Leadership values and learning in China: The mediating role of psychological safety

Organizations are relying increasingly on teams to promote critical objectives, including learning and development. The values of leaders have traditionally been thought to have powerful effects on individual performance but few studies have examined their impact on teamwork among employees. This study proposes that leader values of participation, people, and productivity can promote team learning and that psychological safety within teams is an important mediator between leader values and team learning. Leaders and members of 101 groups in Shanghai, China, participated in the study. Structural equation analysis indicated that psychological safety mediated the relationships between leader values and learning. These results were interpreted as suggesting that leader values can help members develop psychological safety that in turn induces learning. Copyright © 2010 Australian Human Resources Institute.