person1959–

Amy C. Edmondson

Disciplines:

Summary

American organizational psychologist — Harvard Business School — creator of the psychological safety concept — who discovered that the highest-performing hospital teams made more errors (because they reported them) and built the psychological safety research program from that finding.

Core Contribution

Creates psychological safety as a measurable construct — Edmondson's research (finding that the best nursing teams reported more errors, not fewer, because psychological safety enabled honest reporting) identified psychological safety as the foundational condition for team learning and performance; Google's Project Aristotle (2015) confirmed it as the #1 predictor of team effectiveness.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Discovered psychological safety by accident — her PhD research predicted high-performing nursing teams would make fewer errors; the data showed the opposite; instead of discarding the finding, she investigated until she found that good teams reported more errors because they felt safe doing so; the most significant management finding of the last 30 years came from investigating a data anomaly that contradicted her hypothesis
Her 1999 paper on psychological safety was cited fewer than 20 times in its first decade — the finding became the most discussed management concept of the 2010s only after Google's Project Aristotle confirmed it 16 years later; the gap between publication and impact is the longest lag-to-breakthrough in management research

Notable Works & Achievements

Teaming

The Fearless Organization

Right Kind of Wrong

Historical Influences

Chris Argyris Karl Weick Richard Hackman

Intellectual Lineage

Harvard Harvard Business School Psychological safety research The Fearless Organization

Contemporaries & Peers

Richard Hackman Robert Kegan Adam Grant

Minds Influenced

Organizational psychology Management training worldwide

Intellectual Posterity

Psychological safety The Fearless Organization Right Kind of Wrong Google Project Aristotle Most cited management concept of 2010s

Discussing

Amy C. Edmondson

Ask anything about Amy C. Edmondson — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

person1959–

Amy C. Edmondson

Disciplines:

management/organizational behavior

harvard

psychology/psychological safety

teams

Summary

Core Contribution

Key Spikes & Highlights

Discovered psychological safety by accident — her PhD research predicted high-performing nursing teams would make fewer errors; the data showed the opposite; instead of discarding the finding, she investigated until she found that good teams reported more errors because they felt safe doing so; the most significant management finding of the last 30 years came from investigating a data anomaly that contradicted her hypothesis
Her 1999 paper on psychological safety was cited fewer than 20 times in its first decade — the finding became the most discussed management concept of the 2010s only after Google's Project Aristotle confirmed it 16 years later; the gap between publication and impact is the longest lag-to-breakthrough in management research

Notable Works & Achievements

Teaming

The Fearless Organization

Right Kind of Wrong

Historical Influences

Chris Argyris Karl Weick Richard Hackman

Intellectual Lineage

Harvard Harvard Business School Psychological safety research The Fearless Organization

Contemporaries & Peers

Richard Hackman Robert Kegan Adam Grant

Minds Influenced

Organizational psychology Management training worldwide

Intellectual Posterity

Psychological safety The Fearless Organization Right Kind of Wrong Google Project Aristotle Most cited management concept of 2010s

Discussing

Amy C. Edmondson

Ask anything about Amy C. Edmondson — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.