Exploring psychological safety and workplace innovation in Indian IT and ITeS organisations

Psychological safety is an important workplace condition that supports employee participation, learning, and innovation. In Indian Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) organisations, employees work in environments characterised by rapid technological change, continuous learning, and evolving organisational demands. Although previous studies have reported positive relationships between psychological safety and innovation, limited qualitative research has examined employees’ experiences of psychological safety within workplace innovation settings in the Indian context. This study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore employees’ experiences of psychological safety in workplace innovation environments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 employees from IT and ITeS organisations located in Chennai and Bengaluru, India. The interview data were analysed using NVivo 15 through coding and thematic analysis. Five themes emerged from the analysis, including autonomy, flexibility and empowerment; organisational strategy and change; technology adoption and support; leadership and team culture; and open feedback. The findings indicate that organisational support, leadership accessibility, training opportunities, recognition, and open communication contribute to employees’ perceptions of psychological safety and their willingness to participate in workplace innovation. At the same time, frequent organisational changes, insufficient training, communication gaps, and fear of negative judgment may reduce employees’ confidence to contribute ideas and engage in innovation activities. This study contributes to the workplace innovation and psychological safety literature by providing qualitative evidence from Indian IT and ITeS organisations. The findings offer practical implications for organisational leaders and human resource professionals seeking to create supportive work environments that encourage employee participation, learning, and innovation.