What makes a team resilient? The moderating roles of cognitive diversity and team potency on the relationship of psychological safety and team resilience

Abstract

The present study contributes to the growing literature about the factors that contribute to team resilience. Specifically, it answers questions regarding cognitive diversity and team potency as circumstantial factors under which psychological safety is related to team resilience. The research questions were answered based on data collected from organizational teams working in different sectors who were from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Italy. Team members rated psychological safety, cognitive diversity, team potency, team resilience, and the impact of COVID-19 on the team’s functioning. The team-level data analyses revealed insignificant findings for the main effects and two-way interactions. Yet, the results showed that the relationship between psychological safety and team resilience is strengthened by low (high) cognitive diversity and high (low) team potency. Conversely, the three-way interaction revealed no significant results when cognitive diversity and team potency are both high or both low. To conclude, theoretical and practical implications are made, and limitations, as well as future directions, are discussed.