The Effect of Workforce Agility on Organizational Agility: The Moderating Role of Psychological Safety Climate

Abstract

Purpose – This cross-sectional study aims to examine the impact of workforce agility on organizational agility and to test whether psychological safety climate has a moderating role.

Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted on employees and managers working in technology firms operating in Istanbul. Within the scope of the research, survey data was collected from a total of 467 employees and 74 managers (one manager from each firm) across 74 firms. The collected data were aggregated at the organizational level, and subsequent analyses were carried out on this aggregated dataset. The data was analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with the SmartPLS software.

Findings – The analysis results showed that workforce agility was not statistically related to the sub-dimensions of organizational agility, namely responsiveness, flexibility, and quickness, whereas workforce agility was positively related to the competency dimension. Furthermore, the relationships between workforce agility and responsiveness, flexibility, and quickness were found to be significantly strengthened in the presence of a psychological safety climate. However, in the competency dimension, the moderating effect was not found to be statistically significant.

Discussion – The findings indicate that workforce agility plays a critical role in increasing the competence levels of organizations, but its impact on other organizational agility dimensions emerges depending on the psychological safety climate. The study reveals that workforce agility is more strongly reflected in organizational agility within an organizational environment where employees feel safe, and it highlights psychological safety climate as an important contextual factor for organizational agility.