Abstract

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is defined as shared perceptions of organizational policies, practices and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety, that stem largely from management practices. PSC theory extends the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework and proposes that organizational level PSC determines work conditions and subsequently, psychological health problems and work engagement. Our sample was derived from the Australian Workplace Barometer project and comprised 30 organizations, and 220 employees. As expected, hierarchical linear modelling showed that organizational PSC was negatively associated with workplace bullying and harassment (demands) and in turn psychological health problems (health impairment path). PSC was also positively associated with work rewards (resources) and in turn work engagement (motivational path). Accordingly, we found that PSC triggered both the health impairment and motivational pathways, thus justifying extending the JD-R model in a multilevel way. Further we found that PSC, as an organization-based resource, moderated the positive relationship between bullying/harassment and psychological health problems, and the negative relationship between bullying/harassment and engagement. The findings provide evidence for a multilevel model of PSC as a lead indicator of workplace psychosocial hazards (high demands, low resources), psychological health and employee engagement, and as a potential moderator of psychosocial hazard effects. PSC is therefore an efficient target for primary and secondary intervention.

Method

• A telephone survey of 1134 income earners from randomly selected South Australian households
• Survey questions covered PSC, job demands, Resources, Psychological health problems and work outcomes

Discussion & Results

Psychosocial Safety Climate is an organisational property that impacts the psychological health of individuals within the organisation.

Researchers used the study model below which can be found on p. 1783 from the paper.

 

The study explored two levels; 2) organisation, and 1) the individual.

Within each of these levels, two opposing paths were examined; a) Health erosion path, and b) Motivational path.

The health erosion path relates to a low psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator for bullying and harassment (as a job demand) which flows on to psychological health problems.

The motivational path relates to high psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator for job resources which flow on to higher employee engagement.

Researchers had six hypotheses: (pp. 1784-1785)

Hypothesis 1. Organizational PSC will be negatively related to workplace bullying and harassment.

Result = Supported – Organisational with high PSC had lower risks of workplace bullying and harassment.

Hypothesis 2. Organizational PSC will be negatively related to psychological health problems through its negative relationship with job demands (bullying and harassment). In other words, job demands will carry the effect of PSC onto psychological health problems in a mediated process.

Result = Supported – Organisations with high PSC, through lower risks of bullying and harassment, also had lower psychological health problems

Hypothesis 3. Organizational PSC will be positively related to job resources (i.e., procedural justice, organizational rewards, and supervisor support).

Result = Supported, but only for ‘Organisational Rewards’ – High PSC, through social exchange theory, is seen as a reward that improves esteem, and job security which employees ‘pay back’ to the organisation

Hypothesis 4. Organizational PSC has a positive effect on work engagement through its positive relationship with job resources; in other words, job resources will mediate the relationship between PSC and work engagement.

Result = Supported – High PSC, mediated by job resources, increases employee engagement

Hypothesis 5. Organizational PSC will moderate the relationship between bullying and harassment and psychological health problems. Under conditions of high PSC, the positive relationship between bullying/harassment and psychological health problems will be reduced. Conversely, in low PSC climates, reporting bullying or harassment may lead to an exacerbation of the problem, due to victim blaming and scapegoating.

Result = Supported –  High PSC acts as a Secondary Prevention as it helps to minimise the impact of bullying and harassment, and also aids recovery.  Low PSC may result in increased harm to victims.

Hypothesis 6. Organizational PSC will moderate the negative relationship between bullying/harassment and engagement. That is, under conditions of high PSC the negative relationship between bullying/harassment and engagement will be reduced.

Result = Supported – High PSC acts as a Secondary Prevention as it helps to minimise the impact of bullying and harassment which reduces the negative impacts that bullying and harassment have on employee engagement

What does it mean on the ground?

As PSC is an organisational property, it should be a standard agenda item for executive team meetings and used as a lead indicator for workplace bullying and harassment prevention and improvement in employee engagement.

PSC should be a central component of organisational strategy, not just for bullying and harassment prevention, but also in the promotion of high organisational performance through increased employee engagement.

You don’t need to spend money on commercial tools to measure PSC or to identify and manage psychosocial risks.  There are a number of easy-to-use, science-based, and freely available tools that organisations can use.

These include:

• People at Work Survey – An online survey developed by the Queensland Government that is available from the Australian Government
• APHIRM Toolkit – An online toolkit developed by LaTrobe University in Melbourne, this toolkit is a complete psychosocial risk management toolkit that also addresses manual handling risks
• PSC-4 – a 4 question PSC survey tool that is great for organisations and practitioners to use as a ‘pulse’ survey to track progress in-between the more comprehensive surveys.  Host it internally on Teams or Survey Monkey.

 

The paper:

Law, Rebecca, Dollard, Maureen F., Tuckey, Michelle R., & Dormann, Christian. (2011). Psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 43(5), 1782–1793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.04.010