The data created from virtual communication platforms presents the opportunity to explore automated measures for monitoring team performance. In this work, we explore one important characteristic of successful teams - Psychological Safety - or the belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. To move towards an automated measure of this phenomenon, we derive virtual communication characteristics and message keywords related to elements of Psychological Safety from the literature. Using a mixed methods approach, we investigate whether these characteristics are present in the Slack messages from two design teams - one high in Psychological Safety, and one low. We find that some usage characteristics, such as replies, reactions, and user mentions, might be promising metrics to indicate higher levels of Psychological Safety, while simple keyword searches may not be nuanced enough. We present the first step towards the automated detection of this important, yet complex, team characteristic.

翻译：虚拟通信平台产生的数据为探索团队绩效的自动化监测手段提供了可能。在本研究中，我们聚焦高效团队的一个关键特征——心理安全感，即团队成员认为在人际交往中敢于冒险是安全的信念。为构建这一现象的自动化测量方法，我们从文献中提炼出与心理安全感要素相关的虚拟通信特征及信息关键词。采用混合方法研究，我们考察了两支设计团队（高心理安全感团队与低心理安全感团队）在Slack消息中是否存在这些特征。研究发现，回复、反应及用户提及等部分使用特征可能成为指示较高心理安全感水平的可行指标，而简单关键词搜索则可能缺乏足够区分度。这项工作迈出了自动化识别这一重要且复杂的团队特征的第一步。