Securing Creativity: Psychological Safety as a Joint Function of Team-Member Exchange and Cognitive Mistrust in Supervisor

The present research proposes a social exchange model of creativity, examining, at the individual level, how team-member exchange (TMX), independently and jointly with cognitive mistrust in supervisor, determines psychological... [ view full abstract ]

The present research proposes a social exchange model of creativity, examining, at the individual level, how team-member exchange (TMX), independently and jointly with cognitive mistrust in supervisor, determines psychological safety and subsequently creativity. A field study supported the proposed model, demonstrating that psychological safety mediated the positive relationship between TMX and creativity, rated either by employees themselves or by their supervisor, and cognitive mistrust in supervisor strengthened the relationship between TMX and psychological safety. These relationships were established when intrinsic motivation was concurrently included, which showed the robustness of our findings.