Women in Leadership training in Bern · canton of BerneWomen's leadership in the canton of Bern: how can risks be raised before a decision is made?

In the canton of Bern, federal administration, public health, telecommunications and precision manufacturing provide settings where a technical concern can challenge a proposed decision. For SHR's women's leadership programme, the question is organisational: how can leaders gather these concerns before committing, without making their expression depend solely on individual courage?

What the literature establishes: speaking up carries interpersonal risk

Amy C. Edmondson (1999, Administrative Science Quarterly) finds an association between team psychological safety and learning behaviour. Psychological safety refers to a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, including acknowledging an error or asking for help. It means neither an absence of demanding standards nor constant agreement.

A mechanism: openness is judged through behaviour

James R. Detert and Ethan R. Burris (2007, Academy of Management Journal) show that managerial openness is associated with employees voicing suggestions and concerns. Their analyses identify a mediating role for psychological safety in this relationship. A formal invitation to challenge a decision therefore cannot replace the behaviours that make such a challenge feasible.

The premature conclusion: asking women to be bolder

Concluding that women should simply speak up more would shift responsibility from organisational arrangements to individuals. These studies demonstrate neither a female deficit in speaking up nor the specific effectiveness of women's leadership training. Their contribution is instead to direct attention towards the conditions for expressing and addressing objections, without assuming a distinctively female leadership style. (our executive and employee training programmes)

The limits: recording an objection does not mean it has been heard

These studies do not concern the canton of Bern and cannot guarantee the effects of a local procedure. In organisations operating under a public mandate, transparency may justify documenting decisions, but it must be balanced with data confidentiality and protection for individuals. Counting objections is insufficient: an increase may reflect greater freedom to speak rather than a deteriorating situation.

A practical check in Berne

Consider a hypothetical example: in Berne, a woman leading a project is preparing to roll out a digital public health service with a team that includes French- and German-speaking colleagues from Biel/Bienne. An exercise in the SHR programme could involve gathering concerns in both languages before the decision, then recording a reasoned response, a person responsible for follow-up and a deadline for each concern in a register with appropriate access controls. Over one month, measuring the proportion of concerns received before the decision that have all three elements would help verify how they are handled, without claiming that this measure alone captures psychological safety. To go further: explore the Women in Leadership training in Bern in the canton of Bern, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.

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