Psychological Safety

This article explores the theory of self-efficacy and its importance in modern organizational contexts. It discusses the concept of psychological safety and its impact on employee performance and well-being. The article also highlights the role of managers in maintaining clarity and consistency in the workplace.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
Psychological Safety
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
The theory of self-efficacy had been chosen as it is one of the most important theories
that are used in modern organizational contexts. It is important for each and every employee to
be sure about their inner strengths and their self-worth. The theory of self-efficacy can be defined
as the ability or the strength that is present within an individual for meeting with different
challenges. However, it must be noted in this contact that people might often get confused
between the concepts of self-efficacy and that of resilience. There are people who might think
that people who have good self-efficacy will always be able to attain success. However this is
not the case. This is because both success and failure can affect a person who has high self-
efficacy. I was always very afraid of getting defeated in any of the tasks that I was taking up. I
always tried my level best to make sure that I win in any and every situation. However, it must
be noted in this context that there are three different aspects of the self-concept or the self-
efficacy concept. The three concepts are complexity, consistency, clarity. It has to be noted in
this concept that people often have multiple or different views about their own selves. This gives
rise to the complications present within each and every individual. It has been argued by
Cherniss, (2017) that people usually show the same characteristic feature during any particular
situation. However, at the same time, Panadero, Jonsson & Botella, (2017) has argued that the
same person might also show different emotions and different expressions. However, Skaalvik
& Skaalvik, (2017) has suggested that it is really very essential for individuals to maintain the
two aspects namely consistency and that of clarity in order to work properly within the
organizational setup. In particular, people who are working at important leadership or the
management positions must make sure that they are maintaining clarity about the feelings and
the attributes that are present within them. This will help them to use the quality of resilience for
the overall benefit of their team members as well. Conway & Briner (2009) has stated that self-

3PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
efficacy can better be understood through the concept of self-evaluation. The concept of self-
efficacy is about keeping a firm belief within one’s ability, motivation and all the other qualities
that are needed for completing a task in a successful manner. However, Zhao et al., (2007) have
argued that if the setting or the surrounding environment is altered then it might not be possible
for the individuals to display the similar kinds of qualities and to attain success.
Lepak & Snell, (1999) is of the opinion that verbal persuasion is one of the best
techniques that might help individuals to become confident about themselves and take proper
decisions. It has been argued by Billett, (2001) that verbal persuasion might not hold well in each
and every aspect. The best examples of self-efficacy can be brought to light only when the
individuals are being subjected to different kinds of situations. Billett, (2002) is also of the
opinion that the misunderstandings or the misinterpretations often might lead to the false
understanding of the strengths that are present within someone. The stress and the anxiety often
play an essential role in making the individuals understand about the actual qualities that are
present within them. Mondak et al., (2017) has also argued that the Vicarious experiences often
matter a great deal while deciding the self-efficacy within any individuals. The self-efficacy is
instilled by any particular leader or any particular role models. It depends upon the impact that
the role models or the idols may have on the individuals. All these aspects are to be taken into
account while one is working within an organizational setup. This is because of the fact that the
managers have to motivate the employees to have the firm belief within themselves so that they
can deal; within each and very tough situations or challenges that might come up in their ways.
Collins, Brown & Newman, (1987) is of the opinion that the aspect of contract and behavior is
one of the best means that can be used by the employees in order to know about the different
characteristics of their employees. They have to see how the employees are reacting if any

4PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
promises are being broken. The managers must be focusing on the long term duration of the
psychological contracts. The management positions mainly involve high involvement teams. As
a result of this, the managers must be able to focus on the teams that have a high member
commitment, mutual support for a very long time, dynamism and other such aspects. This it can
be said that this theory of self-efficacy is really very important to know the workplace scenario
as it will be helping in adapting with the challenging and the changing conditions of the
workplace.
There are several incidents taking place at the organization that often makes use of the
concept of self-efficacy. The psychological contract is one of the most important aspects that
must be seen by all the managers while they are operating within the organizational context. I
will be narrating them with the help of a certain incident that took place in my organization. The
contract and the breach is one of the major aspects that are prevalent in the organization. I was
working as one of the board members in an organization and there was a sudden outbreak of a
dispute in the organization. The employees were promised that they will be given promotions
and also some hike in their salary. However, the management had to cancel this decision as they
were not really very happy with the performance that has been set up by the employees.
However, they had to somehow postpone their plan of giving a hike and also the promotions.
This really angered the employees and they started feeling betrayed. They felt that the managers
did a breach of trust. I had to take some steps that would be helping me to solve this problem. I
realized that focusing on the types of psychological contracts will be helping me in dealing with
the employees in a proper manner.
I thought of taking the transitional approach to solving this issue. I thought that this will
be helping the employees to understand the ambiguity or the uncertainty that is taking place in

5PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
front of them. However, I saw that the employees were not really very happy. I also realized that
the reciprocal imbalance was coming into place. In other words, the employees started feeling
that they have been giving much more to the organization. I realized that I have to support all the
employees so that they can actually keep up their level of loyalty with the organization.
However, I realized that there are some kinds of idiosyncratic employee negotiation techniques.
Thus I thought that in order to prevent the employees from resigning from their positions, I have
to motivate them. I had to use some measures like setting up flexible time shifts so that the
employees' get some kinds of motivations; I thought that this will help the employees to realize
they are the valuable assets of the company. Though some of the employees realized that they
need to improve their performances in order to get the promised benefits but some of them did
not. Thus there were still many employees who left the organization. I think that the situation
would have been handled properly if the employees were given some other benefits. The
psychological states of the employees could have been improved by arranging for various stress
relief sessions. This would be helpful in making the employees' understand their self-efficacy
and use of their inner strengths. This would have been able helpful for them in order to
understand the methods that they need to take for
Thus, it can be concluded that it is the joint and the collaborative effort of both the
management and the employees to carry on with their work in a successful manner. There are
some steps or goals that need to be taken so that the managers can include the employees within
their decision-making process.
Some of the steps that can be taken are as follows

6PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
 Follow the balanced aspect of the psychological contract-This will help the company or
the organization to make sure that the employees are having high commitment and high
involvement within the team. In other words, the employees will realize that they have
some responsibilities towards the organization.
 the collaboration will be very helpful for developing a mutual understanding between the
employees and the managers Thus the employees' will try to given in their hundred
percent potential before they can expect anything in return.
 The equity theory must be used so that the managers can actually get to know about the
decisions and the feedbacks of their employees. Often they take one-way decisions by
considering their own outcomes rather than comparing them with the outcome or the
input ratio that is being forwarded by others. In other words, in the given organizational
scenario, the managers must have consulted with the employees before selecting the
perks of compensation as they could not keep up to what they promised.

7PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
References
Billett, S. (2001). Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Allen & Unwin,
PO Box 8500, St Leonards, 1590 NSW, Australia.
Cardon, M. S., & Kirk, C. P. (2015). Entrepreneurial Passion as Mediator of the Self–Efficacy to
Persistence Relationship. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 39(5), 1027-1050.
Cherniss, C. (2017). Role of professional self-efficacy in the etiology and amelioration of
burnout. In Professional burnout (pp. 135-149). Routledge.
Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1987). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft
of reading, writing and mathematics (Technical Report No. 403). BBN Laboratories,
Cambridge, MA. Centre for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois. January, 1987
Conway, N, & Briner, R. (2009). Fifty years of psychological contract research: what do we
know and what are the main challenges? International Review of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 24: 71-130.
Honicke, T., & Broadbent, J. (2016). The influence of academic self-efficacy on academic
performance: A systematic review. Educational Research Review, 17, 63-84.
Lepak, D. P. & Snell, S. A. (1999). The human resource architecture: Toward a theory of human
capital allocation and development. Academy of Management Review, 24(1): 31-48.
Mondak, J. J., Hurwitz, J., Peffley, M., & Testa, P. (2017). The vicarious bases of perceived
injustice. American Journal of Political Science, 61(4), 804-819.
Panadero, E., Jonsson, A., & Botella, J. (2017). Effects of self-assessment on self-regulated
learning and self-efficacy: Four meta-analyses. Educational Research Review, 22, 74-98.

8PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
Rousseau, D. M. (2004). Psychological contracts in the workplace: Understanding the ties that
motivate. Academy of Management Executive, 18(1): 120-127.
Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2017). Motivated for teaching? Associations with school goal
structure, teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 67, 152-160.
Zhao, H., Wayne, S. J., Glibkowski, B. C. &Bravo, J. (2007). The impact of psychological
contract breach on work-related outcomes: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 60,
647-80.