Workplace Essentials Series – serie

Fear is pervasive in today's organizations—and far more damaging than many leaders realize. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of speaking up. Fear of change. When fear becomes embedded in organizational cultures, it undermines decision-making, accountability, innovation, and trust.In Fear in Organizations, David D. Van Fleet examines fear not simply as an individual emotion, but as a systemic organizational force that shapes behavior, leadership, and outcomes. Drawing on decades of research, teaching, and real-world experience, he explores how fear develops, how it escalates under conditions of control, uncertainty, and high-stakes objectives, and how it silently erodes workplace effectiveness.More importantly, this book provides practical insights and tools to help leaders recognize fear-based dynamics and take meaningful action. Managers, executives, and HR professionals will gain guidance on fostering psychological safety, encouraging accountability, and building cultures where clarity, courage, and constructive behavior can thrive.

Dysfunctional organizations result from individual behavior and the cultures they develop. Many individuals have directly experienced some form of dysfunctional behavior, including trauma from nonfatal workplace violence, bullying, harassment, violence, and unsafe work practices. These and other unacceptable workplace behaviors pose significant problems in organizations.Psychological safety deals with these behaviors and prevents organizations from becoming dysfunctional. It may not be "the" way to prevent dysfunctions, but it certainly is "a" way. This book uses simple and direct words to describe forms of behavior that are obstacles to developing psychological safety. It then provides practical guidance for what can and should be done to remove those obstacles.A unique framework (V-REEL) enables a better understanding of how and why behaviors are associated with dysfunctional organizations. It indicates the value of having psychologically, psychosocially, and physically safe workplaces. Its use helps the reader to carefully identify factors that erode or chip away safe workplaces as well as factors that enable or help to create them.

The Manager's Guide to Psychological Safety presents a simple and easy-to-understand way to achieve psychological safety in organizations. Psychological safety is an organizational culture where no one will be punished for asking questions, speaking their minds, reporting mistakes and talking about them, and expressing concerns or proposing new ideas without being asked.While relevant topics such as change, communication, motivation, and safety are covered, the concern is with the people in organizations—assuring that they are treated with dignity and respect for the benefit of all thus creating for them a psychologically safe place in which to work.Approaches to achieving psychological safety are presented and present a unique framework (V-REEL®) for analyzing the organization and its internal environment that may hinder or help it become psychologically safe. Psychological safety, once attained, enhances the organization's reputation and its bottom line.