Psychosocial Safety Research Articles

Investigating the psychometric properties and assessment capabilities of the short version of the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards Indicator Tool

Policies on psychosocial hazards at work are gaining importance. Subsequently, a number of indicators have been proposed to assess the phenomenon such as the Management Standards Indicator Tool (MSIT). This study focuses on the short-version of the MSIT and aims to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validities of the measures, explore whether these measures can be represented by a higher-order factor of work-related stress and to contribute towards better understanding of its concurrent validity. Data were obtained from 452 full-time managerial-grade employees working in a multinational manufacturing plant in Malta. The study shows that the original 25-item MSIT measures have convergent and discriminant validity issues. Following the removal of five items, the revised indicator demonstrated good construct validity and was well-represented by a higher order factor. Additionally, the second-order factor of the modified MSIT mediated the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and psychological well-being and slightly interacted with engagement to explain improved well-being in the mediational pathway. This study suggests that the modified MSIT is effective in assessing psychosocial factors in stress-management interventions. The MSIT has good prospects to be further adopted in the process of developing better policy and standards for the improvement of psychological conditions at work.

The mediating role of work engagement between psychosocial safety climate and organisational citizenship behaviours: a study in the nursing and health sector in Quebec

The objective of this research, conducted with 562 staff working in the health sector in Quebec (Canada), mainly nurses, is to examine the direct and indirect effects of the psychosocial safety climate on work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviours. The results of structural equations show that the psychosocial safety climate increases engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption). However, it has no direct effect on organisational citizenship. The bootstrap results indicate that vigour, dedication and absorption all mediate the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and altruism and compliance; however, the indirect link between climate and altruism through absorption is not significant.

The mediating role of work engagement between psychosocial safety climate and organisational citizenship behaviours: a study in the nursing and health sector in Quebec

The mediating role of work engagement between psychosocial safety climate and organisational citizenship behaviours: a study in the nursing and health sector in Quebec

Translating cross-lagged effects into incidence rates and risk ratios: The case of psychosocial safety climate and depression

ABSTRACTLongitudinal studies are the gold standard of empirical work and stress research whenever experiments are not plausible. Frequently, scales are used to assess risk factors and their consequences, and cross-lagged effects are estimated to determine possible risks. Methods to translate cross-lagged effects into risk ratios to facilitate risk assessment do not yet exist, which creates a divide between psychological and epidemiological work stress research. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate how cross-lagged effects can be used to assess the risk ratio of different levels of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) in organisations, an important psychosocial risk for the development of depression. We used available longitudinal evidence from the Australian Workplace Barometer (N = 1905) to estimate cross-lagged effects of PSC on depression. We applied continuous time modelling to obtain time-scalable cross effects. These were further investigated in a 4-year Monte Carlo simulation, which translated them into 4-year incident rates. Incident rates were determined by relying on clinically relevant 2-year periods of depression. We suggest a critical value of PSC = 26 (corresponding to −1.4 SD), which is indicative of more than 100% increased incidents of persistent depressive disorder in 4-year periods compared to average levels of PSC across 4 years.

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and enacted PSC for workplace bullying and psychological health problem reduction

ABSTRACTBullying at work has profound effects on both the individual and organization. We aimed to determine if organizational psychosocial safety climate (PSC; a climate specific to worker psychological health) could reduce workplace bullying and associated psychological health problems (i.e., distress, emotional exhaustion, depression) if specific procedures were implemented (PSC enactment). We theorized that the PSC enactment mechanism works via psychosocial processes such as bullying mistreatment climate (anti-bullying procedures), work design (procedures reduce stress through work redesign), and conflict resolution (procedures to resolve conflict). We used two-wave national longitudinal interview data from 1,062 Australian employees (Australian Workplace Barometer project) and structural equation modelling to explore relationships over 4 years. PSC Time 1 predicted enacted PSC and reduced bullying 4 years later. PSC Time 1 was indirectly negatively related to poor psychological health Time 2 through enacted PSC and bullying. Bullying Time 1 also gave rise to procedures which in turn reduced bullying Time 2. Our findings suggest a multi-component approach to prevent or reduce bullying. Procedures (to reduce psychosocial hazards) that emerge in a high PSC context are more comprehensive than those triggered by bullying (reactive procedures), and can therefore be more effective in reducing worker mistreatment. Building PSC and a strong climate for psychological health, and enacting PSC is fundamental to bullying prevention.

Infant-Feeding Practice and Its Association to Nutritional Status of Under-5 Children Research

Objective: Occupational health, today, looks at a new idea, i.e., psychological health and safety which is about safeguarding the psychological health of employee by providing a workplace that promotes employees’ psychological well-being by preventing psychological harm to employee. The purpose of this study is to assess the psychosocial work environment among sanitation workers. Methods: A qualitative study was carried out during June-July, 2016 among women sanitation workers of Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, South India. Institutional Ethical Committee clearance and the permission from the work supervisor were obtained. Out of 33 women sanitation workers, 10 women fulfilling the inclusion criteria, selected by purposive and criterion sampling, were identified as the discussion participants. Informed consent was obtained. Focus group discussion was conducted to explore the opinions and views on their psychological well-being influenced by job satisfaction, psychosocial safety, social support, workload and physical health. The observations were recorded and qualitative data analysis was done by ordering and coding. Results: The preliminary thematic analysis of data showed that all of them agree on job satisfaction, social support, good interpersonal relations and sufficient time to complete the allotted work on a single working day of 8 hours duration, hence psychological safety and protection. Most of them opined that they did not have to quit the job due to work related health issues but were of the view that in the long run, they would develop knee joint problems and backache. They suggested that incentives and rewards need to be given to boost them. Job insecurity was a common fear among them as it is contractual in nature. Conclusions: Good interpersonal relationship, social support and good psychosocial environment are the common themes. They should be given assurance on job security with periodic performance appraisal.

The impact of a referral card-based intervention on intimate partner violence, psychosocial health, help-seeking and safety behaviour during pregnancy and postpartum: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundWe aimed to investigate the impact of a referral-based intervention in a prospective cohort of women disclosing intimate partner violence (IPV) on the prevalence of violence, and associated outcomes psychosocial health, help-seeking and safety behaviour during and after pregnancy.MethodsWomen seeking antenatal care in eleven Belgian hospitals were consecutively invited from June 2010 to October 2012, to participate in a single-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) and handed a questionnaire. Participants willing to be interviewed and reporting IPV victimisation were randomised. In the Intervention Group (IG) participants received a referral card with contact details of services providing assistance and tips to increase safety behaviour. Participants in the Control Group (CG) received a “thank you” card. Follow-up data were obtained through telephone interview at an average of 10 months after receipt of the card.ResultsAt follow-up (n = 189), 66.7% (n = 126) of the participants reported IPV victimisation. Over the study-period, the prevalence of IPV victimisation decreased by 31.4% (P < 0.001), psychosocial health increased significantly (5.4/140, P < 0.001), 23.8% (n = 46/193) of the women sought formal help, 70.5% (n = 136/193) sought informal help, and 31.3% (n = 60/192) took at least one safety measure. We observed no statistically significant differences between the IG and CG, however. Adjusted for psychosocial health at baseline, the perceived helpfulness of the referral card seemed to be larger in the IG. Both the questionnaire and the interview were perceived to be significantly more helpful than the referral card itself (P < 0.001).ConclusionsAsking questions can be helpful even for types of IPV of low severity, although simply distributing a referral card may not qualify as the ideal intervention. Future interventions should be multifaceted, delineate different types of violence, controlling for measurement reactivity and designing a tailored intervention programme adjusted to the specific needs of couples experiencing IPV.Trial registrationThe trial was registered with the U.S. National Institutes of Health ClinicalTrials.gov registry on July 6, 2010 under identifier NCT01158690).

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.

Workaholism profiles: Associations with determinants, correlates, and outcomes

The present series of studies examines how the two dimensions of workaholism (working excessively and compulsively) combine within different profiles of workers. This research also documents the relations between these workaholism profiles and a series of correlates (psychological need thwarting) and adaptive and maladaptive work outcomes. In addition, this research investigates the role of emotional dissonance and employees' perceptions of their workplaces' psychosocial safety climate (Study 1, n = 465), as well as job demands, resources, and perfectionism (Study 2, n = 780) in the prediction of profile membership. Latent profile analysis revealed four identical workaholism profiles in both studies. In Study 1, emotional dissonance predicted a higher likelihood of membership in the Very High, Moderately High, and Moderately Low profiles relative to the Very Low profile. In contrast, Study 2 revealed a more diversified pattern of predictions. In both studies, levels of need thwarting were the highest in the Very High and Moderately High profiles, followed by the Moderately Low profile, and finally by the Very Low profile. Finally, in both studies, the most desirable outcomes levels (e.g., lower levels of work–family conflict and emotional exhaustion, and higher levels of perceived health) were associated with the Very Low profile, followed by the Moderately Low profile, then by the Moderately High profile, and finally by the Very High profile.Practitioner points The most desirable outcomes are associated with the profile characterized by the lowest levels of workaholism. Emotional dissonance predicts a lower likelihood of membership in the profile characterized by the lowest levels of workaholism. Levels of need thwarting are the lowest in the Very Low workaholism profile. High levels of socially prescribed perfectionism are associated with an increased likelihood of membership into the Very High workaholism profile. Reducing emotional dissonance, need thwarting, and socially prescribed perfectionism may help to reduce workaholism, in turn leading to more positive outcomes.

Role of effective nurse-patient relationships in enhancing patient safety.

Ensuring and maintaining patient safety is an essential aspect of care provision. Safety is a multidimensional concept, which incorporates interrelated elements such as physical and psychosocial safety. An effective nurse-patient relationship should ensure that these elements are considered when planning and providing care. This article discusses the importance of an effective nurse-patient relationship, as well as healthcare environments and working practices that promote safety, thus ensuring optimal patient care.

An Integrated Model of Work–Study Conflict and Work–Study Facilitation

The rise in working university students is a global phenomenon with more than half of the student population working while studying at university. Within this trend of dual participation, working students face unique stressors such as work–study conflict and facilitation. Work–study conflict drives students’ poor health, whereas work–study facilitation drives positive academic outcomes. In this article, we review and critique several work–study interface models proposed to explain the development and consequences of these stressors. The review uncovers important omissions and limitations of the models, reducing their utility and generalizability. Therefore, we propose a new work-to-study model, which addresses the omissions of the previous models. The work-to-study model builds on the current literature and models and integrates psychosocial safety climate theory, as it relates to the extended job demands–resources model to advance our understanding of the development and consequences of work–study conflict and facilitation.

Assessing a national work health and safety policy intervention using the psychosocial safety climate framework

Despite wide support for work health and safety (WHS) public policy interventions, the evaluation of their effectiveness has been largely overlooked. As such, many important policy developments have not been assessed for their impact within jurisdictions and organisations. We aimed to address this research gap by using the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) framework, theory, measurement tool – the PSC-12, and benchmarks - to investigate the impact of a WHS policy intervention, across Australian jurisdictions, that standardised policy approaches (i.e. harmonisation) and legislated the protection of psychological health. PSC refers to a facet of organisational climate that specifically relates to psychological health and safety; it is a predictor of job design and employee health. We investigated perceived organisational PSC across jurisdictions, across time, and contrasted effects between those that did (harmonised) and did not (non-harmonised) adopt the new policy. Results showed Time×Group effects for the global PSC measure, indicating a significant difference over time between the harmonised and non-harmonised jurisdictions. Specifically, PSC levels significantly decreased in the non-harmonised jurisdiction over time. Analysis of PSC subscales showed that a significant decline in management commitment and priority, and communication in relation to employee psychological health, within the non-harmonised group underpinned these effects. We noted no significant overall PSC change across the harmonised jurisdictions, with the exception that participation and consultation of employee psychological health significantly increased. Overall results imply that without harmonisation the PSC levels reduced. Future research should seek more detailed information regarding the implementation of this policy, as well as perspectives from regulator and employer data to compliment results from the PSC-12.

The role of autonomy and social support in the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress in health care workers

BackgroundHealth care workers are exposed to psychosocial work factors. Autonomy and social support are psychosocial work factors that are related to stress, and are argued to largely result from the psychosocial safety climate within organisations. This study aimed to assess to what extent the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress in health care workers can be explained by autonomy and social support.MethodsIn a cross-sectional study, psychosocial safety climate, stress, autonomy, co-worker support, and supervisor support were assessed using questionnaires, in a sample of health care workers (N = 277). Linear mixed models analyses were performed to assess to what extent social support and autonomy explained the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress.ResultsA lower psychosocial safety climate score was associated with significantly higher stress (B = −0.21, 95% CI = −0.27 – -0.14). Neither co-worker support, supervisor support, nor autonomy explained the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress. Taken together, autonomy and both social support measures diminished the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress by 12% (full model: B = −0.18, 95% CI = −0.25 – -0.11).ConclusionsAutonomy and social support together seemed to bring about a small decrease in the relation between psychosocial safety climate and stress in health care workers. Future research should discern whether other psychosocial work factors explain a larger portion of this relation.Trial registrationThis study was registered in the Netherlands National Trial Register, trial code: NTR5527.

Country differences of psychosocial working conditions in Europe: the role of health and safety management practices.

In times of demographic change, maintaining health and employability of older employees is important. In this context, studies show that stressful working conditions differ by countries. Yet, it is unclear if specific national management practices to deal with these conditions contribute towards explaining country differences. This study combines two different data sources. The first one provides detailed information on psychosocial working conditions in 17 European countries, based on 12,284 employees from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). We link this information to the second data source that provides information on health and safety management practices in each of the countries under study (collected among 17,477 managers at the level of companies in the Enterprise survey on new and emerging risks (ESENER)). We distinguish six different types of risk management procedures in the analysis. Results show that levels of psychosocial risks are generally lower in countries with more developed management practices, in particular if national management practices are marked by (1) procedures to deal with work stress, (2) information about whom to address in case of work-related psychosocial problems, and (3) health and safety services provided by psychologists. The findings underline the importance of a comprehensive psychosocial risk management approach in reducing work-related stress, as lower levels of psychosocial risks are linked to specific psychosocial risk management practices within companies, in particular those pointing to clear responsibilities and coordinated procedures in dealing with psychosocial risks.

DAMPAK PEMBAGIAN WAKTU KERJA TERHADAP FISIOLOGI, PSIKOSOSIAL, KINERJA, KESEHATAN, DAN KESELAMATAN KERJA DI PT. INDONESIA ETHANOL INDUSTRI

Abstract PT. Indonesia Ethanol Industry is one company that operates 24 hours, with the division of labor time in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The system implemented six working days within one week and get one day off. Working time sharing arrangements 1-3-2 pattern. That is two days early, two days nights, and two days late, then one day off. Over time, there are proposals for changes of employees through the management to try to change the division of labor time into a 3-2-1 pattern. Consideration of changes in the pattern so that the holiday is longer so that when you return to work can be more focused. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution of effective working time seen from side physiology, psychosocial, performance, health and sfety in the PT. Indonesia Ethanol Industry at Jl. Cross East Coast KM 242 Village Sriwijaya District of Bandar Mataram Lampung Tengah. The method used in physiology and psychosocial research is Focus Group Discussion and to study the performance, health and safety using multiple correlation method. To make decisions based on the analysis method of variable ranking physiology, psychosocial, performance, health, and safety unknown variable is thehighest performance. The performance variables known at the time the division of labor pattern 3-2-1 the result of lower production compared with the distribution of working time pattern 1-3-2. Keywords: Distribution of Working Time, Physiology, Psychosocial, Performance, Health, and Work Safety.

Climate congruence: How espoused psychosocial safety climate and enacted managerial support affect emotional exhaustion and work engagement

The alignment between espoused (saying) and enacted (doing) psychosocial safety climate (PSC; a climate for worker psychological health) is important to consider in relation to health and work outcomes. This diary study explored the interplay (moderation and mediation processes) between espoused PSC (organizational level PSC) and daily enacted PSC (operationalized in the specific domain of managerial support) and their relationships to worker psychological health (i.e., daily emotional exhaustion) and motivation (i.e., daily work engagement). In all, 545 diary data points were collected within five consecutive days from 109 secondary school teachers across 23 schools in Selangor, Malaysia. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) in a three-level model, we found espoused PSC was positively related to daily enacted managerial support. For work engagement, espoused PSC was related to work engagement through enacted managerial support. For emotional exhaustion, enacted managerial support moderated the negative relationship between espoused PSC and daily emotional exhaustion. The expected (beneficial) effects of espoused PSC were evident when high levels aligned with high levels of enacted managerial support within schools. In this case, PSC acts as a safety signal — when high espoused PSC is coupled with repeated, unequivocal and stable support (enacted managerial support), employees may feel safe to take action in their environment to protect themselves from emotional exhaustion. These findings offer new insights regarding how managers can build PSC, by valuing employee psychological health, and translating PSC into action (integrity in saying and doing), to increase psychological health and work engagement.

Psychosocial safety climate, emotional exhaustion, and work injuries in healthcare workplaces.

Preventing work injuries requires a clear understanding of how they occur, how they are recorded, and the accuracy of injury surveillance. Our innovation was to examine how psychosocial safety climate (PSC) influences the development of reported and unreported physical and psychological workplace injuries beyond (physical) safety climate, via the erosion of psychological health (emotional exhaustion). Self-report data (T2, 2013) from 214 hospital employees (18 teams) were linked at the team level to the hospital workplace injury register (T1, 2012; T2, 2013; and T3, 2014). Concordance between survey-reported and registered injury rates was low (36%), indicating that many injuries go unreported. Safety climate was the strongest predictor of T2 registered injury rates (controlling for T1); PSC and emotional exhaustion also played a role. Emotional exhaustion was the strongest predictor of survey-reported total injuries and underreporting. Multilevel analysis showed that low PSC, emanating from senior managers and transmitted through teams, was the origin of psychological health erosion (i.e., low emotional exhaustion), which culminated in greater self-reported work injuries and injury underreporting (both physical and psychological). These results underscore the need to consider, in theory and practice, a dual physical-psychosocial safety explanation of injury events and a psychosocial explanation of injury underreporting.

Psychosocial, Health Promotion and Safety Culture management – Are Health and Safety Practitioners involved?

Health and Safety Practitioners (HSPs), as frontline professionals advocating for the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) conditions at work, have a pivotal role in an organisation. Over the last number of years, the nature of work has changed; the assessment and management of psychosocial risk factors and health promotion are now additional core challenges in OHS. This study aims to investigate the HSPs’ main tasks and their involvement in activities regarding the management of Psychosocial risk factors, Safety Culture and Health Promotion (HP) within their organisations. Data from 879 HSPs was collected through a web-survey of members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) in Ireland and the UK. The questionnaire was adapted from Hale et al. (2005) and Jones (2005) concerning the OHS structure in the HSP’s organisation, his/her main areas of activity and a list of the most common tasks performed by European HSPs. Chi-square analysis was used to assess the association between HSPs organisational and job characteristics and their involvement in the management of Psychosocial risk factors, Safety Culture and Health Promotion. Logistic regression was used to ascertain organisational predictors of the HSPs’ involvement in these tasks. There was no variation in the proportion of HSPs performing tasks related to Psychosocial risk factors by company size, job title nor sector of activity. Safety Culture (86.8%) and Health Promotion-related tasks (64.2%) were a greater part of the HSPs job than psychosocial activities (30.8%). Those in the “Agriculture, forestry/fishing, mining/quarrying” sector were most involved in these activities (HP 84.4%; Safety Culture 90.6%). HSPs with “Manager, Director, Head, Lead, Coordinator” roles were more likely to perform Health Promotion and Safety Culture-related activities independent of industrial sector or company size. HSPs do not seem to take an active role in Psychosocial risk factors’ assessment and management in most workplace settings. The results highlight the challenge in ensuring a holistic and multidisciplinary approach for prevention of Psychosocial risk factors for integrated OHS management.

Impact of Ethical leadership on Followers’ Organizational Deviance, Mediating role of Psychosocial Safety Climate, Moderating role of Union Commitment A Study in the Context of Pakistan

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between Ethical Leadership and followers’ Organizational Deviance, followed by the mediating role of Psychosocial Safety climate and moderating role of Union Commitment among the young doctors in Pakistan. Data were collected from young/junior doctors (practitioners) working in public/ private hospitals in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Bahawalpur. Hierarchical Regression tests were run and the results indicated that Ethical Leadership has a significant and negative relationship with Organizational Deviance. Further, the results indicated that Union Commitment moderates the relationship between Ethical Leadership and Organizational Deviance, such that greater the commitment of the members with the union would result in weakening the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational deviance. The findings also suggest that psychosocial safety climate does not mediate between ethical leadership and organizational deviance.

Can maternity care move beyond risk? Implications for midwifery as a profession

Maternal and infant mortality rates are reassuringly low in developed countries. Despite this, birth is increasingly seen as risky by women, health professionals and society in general. In wider society, women are subjected to a litany of risks regarding birth, including sensationalising negative incidents by the media. Within maternity care, both structural and operational factors contribute to heightened risk perceptions. Women are processed through a system where risk-management strategies can take precedence over individualised care as health professionals attempt to protect themselves from implication in adverse outcomes and litigation. This results in increasingly interventionist care, depriving women of psychosocial safety in the birth process. Midwifery, as a profession promoting trust in normal birth, is threatened by this dominant medical model of maternity care and interventionist birth practices. Midwives need to act to reclaim their role in promoting normal birth, while balancing considerations of risk with the principle of woman-centred care.