Abstract:
Purpose- Since the inception of psychological safety and leadership as conceptual
constructs, empirical research has proliferated in their respective fields. While both
constructs have received much attention and traction from scholars in their respective
fields, most of these studies were conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore,
there was need to investigate what psychological safety and leadership should look like
within the new work context. As constructs that are crucial for the success and
productivity of today's globalised business environment, the study aimed to assess the
conditions that contribute to employees' perceived psychological safety, find out what
leadership styles influence the phenomena positively, and lastly, determine whether
leaders were able to be adaptable to lead within the current context.
Design/Methodology- For this study, data was generated from semi-structured
interviews, which allowed for open-ended questions, enabling participants to give their
own lived experiences of the phenomena under study. Respondents comprise middle
managers in the mining industry from different mining houses. A total of 12 respondents
were interviewed through Microsoft teams. The study employed qualitative data analysis
to gain deeper insights into participants' experiences of psychological safety, leadership
styles facilitating psychological safety, and leader adaptability during the Covid-19
pandemic.
Findings- The investigation, through thematic coding, revealed that the factors
contributing to employees' perceived psychological safety remain the same after the
Covid-19 pandemic, however, under different work arrangements that call for flexibility
and more empathy. Furthermore, the findings revealed that transformational leadership
is the leadership style that employees perceive to contribute toward employees'
perceived psychological safety. Lastly, findings revealed that most leaders continued to
lead the way they did before the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in employees
experiencing compromised psychological safety.
