study about organisational characteristics' influence on psychological safety within agile software teams
Term
4. Term
Publication year
2023
Submitted on
2023-06-08
Pages
83 pages
Abstract
Psychological safety (PS) in the workplace is essential for a well-functioning agile software team. Agile software teams have common organisational characteristics that influence PS; however, it is unknown how. Utilising a mixed method approach with 12 interviewees and 468 survey participants, we found that organisational characteristics guided by social interactions, have an influence on PS compared to structural aspects which do not. PS cannot be reduced to a single concept; it encapsulates actions performed by both managers and the team. Team autonomy was found to be sub-sumed by variables also influencing PS, which indicates autonomy’s position in an organisational context. Our findings show the importance of team members and managers collaborating, in the process of improving their work environment towards higher PS. We propose multiple implications in regard to maintaining a psychologically safe agile software team. These include proac-tive leadership, establishing guidelines for good argumentation, as well as collaboration to create a culture of openness in communication.
Keywords
Documents
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