Psychological Safety and Prosocial Rule Breaking Within Leader–Member Exchanges in a State Government Agency

Psychological safety is often insufficiently supported in organizations, leading to strained leader-member exchanges (LMXs), reduced employee well-being, and diminished overall organizational performance. Government agency leaders need to understand this concern as a primary indicator of job satisfaction and organizational effectiveness. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how employees of a state government agency described leader support of psychological safety and prosocial rule breaking in their LMXs and how these LMX exchanges influenced their psychological safety and organizational performance. Psychosocial safety climate theory and LMX theory provided the grounding for this study. The participants consisted of 10 employees from a single state government agency in the United States. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis. Five core themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (a) just culture framing, (b) access to leaders and openness, (c) permission with boundaries, (d) enablement through coaching, and (e) relational leverage for improvement. Findings revealed that leaders who prioritized learning over blame, maintained accessible communication, and supported ethical rule-breaking fostered greater psychological safety, engagement, and willingness to innovate. Implications for positive social change include the potential for government agency leaders and policymakers to strengthen leadership practices, cultivate a psychosocial safety climate, and promote more equitable LMXs to enhance employee well-being, advance ethical innovation, and impact organizational effectiveness.