The definitive 7-item measure of whether a team is safe for interpersonal risk taking — speaking up, admitting errors, asking for help.
| Construct measured | Psychological safety |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Edmondson (1999) |
| Original publication | Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999 |
| Number of items | 7 |
| Response format | 7-point agreement scale (1 = Very inaccurate to 7 = Very accurate; 5- and 7-point agreement variants are common) |
Unidimensional — a single team-level psychological-safety factor (about half the items are reverse-keyed). The referent is the team ('members of this team...'), and scores are usually aggregated to the team level.
Alpha of .82 was reported in the original study; later studies commonly report .70s–.80s, with aggregation statistics (ICC, rwg) supporting team-level use.
The founding field study of 51 manufacturing teams supported a one-factor structure, discriminant validity from team efficacy, and criterion links to learning behavior and performance — findings replicated in a very large subsequent literature and meta-analyses.
Work teams in manufacturing, healthcare, software, education and beyond; also administered at the individual level with adjusted wording.
United States. Translated into many languages; the construct replicates well across cultures, though reverse-keyed items sometimes misbehave in translation.