PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING BEHAVIOUR IN VIRTUAL TEAMS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.1164102Keywords:
Knowledge-Sharing Behaviour, Psychological Safety, Social Exchange Theory, Virtual TeamsAbstract
The shift to digital and hybrid work has fundamentally changed how employees communicate and share knowledge. Virtual teams bring clear advantages of flexibility and efficiency, but heavy dependence on digital platforms often diminishes face-to-face interaction and poses communication challenges. This makes workers often reluctant to share their expertise, opinions or insights. That’s why psychological safety is so important in remote environments as employees need to believe they can ask questions, express their concerns, or share new ideas without being subject to harsh criticism or judgement. Although research on psychological safety and knowledge sharing has increased, the precise relationship between the two in virtual settings remains underexplored. This conceptual paper draws on Social Exchange Theory to examine the proposed relationship between psychological safety and knowledge-sharing behaviour in virtual teams, with psychological safety as the independent variable and knowledge sharing as the dependent variable. The framework proposed based on a narrative review suggests that employees, when they perceive safety and support, view this positive environment as a social resource and respond by proactively sharing their expertise. Ultimately, this paper provides greater theoretical insight into virtual team dynamics as well as practical strategies for managing remote staff collaboration.
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