Workplace Learning Potential as a Mediator Between Psychological Safety and Strategy Implementation

Abstract

Organisations are required to strategically renew to survive the competition and sudden shifts in the modern world. In addition to making the right choices, a successful strategic change entails implementation. However, strategy implementation often fails due to problems in communication and inadequate information sharing. This study conceptualizes strategy implementation as the concrete actions and interactions that employees participate during their everyday work. Consequently, implementing a new strategy demands that employees adapt to new actions and thinking – in other words, learning. Thus, the success of the implementation process depends on learning. A growing body of literature recognizes the importance of psychological safety in learning processes. Psychological safety fosters an environment of trust in which employees can voice their true opinions regarding the strategy and are not afraid to learn through trial and error. Yet, the current understanding of the relationships between strategy implementation (SI), learning potential of the workplace (LPW) and psychological safety (PS) is fragmented. Previous studies have recognized the significance of learning in organisational change and strategy process, but they suffer from vague definitions of learning. Furthermore, research on the relationship between strategy implementation and psychological safety is lacking. The aim of this multidisciplinary empirical study is to fill mentioned research gap and create an understanding of how these phenomena are connected by examining their relationships with quantitative methods, utilizing scientifically valid measures. The sample consists of Finnish working-age adults (n = 1023). A mediation model confirmed significant associations between 1) PS and SI, 2) LPW and SI, 3) PS and LPW, and 4) an indirect effect of PS on SI via LPW. Besides confirming prior findings and opening new insights, the results of this study can be applied in organisations to improve and build sustainable practices for strategy implementation, change management, learning, and to cultivate open communication and collaboration in teams.