Description

The Team Learning and Psychological Safety Survey (TLPSS) is a psychometric instrument designed to assess two fundamental characteristics of effective teamwork: psychological safety and team learning processes.

The questionnaire evaluates the extent to which team members feel safe to express opinions, ask questions, share ideas, provide feedback, admit mistakes, and take interpersonal risks without fear of negative consequences.

The TLPSS focuses on the relationship between a supportive team climate and the ability of members to learn collectively through collaboration, reflection, and shared experiences.

Objective

The main objectives of the TLPSS are:

Assessment of Psychological Safety, by measuring the degree of trust, openness, and perceived safety within a team environment.

Assessment of Team Learning, by evaluating the ability of team members to acquire knowledge, reflect on experiences, exchange information, and improve collective performance.

Enhancement of Collaboration, by providing information that can support strategies for improving communication, teamwork, and organizational learning.

Structure and Content

The TLPSS examines key dimensions related to team functioning:

Psychological Safety, referring to the perception that team members can communicate openly, express concerns, ask questions, and discuss mistakes without fear of criticism or punishment.

Team Learning Behaviour, referring to processes through which teams learn from experiences, share knowledge, reflect on performance, and develop improved approaches.

Trust and Open Communication, assessing the quality of interpersonal relationships and the willingness of members to participate actively in collaborative processes.

Participants typically respond to statements using a Likert-type scale ranging from disagreement to agreement.

Scoring Method

The TLPSS is usually scored using a Likert-type response format.

Participants evaluate statements according to their level of agreement, commonly ranging from:

1 = Strongly disagree

to

5 = Strongly agree.

Scores are calculated by averaging or summing responses across items to create overall indicators of psychological safety and team learning.

Higher scores indicate a stronger climate of trust, open communication, collaboration, and collective learning.

Lower scores may indicate difficulties related to communication barriers, fear of failure, reduced participation, or limited learning opportunities within the team.

Data Analysis and Use

The analysis of TLPSS data may include:

Descriptive Statistics, including means, standard deviations, and response distributions, to describe the overall level of psychological safety and team learning.

Reliability Analysis, using internal consistency indicators such as Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire dimensions.

Factor Analysis, to examine the underlying structure of the scale and confirm the distinction between psychological safety and team learning dimensions.

Correlation and Regression Analysis, to investigate relationships between psychological safety, team learning, performance outcomes, satisfaction, and organizational effectiveness.

The results can support the identification of strengths and weaknesses in team functioning and contribute to interventions aimed at improving collaboration and organizational learning.

Validity and Reliability

The psychometric evaluation of the TLPSS is based on the assessment of internal consistency, construct validity, and relationships with relevant organizational and psychological variables.

Research on psychological safety has demonstrated that a climate of trust and openness facilitates learning behaviours, knowledge sharing, and effective teamwork.

The concept of psychological safety was introduced and extensively studied by Edmondson (1999), who demonstrated the relationship between team psychological safety and learning behaviour in work teams.

Applications

The Team Learning and Psychological Safety Survey can be applied in organizational psychology, human resource management, education, healthcare teams, research groups, and other collaborative environments.

It provides organizations and researchers with a structured method for understanding how team climate influences communication, learning, innovation, and collective performance.

References

Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

Edmondson, A. C. (2004). Psychological safety, trust, and learning in organizations: A group-level lens. In Trust and Distrust in Organizations: Dilemmas and Approaches (pp. 239–272).

Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.