Effects Of Psychosocial Safety Climate Research Articles

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.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education and healthcare sectors were severely affected. There is a need to investigate the ways in which these workers in at-risk sectors can be protected and through what mechanisms. The aims of this research are, therefore, (1) to assess the mediating role of job demands and resources in the relationship between psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and work engagement and emotional exhaustion, and (2) to test for sector-specific differences among education and healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the study, which employed a longitudinal design including three measurement times, 70 education professionals and 69 healthcare professionals completed a questionnaire measuring PSC, psychological demands, social support, recognition, work engagement, and emotional exhaustion. The results show that PSC was significantly higher among education professionals than among healthcare professionals. When considering both job sectors together, mediation analyses show that social support mediates the PSC-work engagement relationship, while psychological demands mediate the PSC-emotional exhaustion relationship. Moderated mediation analyses show that job sector is a moderator: among education professionals, colleague support and recognition mediate the PSC-work engagement relationship, and psychological demands mediate the PSC-emotional exhaustion relationship. PSC is associated with more balanced job demands and resources, higher work engagement, and lower emotional exhaustion among education and healthcare professionals. The study of these two sectors, which are both vital to society but also more exposed to adverse work conditions, shows the importance that managers and executives must attach to their mental health by improving their respective working conditions.

Effect of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Organizational Citizenship Behaviours of Operators in the Ready-Made Garment Industry in Bangladesh

This study aimed to explore the effect of four dimensions of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on organizational citizenship behaviour toward individuals (OCBI) and organizations (OCBO) of operator-level employees of the ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh. Despite having plenteous research in the PSC and OCB literature, the development of theoretical models and validation were the gaps that required attempts to investigate the role of specific dimensions of PSC on the employees’ positive behavioural outcomes. The study followed quantitative, co-relational and cross-sectional approaches to examine the responses of 327 sample participants. The population of this study was all operating employees of the RMG organizations registered with BGMEA located in Dhaka. The study collected data through a structured questionnaire following the survey method. The present study developed a theoretical model and employed the PLS-SEM technique to justify the reliability and validity (convergent and discriminant) of the measurement model and test the study hypotheses through the structural model assessment. The study employed SPSS v.20 and Smart PLS v.3.3.3 for common method variance and the descriptive and inferential statistical assessments. The study results supported six hypotheses out of eight and unveiled that the employees’ perception of three dimensions of PSC (PSCMS, PSCOC and PSCOP) had positive impacts on OCBI and OCBO. Besides, the other two hypotheses were not supported by the study results, where the impacts of PSCMP on OCBI and OCBO were examined. The study discussed its findings in alignment with previous research reports and presented suggestions for future researchers and practitioners. This study poses theoretical implications in developing and corroborating a new conceptual model in PSC and OCB literature that cover the impact of each dimension of PSC on employees’ OCBI and OCBO. The findings of this study will contribute practically by sending a message to the higher authority of Bangladeshi RMG organizations that the employees’ psychosocial well-being oriented managerial support, communication, and participation will persuade the employees to expose the greater extent of OCB.

Psychosocial safety climate and supportive leadership as vital enhancers of personal hope and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of supportive leadership and psychosocial safety climate on personal hope and resilience among nurses during the pandemic. Conservation of resource theory was employed to explain the effects of psychosocial safety climate and supportive leadership on nurses' hope and resilience. A cross-sectional design was employed to collect data. Six-hundred and twenty-three nurses across 68 hospitals who were in direct contact with COVID-19 patients during the fifth wave of the pandemic in Iran were recruited. Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) and Structural Equation Modelling using Amos were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that both psychosocial safety climate and supportive leadership improved personal resilience through personal hope. Findings showed that the positive relationship between supportive leadership and personal hope was stronger when the hospital-level psychosocial safety climate was high. To improve personal hope and resilience among nurses during critical times, hospital management must ensure consistent supportive leadership and establish policies, practices and procedures that support nurses' psychosocial health and safety at the hospital level.

The Effect of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Engagement and Psychological Distress: A Multilevel Study on the Healthcare Sector

All work sectors have been affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The perception of risk combined with the lack of safety and fear for their own safety have caused severe psychological discomfort in workers. Of all the work sectors, the most affected was certainly the healthcare sector. In hospitals, medical staff were at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, providing care in close physical proximity to patients and had a direct risk of being exposed to the virus. The main objective of the study was to investigate the perception of a psychosocial safety climate and the effect on engagement and psychological stress in a sample of 606 healthcare workers (physicians 39.6%, nurses 41.3%, healthcare assistant 19.1%), belonging to six organisations and organised into 11 working groups. Furthermore, we wanted to investigate the mediating effect of workaholism at both individual and group level. The results partially confirmed our hypotheses and the mediating effect at the individual level of working compulsively. A psychosocial safety climate in healthcare workers led to a decrease in engagement through the mediation of working compulsively. The mediating effect of working compulsively might be due to a climate that did not guarantee or preserve the psychological health and safety of healthcare workers. In this research, the most important limit concerns the number of organisations and the number of groups.

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

The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and its relationship to work-related outcome (i.e., work engagement) via working conditions such as job demands and resources. Specifically, by using the job demands-resources (JD-R) model as a basis of the argument, the research examines how cognitive demands and possibilities for development mediate the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and work engagement. The research predicted that PSC positively increases work engagement via enhancement of positive demands (i.e., cognitive demands) and possibilities for development. The current study utilized a cross-sectional survey approach among 392 employees in one oil and gas organization in Malaysia. To test the research hypotheses, data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). The study revealed that PSC increased possibilities for development and had no significant relationship with cognitive demands. Furthermore, the results supported the notion that working condition (possibilities for development) mediated the relationship between PSC and work engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that PSC plays a significant role as predictor for working conditions and work outcomes in oil and gas industry. The results may be used to help occupational health and safety practitioners, human resource practitioners and higher management within organizations to understand how PSC influences working conditions and work outcomes.

Psychosocial safety climate, work engagement and organizational commitment in Malaysian research universities: the mediating role of job resources

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.

How discretionary behaviors promote customer engagement: the role of psychosocial safety climate and psychological capital

AbstractThe study examines the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and psychological capital (PsyCap) on customer engagement through discretionary service behaviors including adaptive and proactive service behaviors (ASB and PSB). A field study of 56 managers, 513 service employees, and 560 customers in 56 branches of insurance companies was carried out to test a theoretical model using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM7). The results demonstrated that PsyCap and PSC were both positively associated with ASB and PSB at the individual level. The results also showed that an interaction between PsyCap and PSC was related to ASB but not PSB. This suggested that PsyCap and PSC interact in a synergic manner to affect service employees' engagement in ASB, beyond their direct effects. At the branch level, ASB was not associated with customer engagement behavior, but PSB was. Furthermore, PSB mediated the relationship between PSC and customer engagement behavior, although ASB did not.

Not All Emotional Demands Are the Same: Emotional Demands from Clients' or Co-Workers' Relations Have Different Associations with Well-Being in Service Workers.

There has been an increased interest in the study of emotional demands (ED) at work and its impact on workers’ well-being. However, ED have been conceptualized as a unitary concept, focused on interactions with clients, and excluding other potential sources of ED at work. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to explore the relation between ED from different relational sources (clients/patients/customers and colleagues, supervisors, and employees) and service workers’ exhaustion and engagement. Cross-sectional data from a sample of 2742 service workers were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results showed that ED from both sources (clients and colleagues) were associated with more emotional exhaustion, particularly if dealing with clients was not an integrated part of the role. Further, ED from clients’ relations were negatively associated with engagement for managers with staff responsibility, but positively for managers without staff responsibility. We also found moderating effects of psychosocial safety climate (PSC), whereby ED had the strongest effect on emotional exhaustion when PSC was low. This study suggests that different relational sources of ED at work have a different impact on employees’ well-being. Strategies that promote a reduction of extra-role ED, and the development of a PSC in the organization, could therefore offer possible solutions to promote employees’ psychological well-being and motivation.

Effect of psychosocial safety climate on psychological distress via job resources, work engagement and workaholism: a multilevel longitudinal study

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.

How can we decrease burnout and safety workaround behaviors in health care organizations? The role of psychosocial safety climate

PurposeConducted with a staff of 562 persons working in the health sector in Quebec, mainly nurses, the purpose of this paper is to test the indirect effects of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) on workarounds through physical fatigue, cognitive weariness and emotional exhaustion as mediators.Design/methodology/approachThe structural equation method, namely CFA, was used to test the structure of constructs, the reliability and validity of the measurement scales as well as model fit. To test the mediation effects, Hayes’s PROCESS (2013) macro and 95 percent confidence intervals were used and 5,000 bootstrapping re-samples were run. The statistical treatments were carried out with the AMOS software V.24 and SPSS v.22.FindingsThe results based on bootstrap analysis and Sobel’s test demonstrate that physical fatigue, cognitive weariness and emotional exhaustion mediate the relationship between PSC and safety workarounds.Practical implicationsThe study has important practical implications in detecting blocks and obstacles in the work processes and decreasing the use of workaround behaviors, or in converting their negative consequences into positive contributions.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between PSC, burnout and workaround behaviors. These results could contribute to a better understanding of this construct of workarounds and how to deal with it. Moreover, the test of the concepts of PSC in this study provides support for the theory of “conservation of resources” by proposing an extension of this theory.

Testing the relevance, proximal, and distal effects of psychosocial safety climate and social support on job resources: A context-based approach

Building on and extending the proximal-distal theoretical framework of motivation, we investigated the relevance of the role and effectiveness of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and social suppor...

Job design for mindful work: The boosting effect of psychosocial safety climate.

Despite a surge in workplace mindfulness research, virtually nothing is known about how organizations can cultivate everyday mindfulness at work. Using the extended job demands-resources model, we explored daily psychological demands and job control as potential antecedents of daily mindfulness, and the moderating effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC, which relates to the value organizations place on psychological health at work). We also examined the relationship between mindfulness and learning to augment understanding of the benefits of everyday mindfulness at work. A sample of 57 employees, primarily working in education, health care, and finance, completed a diary for five days within a 2-week period, covering mindfulness, psychological demands, job control, and learning. PSC was measured in a baseline survey, with individual ratings combined with those of up to four colleagues to tap objective (shared) climate. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that daily psychological demands were negatively related to daily mindfulness, and daily job control was positively related to daily mindfulness especially as PSC increased. Additionally, daily mindfulness was positively associated with daily workplace learning. This study is one of the first to identify work-related antecedents to everyday mindfulness. The findings suggest that (a) to support everyday mindfulness at work, jobs must be designed with manageable demands and a variety of tasks that allow for creativity and skill discretion, and (b) the benefits of mindfulness interventions for employee psychological health and well-being may not be sustainable unless employees have influence over when and how they do their work, in the "right" climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to uncover the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC – a climate for psychological health) on managerial quality and the mediating processes explaining that association. It is posited that the alignment between what is said (espoused PSC) and what is done (enacted PSC via managerial quality) is important for successful organizational interventions. Managers’ own psychosocial work factors act as resources to facilitate the enactment of managerial quality.Design/methodology/approachTwo waves of survey were administered over a three-month period (n at Time 1=144, n at Time 2=166, overall n=115) in a study of four organizations involved in implementing the Quebec Healthy Enterprise Standard (QHES). A cross-lagged panel analysis was used to determine the temporal direction of the PSC–managerial quality relationship. A longitudinal mediation model of PSC as a determinant of managerial quality was tested using job demands, job control, social support and quality of relationships with subordinates as mediators.FindingsThe cross-lagged panel analysis showed that PSC is temporally prior to managerial quality in that the relationship between PSC at T1 and managerial quality at T2 was stronger than the relationship between managerial quality at T1 and PSC at T2. A two-wave mediation analysis showed that PSC was positively associated with managerial quality, and that job control partially mediated this relationship. Contrary to expectations, managers’ workload, their social support and the quality of their relationships with subordinates did not mediate the PSC–managerial quality relationship.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the small sample size and short timeframe of this study, it contributes to knowledge on the resources facilitating managerial quality, which is important for employees’ psychological health. Little is known regarding the mediating processes that explain how managers’ own context and psychosocial work factors affect their management practices during organizational health interventions.Practical implicationsFrom a practical view point, this study contributes to the literature showing that managers need to be supported during the implementation of health interventions, and need the leeway to pursue the organization’s prevention objectives.Originality/valueWhereas previous studies have focused on describing the impact of leadership behaviors on employee health outcomes, the study offers insights into the resources that help managers translate PSC into action in the implementation of a national standard, the QHES.

Leveraging psychosocial safety climate to prevent ill-being: The mediating role of psychological need thwarting

This study aimed to identify a new lever to prevent workers' burnout, work-family conflict, and turnover intentions by investigating psychosocial safety climate's relation to these undesirable outcomes. More specifically, drawing on self-determination theory, we explored the mediating role of psychological need thwarting in these relationships. Study 1 used a cross-sectional design to demonstrate that psychosocial safety climate was negatively related to employees' work-family conflict and turnover intentions, through the mediation of psychological need thwarting. Study 2 built upon these results by using a cross-lagged design to show that psychosocial safety climate, through its relation with psychological need thwarting, related to a decrease in burnout three months later. Burnout itself explained an increase in work-family conflict and turnover intentions. Altogether, this paper contributes to self-determination theory in organizations and sheds light on the longitudinal beneficial effect of psychosocial safety climate to prevent undesirable consequences for employees and organizations both. Theoretical contributions and perspectives, as well as implications for practice are discussed.

Psychosocial safety climate versus team climate

PurposeThe importance of organizational climates in enhancing employees’ job performance is well studied in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and team climate on job performance, particularly through job engagement, by using a multilevel survey. The study also predicted that only PSC (and not team climate) predicted job resources (i.e. role clarity and performance feedback).Design/methodology/approachA total of 412 employees from 44 teams (72.6 per cent response rate) in Malaysian private organizations participated in the current study.FindingsResearch findings revealed that performance feedback and role clarity mediate the relationship between PSC and job engagement, and that there is no direct effect between the variables, team climate, and job resources. As expected, the study also discovered that job engagement mediates the relationship between PSC and team climate related to job performance.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests the importance of PSC as the precursor to better working conditions (i.e. job resources) and to indirectly boosting employees’ engagement and job performance.Originality/valueThe study compared two distinctive organizational climate constructs that affect the different types of job resources using multilevel approach within the Asian context.