Gender Diversity, Conflict, and Psychological Safety in Teams: A Conceptual and Empirical Examination

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Redler, E. (2023). Gender Diversity, Conflict, and Psychological Safety in Teams: A Conceptual and Empirical Examination. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Teamwork is common in daily work life, and it is likely that, when working within teams, conflict may occur. Conflict negatively affects a team’s psychological safety – the feeling of safety and willingness to share one’s ideas and take risks while in a team. The gender diversity of a team may moderate this negative relationship. In the present study, I examined the effects of team-level task and relationship conflict on team-level psychological safety, moderated by team gender diversity. Results showed a negative main effect of both types of conflict on psychological safety. However, gender diversity was not found to be a significant moderator. I then examined the proportion of women on a team as an exploratory moderation analysis and found that a team’s proportion of women strengthened the negative relationship between task conflict and psychological safety – the opposite direction of moderation predicted. A discussion follows of a potential backlash effect of women on a team toward other women, exacerbating the already negative effects of task conflict. Future directions and limitations are discussed.

Details
Author

Redler, Emily

Title

Gender Diversity, Conflict, and Psychological Safety in Teams: A Conceptual and Empirical Examination

Physical Description

1 online resource (56 pages) : PDF

Date

2023

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Teamwork is common in daily work life, and it is likely that, when working within teams, conflict may occur. Conflict negatively affects a team’s psychological safety – the feeling of safety and willingness to share one’s ideas and take risks while in a team. The gender diversity of a team may moderate this negative relationship. In the present study, I examined the effects of team-level task and relationship conflict on team-level psychological safety, moderated by team gender diversity. Results showed a negative main effect of both types of conflict on psychological safety. However, gender diversity was not found to be a significant moderator. I then examined the proportion of women on a team as an exploratory moderation analysis and found that a team’s proportion of women strengthened the negative relationship between task conflict and psychological safety – the opposite direction of moderation predicted. A discussion follows of a potential backlash effect of women on a team toward other women, exacerbating the already negative effects of task conflict. Future directions and limitations are discussed.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Psychology
Sociology
Management

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Backlash
Conflict
Gender Diversity
Psychological Safety
Teamwork

Subject Area

Psychology Industrial/Organizational

Advisor(s)

Woehr, David

Committee Members

Shanock, Linda
Yavorsky, Jill

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2023.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Redler_uncc_0694N_13258

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:3087