Leader competencies for building psychological safety in hybrid teams: A South African FMCG sector study

South African Journal of Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Leader competencies for building psychological safety in hybrid teams: A South African FMCG sector study
 
Creator Ngubane, Ntando Mbokota, Gloria
 
Subject Leadership; Management psychological safety; leadership development; leadership competencies; hybrid work teams; e-leadership.
Description Purpose: Psychological safety has attracted a fair amount of research in recent years, with most scholars focusing on its importance in driving team performance. Little attention, although, has been given to how leaders build an environment of psychological safety, especially in hybrid work teams in organisations, which have become popular since the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This study aimed to explore how leaders create a psychologically safe environment for hybrid work teams, including the required leader competencies.Design/methodology/approach: This was a cross-sectional qualitative study in which 20 managers from 13 multinationals in the fast-moving consumer goods sector were interviewed to share their views on how they built psychological safety, and the leader competencies needed to create such an environment for hybrid work teams.Findings/results: While managers are generally aware of the importance of psychological safety in their organisations, the latter has not been given the priority attention it deserves. It should be a strategic imperative to ensure that leaders develop the competencies (such as emotional intelligence and accountability) needed to create and maintain a psychologically safe environment.Practical implications: Building on Edmondson’s framework, the study contributes a three-phase framework to guide leaders in creating a psychologically safe environment in which hybrid work teams can thrive.Originality/value: Whereas most previous studies on psychological safety have been conducted in relation to traditional teams, this study extends the application of psychological safety theory on hybrid work teams.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2025-06-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajbm.v56i1.4802
 
Source South African Journal of Business Management; Vol 56, No 1 (2025); 13 pages 2078-5976 2078-5585
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4802/3324 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4802/3325 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4802/3326 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4802/3327
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Ntando Ngubane, Gloria Mbokota https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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