Leveling the Playing Field? Effects of Hybrid Work on the Psychological Safety of Minority Groups

Psychological safety has been shown to be a vital component of team performance and well-being. It describes the shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, thus encouraging the voicing of new ideas, collaboration, and experimentation. Today’s teams are increasingly diverse in terms of social identity characteristics as well as work arrangements (on-site versus hybrid/virtual) – aspects that previous research has largely overlooked. Through a quantitative study at a Finnish university (N = 832), we investigate the impact of hybrid work on the psychological safety of minority groups. We find that racial minorities, women, and language minorities experience higher psychological safety in hybrid work (vs. on-site), while employees with sensory disabilities experience lower levels. Thus, this study offers partial support for the equalization effect of computer-mediated technologies and emphasizes the need for tailored diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that consider the individual needs of different minority groups.