Abstract — Psychological safety is a key component of healthy and effective organizations, particularly in high-risk and structured environments such as the federal government. The leadership behaviors associated with the theory of transformational leadership are important in the ability to effectively foster a climate of psychological safety. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental correlational study was to determine if and to what extent a relationship existed between supervisors’ transformational leadership behaviors and employees’ psychological safety climate among U.S. Department of the Navy civilians. A total of 9,160 archival responses from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey were analyzed using Spearman’s rank-order correlation and linear regression. Results revealed significant positive relationships between all transformational leadership dimensions and psychological safety climate, with the strongest correlation observed between intellectual stimulation and psychological safety (rs[9160] = .783, p < .001). Regression analysis confirmed that intellectual stimulation had the strongest predictive power, while individualized consideration also showed moderate predictive strength. Inspirational motivation and idealized influence, while correlated with psychological safety, did not significantly contribute to its prediction when considered alongside the other dimensions. The findings of the study support the role of transformational leadership in building a safe and inclusive organizational climate in a high-performing government workplace.
Keywords — leadership behaviors, transformational leadership, psychological safety, psychological safety climate, organizational leadership, federal employee viewpoint survey, government organization, United States Navy, government civilian employees
Brown, V. S. (2025). The Relationship Between Supervisors’ Transformational Leadership Behaviors & Employees’ Psychological Safety Climate Among U.S. Department of the Navy Civilians [Doctoral dissertation, Columbia International University]. Atidbit Open Repository. https://atidbit.io/dissertation/09302025