What employees want: how do psychological safety and servant leadership competencies interact

Psychological safety and servant leadership competencies are constructs that, individually, have amassed a robust amount of literature, but research connecting the two is still emerging. Although psychological safety is a feature of the workplace, it is understood that leaders play a role in encouraging its existence, and while there are several leadership styles to choose from, previous research indicate that servant leadership competences are best suited to meet the post-secondary goals of service, responsibility, relationships, and ethics in a positive manner. Through a 23-item questionnaire, I examined the perceptions of both constructs by staff working at Simon Fraser University, a Canadian post-secondary institution located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Regardless of the specifics of their experiences, the employees who responded to the survey wanted validation of their efforts and appreciated truthfulness, honesty, humility and a high level of care from their leaders, and support and understanding from their teams.