Abstract
Orientation: Job characteristics are well accepted as sources of burnout and engagement amongst employees; psychosocial safety climate may precede work conditions.Research purpose: We expanded the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) model by proposing psychosocial safety climate (PSC) as a precursor to job demands and job resources. As PSC theoretically influences the working environment, the study hypothesized that PSC has an impact on performance via both health erosion (i.e. burnout) and motivational pathways (i.e. work engagement).Motivation for the study: So far, integration of PSC in the JD-R model is only tested in a Western context (i.e. Australia). We tested the emerging construct of PSC in Malaysia, an Eastern developing country in the Asian region.Research design, approach and method: A random population based sample was derived using household maps provided by Department of Statistics, Malaysia; 291 employees (response rate 50.52%) from the State of Selangor, Malaysia participated. Cross-sectional data were analysed using structural equation modelling.Main findings: We found that PSC was negatively related to job demands and positively related to job resources. Job demands, in turn, predicted burnout (i.e. exhaustion and cynicism), whereas job resources predicted engagement. Both burnout and engagement were associated with performance. Bootstrapping showed significant indirect effects of PSC on burnout via job demands, PSC on performance via burnout and PSC on performance via the resources-engagement pathway.Practical/managerial implications: Our findings are consistent with previous research that suggests that PSC should be a target to improve working conditions and in turn reduce burnout and improve engagement and productivity.Contribution/value-add: These findings suggest that JD-R theory may be expanded to include PSC as an antecedent and that the expanded JD-R model is largely valid in an Eastern, developing economy setting.
Highlights
The aim of this research was to examine empirically a theoretical model of psychosocial safety climate (PSC)
Our theory builds on the premises of Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) and we see PSC as precursor for the health and motivation pathways espoused in that model
We tested a partial mediation model (M2) with paths between: PSC → job demands → burnout → performance, PSC → job resources → engagement → performance and a path from PSC to all model variables, PSC→ burnout, PSC → engagement and PSC → performance. We found that this model fit the data well with all fit indices showing reasonable values: goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.94; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.95; Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.93 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06
Summary
The aim of this research was to examine empirically a theoretical model of psychosocial safety climate (PSC). This emerging construct is defined as the ‘policies, practices and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety’ We propose an integrative model where PSC is a precursor to work conditions (i.e. job demands and job resources) and in turn burnout, engagement and performance via mediation pathways. The second aim is to examine the integrative PSC model in an Eastern culture and in an emerging economy to determine whether the assumptions of the model are emic (specific) or etic (general). Knowledge development in the area is lacking precisely where it may be needed most (Kortum, Leka & Cox, 2008)
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