Mechanisms Explaining the Longitudinal Effect of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Work Engagement and Emotional Exhaustion among Education and Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective. Our innovation was to propose a multilevel model to explain how an organizational factor, psychosocial safety climate (PSC) – the climate for worker psychological health – related to work investment (work engagement and workaholism) and, in turn, psychological distress. Methods. Longitudinal data were collected in Peninsular Malaysia across 26 police departments from 392 police personnel, matched across 4 months, and were tested using hierarchical linear modeling. Results. The analysis revealed between-group effects linking PSC to job resources, to work engagement and to workaholism. When PSC operated by improving job resources, aside from increased work engagement, it could unwittingly boost workaholism. However, this only existed under low PSC conditions. The secondary function of PSC buffered the impact of job resources on workaholism and psychological distress. When PSC was high, job resources reduced both workaholism and psychological distress, suggesting that PSC enabled resources to do their job of mitigating unfavorable conditions. Conclusions. Results support a multilevel PSC-extended job demands–resources motivational path with cross-links, and PSC’s moderation function, as an explanation of worker psychological health. Confirming PSC as a leading indicator and the importance of a motivational path, this article presents new evidence in support of targeting PSC to improve worker psychological health.

BackgroundWe examined the moderating (buffering or amplifying) effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on the association of job demands (psychological demands) and job resources (job control, supervisor support, coworker support, and extrinsic reward) with psychological distress among Japanese employees.MethodsA self-report web-based questionnaire was administered to 2,200 employees (1,100 men and 1,100 women) registered with a Japanese private online survey company. The questionnaire included scales on job demands and job resources (the Job Content Questionnaire and the short-form Effort–Reward Imbalance Questionnaire), PSC (the 12-item PSC scale), and psychological distress (the K6 scale) and items on participants' demographic and occupational characteristics (age, gender, education, occupation, work form, and working hours per week). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed using psychological distress as a dependent variable. Interaction terms of job demands and job resources with PSC were included.ResultsThere was a significant interaction effect of psychological demands with PSC on psychological distress (β = −0.053, p = 0.008), adjusted for demographic and occupational characteristics. Post hoc simple slope analysis showed that the simple slope of psychological demands was lesser at higher levels of PSC (1 standard deviation above the mean) (β = 0.101, p < 0.001) than at lower levels (1 standard deviation below the mean) (β = 0.199, p < 0.001). No significant interactions were observed between job resources and PSC.ConclusionOur findings suggest that PSC buffers the positive association of psychological demands with psychological distress.

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) may be conceptualised as the organisational practices, policies and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. To date PSC theory has not been investigated at the boundaries of the Asia Pacific, in Iran, a developing country in the heart of the Middle East. We investigated PSC levels in Iran, and tested the theoretical paths of the extended Job Demands-Resources Model (Dollard and Bakker in J Occup Organ Psychol 83(3):579–599, 2010). The PSC-12 and work environment, emotional exhaustion and engagement scales were translated into Farsi and administered amongst 33 work groups in an Iranian hospital (N = 257), then compared with an Australian sample of hospital employees (N = 239, across 21 work groups). The findings provide evidence that PSC is a climate construct that exists as a group phenomenon cross-culturally; PSC in Iran has group like properties with around 11 % (cf 15 % in Australia) of the variance in PSC due to group-level factors, with high levels of homogeneity of perceptions of PSC within groups (0.92 vs 0.94 Australia). Australian hospital employees reported higher levels of PSC, skill discretion and decision authority, and lower levels of emotional demands, compared to the Iranian sample. Evidence in support of the climate concept also came from the way it behaved in a nomological network of analyses. The major theoretical paths delineated in PSC theory were confirmed in the Iranian data. Multilevel analysis showed that as a between-group effect in Iran and Australia, team PSC was significantly negatively related to psychological demands, and emotional exhaustion and significantly positively related to job resources, decision authority and work engagement. In Australia, an additional significant positive relationship was found between team PSC and higher levels of the job resource, skill discretion. The results support the utility of PSC theory in Iran (at least among hospital workers). Given empirical support also from Australia and Malaysia, we argue that workplace assessment of PSC maybe useful to guide the development of organisational systems to prevent workplace psychosocial risk factors across the Asia Pacific.

The Effect of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Work Engagement Through Possibilities for Development and Cognitive Demands

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on work engagement, emotional exhaustion and physical health problems, particularly through two types of demands (i.e., challenge and hindrance demands) among police personnel in Peninsular Malaysia. Data were collected using a survey among 909 participants from 58 departments and were analyzed using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) version 7.0. The study discovered that PSC was negatively related to hindrance demands. PSC was also negatively related to emotional exhaustion and physical health problems. Interestingly, challenge demands increased work engagement and also emotional exhaustion, whereas hindrance demands were negatively related to work engagement and positively associated with emotional exhaustion. In the mediating pathways, hindrance demands mediated the relationship between PSC and emotional exhaustion, whereas emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between challenge and hindrance demands and physical health problems. This study provides evidence that PSC acts as a predictor in a multi-level way, while challenge and hindrance stressors at the task level, lead to negative and positive work outcomes.

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is defined as the corporate climate in relation to employees' perceptions of organizational policies, procedures, and practices for the protection of employee psychosocial safety and well-being. The present study was based on the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) Model and proposed that the interplay between identical job demands and resources would be conditioned by PSC. Particularly, high levels of PSC would enable employees to optimally perceive and utilize more job resources in dealing with corresponding job demands. A study was conducted among 406 Chinese workers from various occupational sectors. The findings of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that PSC a) mitigates the negative relation between emotional resources and exhaustion, b) enhances the positive relation between emotional resources and work engagement, and c) mitigates the negative relation between emotional demands and work engagement. We also found that PSC is a compensatory factor for low cognitive resources and demands encouraging high work engagement. Although we did not find the proposed three-way interactions, the present findings support the idea that high PSC is a fundamental contextual factor conducive to workers' health and well-being, especially in perceiving and obtaining emotional resources.

BackgroundThe present study aimed to develop a model for predicting the safety performance of nurses based on psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and the role of job demands and resources, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion as mediators.MethodsA cross-sectional study using structural equation modeling (SEM) was carried out among nurses in Iran. Data were collected using the Psychosocial Safety Climate questionnaire, Neal and Griffin’s Safety Performance Scale, the Management Standards Indicator Tool, the Effort-Reward Imbalance questionnaire, the Michigan Organizational Assessment Job Satisfaction subscale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory.ResultsSurveys were distributed to 340 nurses provided informed consent. After removing incplete surveys, data from 280 partipants were analysed. The completion rate was 82.35%. The SEM results indicated that PSC can directly and indirectly predict nurses’ safety performance. The final model showed an acceptable goodness of fit (p = 0.023). It indicated that PSC, job demands, and job satisfaction were directly related to safety performance, and also that PSC, emotional exhaustion, job resources, and job demands were all indirectly related to safety performance. Also, PSC had a significant relationship with all mediator variables, and job demands had direct effect on emotional exhaustion.ConclusionsThe current study presented a new model for predicting safety performance in nurses in which PSC, both directly and indirectly, plays an important role. In addition to paying attention to the physical aspects of the workplace, healthcare organizations should also take into account PSC to improve safety. Next steps in reducing safety issues in nursing is to develop intervention studies using this new evidence-based model as a framework.

We constructed a model of workplace psychosocial safety climate (PSC) to explain the origins of job demands and resources, worker psychological health, and employee engagement. PSC refers to policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. Using the job demands–resources framework, we hypothesized that PSC as an upstream organizational resource influenced largely by senior management, would precede the work context (i.e., job demands and resources) and would in turn predict psychological health and work engagement via mediation and moderation pathways. We operationalized PSC at the school level and tested meso‐mediational models using two‐level (longitudinal) hierarchical linear modelling in a sample of Australian education workers ( N = 209–288). Data were repeated measures separated by 12 months, nested within 18 schools. PSC predicted change in individual psychological health problems (psychological distress, emotional exhaustion) through its relationship with individual job demands (work pressure and emotional demands). PSC moderated the relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion. PSC predicted change in employee engagement, through its relationship with skill discretion. The results show that the PSC construct is a key upstream component of work stress theory and a logical intervention site for work stress intervention.

PurposeThe current study is an examination of the effects of psychosocial safety climate on work engagement, organisational commitment and to mediate job resources in Malaysian research universities (RUs) during pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe population of this study consisted of full-time lecturers who work in Malaysian RUs at least a year. A sampling technique was used to select the respondents for this study. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were administered to respondents from 5 Malaysian RUs with 484 usable questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 48.4%.FindingsThe present study’s objective is to examine psychosocial safety climate’s (PSC) effect, job resources on work engagement and organizational commitment. The study also aims to test the mediating roles of job resources on PSC’s relationship, work engagement and organizational commitment. It is interesting to note that the relationship between PSC and work engagement was not significant.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the present study had contributed to the existing literature, the present study’s result cannot be generalized. Suggestions for future research include an attempt to conduct a study over three-time points that looks at both the employee’s perspective, managerial perspective and organizational perspective within the workplace. All correlation and cross-sectional studies identified the need for a comprehensive three-wave study to examine the model’s longitudinal effects accurately.Practical implicationsThe finding shown that university is suggested to apply higher PSC to allow their management discover more ways to increase the adequate job resources to support lecturers in RUs and in improving their work engagement and organizational commitment.Originality/valueThe integration of PSC in academicians of Malaysian RUs provides a novel perspective.

BackgroundExisting researches on nurses’ work engagement and job burnout have mostly stayed at the individual level, and limited researches test the cross-level effects of psychosocial safety climate (PSC). The study aimed to explore the cross-level mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and the moderating effect of psychological detachment between the relationship of PSC and work engagement and job burnout in nurses.MethodsThe cross-sectional study was conducted during November to December 2022 at a tertiary hospital in a northeastern province of China. Data was collected from 1832 nurses through an online questionnaire. Correlation analyses and hierarchical linear modeling were used to test study hypotheses.ResultsThe results showed that PSC was positively associated with work engagement, and negatively associated with job burnout. OBSE mediated the effect of PSC on work engagement, as well as job burnout. Additionally, psychological detachment played a moderating role between PSC and work engagement, but no moderating effect was found between PSC and job burnout.ConclusionsPSC at the organizational level increases work engagement and reduces job burnout by stimulating nurses’ high levels of OBSE. Psychological detachment, as a situational factor, enhances the positive influence of PSC on work engagement. The implementation of measures to improve the PSC levels of the organization, and the levels of OBSE and psychological detachment among nurses could help to promote their good work performance.

To create a more humane and sustainable workplace that upholds humanistic values alongside economic goals, it is critical to understand how organizations can effectively support employee well-being. Integrating self-determination theory within the psychosocial safety climate (PSC) framework, this study investigates (a) the core mechanism by which PSC supports employee well-being through basic psychological needs and (b) the organizational contexts in which this mechanism operates most effectively. Using a multilevel, cross-lagged panel model with three waves of data from 983 employees across 59 organizations, we decomposed PSC into between- and within-organization components. We investigated (a) within-organization mediation pathways, with need satisfaction and frustration mediating the relationships between individual PSC and work engagement and emotional exhaustion, respectively, and (b) between-organization contextual influences, testing how organizational-level PSC (i.e., PSC level and its interaction with PSC strength) moderates these indirect pathways. At the within-organization level, PSC was positively and indirectly related to work engagement through need satisfaction and negatively and indirectly related to emotional exhaustion via need frustration. At the between-organization level, PSC level and its interaction with PSC strength significantly moderated these relationships. Particularly, higher organizational PSC levels amplified the positive indirect relationship between individual PSC and work engagement, whereas the negative indirect relationship between individual PSC and emotional exhaustion was strongest in organizations characterized by both lower PSC levels and higher PSC strength. This study illustrates the multilevel role of PSC in promoting and sustaining employee well-being by supporting inherent human tendencies toward psychological need fulfillment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Hospital accreditation has been studied comprehensively, yet few studies have observed its impacts on the burnout and work engagement levels of frontline healthcare professionals (HCPs). With a sample of 121 HCPs working in the United Arab Emirates' public hospitals, this study used a two-wave, cross-lagged panel design to examine the direct effects of job demands and job resources during hospital accreditations on burnout and work engagement and the moderating roles of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on burnout and work engagement 3 months after accreditation. The data were analyzed using moderated structural equation modeling. As expected, we found that job demands (i.e., accreditation demands) had a direct effect on burnout, while job resources (i.e., social support) predicted work engagement. PSC moderated both relationships; however, it was not able to directly predict burnout or work engagement. Findings from this study show a positive relationship between accreditation demands and HCPs' health. Future research needs to examine the link between PSC and job demands-resources concepts before and after hospital accreditation more closely by using multiple time points to assess the causality relationships between predictor and outcome variables.

Compromised Sustainable Employability (SE) of medical doctors poses a risk to the viability of health care, and consequently, to society’s welfare. In order to address medical doctors’ compromised SE a better understanding of its underlying determinants is needed. Therefore, drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, extended with Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC), we tested PSC as a ‘cause of causes’, examining direct and indirect relationships between PSC, job characteristics (job demands and job resources), and SE outcomes (burnout, work engagement, and job satisfaction). We also tested whether PSC moderates job characteristics-SE relationships. Multilevel structural equation modelling was used to analyse questionnaire data from 604 medical doctors across 28 groups. PSC was analysed at the group-level, while other variables were analysed at the individual-level. Results showed that job demands and job resources were related to SE outcomes, generally in line with the JD-R model. PSC was particularly positively related to job resources and negatively to the job demand social harassment. We found some support for indirect relationships between PSC and SE outcomes through job characteristics, as well as PSC’s moderating role on job characteristics-SE relationships. Surprisingly, under high PSC, unfavourable job characteristics were associated with more negative SE outcomes. These findings suggest that healthcare organisations can enhance medical doctors’ SE by fostering a high PSC and designing favourable job characteristics.

Purpose The aim of the study was to determine (a) to which extent job demands and job resources predict work ability in employees with chronic headaches, and (b) whether work ability in these employees is more hampered by high demands and more enhanced by resources than in employees without chronic disease. Methods All employees with chronic headaches (n = 593) and without chronic disease (n = 13,742) were selected from The Netherlands Working Conditions Survey conducted in 2013. This survey assessed amongst others job characteristics and various indicators of work ability, i.e. sick leave, employability, work engagement, and emotional exhaustion. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for employees with chronic headaches and compared to employees without chronic disease, controlling for age, gender and educational level. Results In employees with chronic headaches higher quantitative and emotional demands contributed to higher emotional exhaustion, and higher emotional demands to higher sick leave. Higher cognitive demands were however associated with higher work engagement. Higher autonomy was related to higher employability and lower emotional exhaustion. Higher supervisor and colleague support was associated with higher employability, higher engagement and lower emotional exhaustion. Higher supervisor support was associated with lower sick leave. Supervisor support emerged as a stronger predictor for emotional exhaustion in the employees with chronic headaches than in the employees without chronic disease. Conclusions Job demands and job resources are important for work ability in employees with chronic headaches. Furthermore, results suggest that these employees benefit more strongly from supervisor support than employees without chronic disease.

To explore the day-level interactions between challenge and hindrance job demands and their effects on work engagement and emotional exhaustion among healthcare professionals, focusing on the moderating role of resilience. A longitudinal, diary-based design was employed. This study utilised a multilevel modelling approach to analyse 351 diary entries from 85 healthcare professionals, collected during the COVID-19 pandemic (in March-April 2021). Participants recorded their daily experiences, including job demands, work engagement, emotional exhaustion and resilience. Challenge demands, such as increased workload, are associated with both higher work engagement and greater emotional exhaustion, highlighting a dual impact. Resilience moderated these effects, reducing the negative impacts of both challenge and hindrance demands on emotional exhaustion. Surprisingly, higher resilience also diminished the positive relationship between effort and engagement. The study highlights the critical role of resilience in moderating the effects of job demands on healthcare workers' well-being, particularly under the stressful conditions of a global pandemic. Insights from this study can assist healthcare organisations in developing strategies to enhance employee resilience and effectively manage job demands. Improved management of these factors can lead to better employee well-being and sustained engagement, ultimately benefiting patient care during high-stress periods. The study addressed the impact of daily job demands on the well-being and performance of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main findings highlighted the dual effects of challenge demands and the protective role of resilience in mitigating the adverse effects of job demands. This research will impact healthcare organisations and policymakers, informing strategies to bolster workforce resilience and well-being, thereby potentially enhancing patient care during crises. We adhered to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. Neither patients nor the public were involved in the design, conduct, reporting or dissemination plans of our research. Healthcare professionals participated only as research subjects and did not engage in any aspect of the research process.