---
id: "concept-psychological-safety"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["§ How to Make It Work"]
tags: ["culture", "candor", "leadership"]
related: ["entity-amy-c-edmondson", "concept-empowering-culture", "entity-rob-price", "question-measuring-psychological-safety"]
definition: "An environment where employees feel safe to use discretion, challenge directives, and share feedback without fear of retribution."
sources: ["tail1"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail1"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-tail-105-fast-growing-better-decisions"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/how-fast-growing-companies-can-make-better-decisions"
sourceTitle: "How Fast-Growing Companies Can Make Better Decisions"
---
# Psychological Safety

**Psychological safety** — a concept popularized by Harvard Business School professor [[entity-amy-c-edmondson]] — refers to an environment where employees feel safe enough to **fully use the discretion afforded to them**.

In [[concept-structured-empowerment]], this means employees can **challenge corporate directives, push back against mandates, and share candid feedback without fear of retribution**. It is the *candor* pillar of an [[concept-empowering-culture|empowering culture]].

[[entity-rob-price]] of [[entity-school-of-rock]] modeled this by adopting a **"maybe they're right"** philosophy, distributing his cell phone number, and personally taking calls from franchise operators who pushed back.

How to measure and enforce it at scale remains an open question (see [[question-measuring-psychological-safety]]).

> **Enrichment.** Psychological safety research is strongly supported by the broader organizational literature, and it connects to *job demands-resources theory*: empowerment without candor can produce hidden errors, silence, and local workarounds.


## Related across segments
- [[prereq-psychological-safety-basics]]
- [[lit-psychological-safety]]
- [[concept-trust-ambiguity]]
- [[framework-ai-integration-principles]]