Psychological Safety Across Dual Work Contexts: An Exploratory Case Study of Team Diversity and Perceived Performance

Abstract

Abstract—Team diversity can broaden the knowledge and perspectives available to a team while increasing communication and coordination demands. This study examines how psychological safety shapes the use of diversity across two contrasting work contexts and how this process relates to perceived team performance. A qualitative case study was conducted with one key informant, an information technology implementor who works at a client hospital while remaining connected to the company’s internal team. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview and analysed through initial coding, category development, and theme integration. The findings reveal an efficiency–variety trade-off: perceived similarity within the internal team supports communication efficiency but offers narrower perspective variety, whereas the more diverse client environment broadens perspectives while requiring greater communication adaptation. Psychological safety is situational and is shaped by hierarchy, outsider status, counterpart openness, and expertise boundaries. Lower safety increases withholding, creating missed information and additional clarification. The study shows that diversity contributes to effectiveness when different knowledge can be voiced, understood, and integrated into coordination.

 Keywords—team diversity, psychological safety, voice, coordination, perceived team performance, Input–Process–Output