University of Twente Student Theses
Observed Psychological Safety and Individual Job Performance: Behavioral Differences in Monocultural and Multicultural Agile Teams
Anker, M.S. In 't (2023) Observed Psychological Safety and Individual Job Performance: Behavioral Differences in Monocultural and Multicultural Agile Teams.
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| Abstract: | Given today’s globalized world, the importance of multicultural teams has significantly increased over the past decades. However, the composition of these teams, especially when working Agile, can potentially impact psychological safety during meetings, which in turn might affect individual job performance. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore how observed psychological safety can differ between mono- and multicultural teams and its impact on individual job performance. To be able to obtain more objective and reliable results, psychological safety behaviors were observed during Sprint Retrospective meetings of two monocultural and two multicultural agile teams, and related to individual job performance. Consequently, an exploratory sequential study was conducted through a mixed-method research design, with both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The findings of this thesis underline that monocultural agile teams seem to have slightly higher levels of observed psychological safety in their meetings than multicultural agile teams. This is likely due to a lower presence of psychologically unsafe behaviors (such as defensive voice behaviors, defensive silence behaviors, and unsupportive behaviors) in monocultural agile teams. Furthermore, a positive relationship has been established between observed psychological safety and individual job performance in the episode analysis, and in one comparison of the comparative frequency analysis. To increase individual job performance, the practical implications of this thesis suggest that organizations should increase the cultural knowledge and embracement of other cultures, and increase awareness about the effects of psychological safety on individual job performance to the employees. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | International Business Administration BSc (50952) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/95339 |
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