Psychological Safety as a Cultural Construct: Employees’ Meaning-Making in Egyptian Workplaces

Abstract

Psychological safety research is grounded predominantly in Western, individualist frameworks, leaving cross-cultural applicability underexamined. This qualitative study explores how Egyptian workers understand and construct meaning around psychological safety and the cultural frameworks through which it is conceptualised. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 49 participants (20 males, 29 females; age range 18 to 67) from diverse occupational sectors in Egypt, conducted in Arabic and translated into English. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed three themes: (1) psychological safety as a relational understanding anchored in familial belonging and collective care; (2) dignity and honour (karama) as foundational cultural constructions of safety, particularly the threat posed by belittlement and public humiliation; and (3) the genuine recognition and validation of one’s voice and contribution as a distinct condition of feeling safe. These findings reveal a dignity-centred, relational construction of psychological safety that challenges the universality of dominant frameworks and contributes to the cross-cultural organisational psychology literature.