Guidelines to promote and to support the psychological safety of people, teams and companies

Abstract

Following the wound inflicted by the traumatic experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has radically changed - deconstructing them - the working dynamics in terms of space, time and subjective experience, it becomes a priority to stimulate some reflections relating to the psychological safety construct in the organizational sphere. Specifically, starting from a definition of what psychological safety is, here below are investigated the main organizational and relational factors involved and their potential impact in terms of individual vulnerability and sustainability of mental health status of individuals, teams and organizations. The potential multidimensional perspective relating to psychological safety is understood as a keystone capable of creating, developing and sustaining a resilient culture that attributes to it the individual and collective power to become an active and specific "immune system". In this vision, the investment of psychological and contextual resources coincides, on the one hand, with the ability to adapt to situations and to cope with adversity and, on the other, with the development of new shared tools, such as: organizational empathy and solidarity, psychological development and flexibility, capable of converting and using fear at the service of "innovative" experiences, open to change, aimed at promoting both mental health and organizational well-being in the long term.

doi: 10.53240/2023topic2001.05