How do leaders' positive emotions improve employees' psychological safety in China? The moderating effect of leader-member exchange.

ABSTRACT

The extant research on psychological safety has explored mainly its consequences, with less attention paid to its formation mechanism and its applied situation. This study investigates the impact of leaders' positive emotions on employees' psychological safety based on a questionnaire survey of 319 employees working in 67 teams in China and verifies the moderating role of leader-member exchange in this relationship. According to the findings of the multilevel analysis, there is a positive association between leaders' positive emotions and employees' psychological safety, and leader-member exchange has a cross-level moderating influence on the link between leaders' positive emotions and subordinates' psychological safety.