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We investigated the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) construct and its role in attenuating the negative effects of job demands (i.e. emotional and psychological) on psychological health (distress, emotional exhaustion, and depression). In particular, we used composition theory to understand how organisational PSC could be derived from individual perceptions of PSC. We introduce a relatively new construct, PSC Ideal, which combines PSC level and dispersion (variability; SD). We expected that the attenuating role would be strongest when organisational PSC Ideal was high; high (on level) and strong (less variability). Statistically, PSC Ideal implies taking account of PSC Level and its variability simultaneously. A hierarchical sample of 41 organisations with 495 participants was analysed from Australian Workplace Barometer data. In four out of six analyses, PSC Ideal significantly moderated the effects of job demands (particularly emotional demands) on psychological health (emotional exhaustion, psychological distress, depression). The promising moderation role of PSC Ideal implies that the disruption of the job demands and poor psychological health relationship requires consideration of PSC levels and strength in combination, rather than level alone. Theoretical and practical recommendations highlight the role of PSC Ideal in ameliorating and preventing the negative impact of work demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Psychosocial safety climate is a leading indicator of RTW (time loss, expenditure). • PSC's effect was mediated through skill discretion, job satisfaction, and rewards. • Novel prospective multisource study linked 'objective' work reports to claims data. • In very low vs high PSC organisations days lost were 160 % higher. • In very low vs high PSC organisations expenditure was 104 % higher. Finding an association between organisational factors and working time loss following workplace injury and illness (hereafter injury) could rightfully shift the focus in injury management strategies from the individual to the organisation. We investigate whether working time loss and expenditure following compensable injury can be predicted by knowing about organisational characteristics, particularly the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) − the organisation's climate for worker psychological health. Our prospective multisource study linked 'objective' reports of working conditions assessed in an independent Australian Workplace Barometer (AWB) sample (random population interviews of 1067 workers) to future workers compensation claims data held by a government safety regulator, by aggregating both data sets to the organisational (employer) level. We selected compensation data prior to big policy changes to a short tail scheme. We selected claims with working time loss due to injury or illness ≥1 day yielding 100 organisations and 12,624 claims. Results support organisational PSC as a leading indicator of future time loss and expenditure, and its effect was mediated through skill discretion, job satisfaction, and rewards. Decision authority, supervisory support, and bullying were also related to time loss but not as strongly as PSC. In very low PSC organisations, days lost were 160 % higher than for those in high PSC organisations (177 vs 68 days). Likewise, expenditure for the injury or illness (e.g., health expenses, wages) was 104 % higher in very low PSC vs high PSC organisations (AUD $67 260 vs $32 939). PSC is a modifiable social determinant of injured workers working time loss and expenditure. Practically, it is essential to target PSC for safety improvement — beyond injury prevention PSC is important for return to work and to prevent the shift of the burden of organisational problems to the individual and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mental ill health is an international public health crisis and current approaches have been ineffective. • We investigate the role of national policy in improving mental health, providing strong evidence that certain national policy objectives do improve mental health via work conditions. • We (1) undertake a global analysis of national occupational health and safety policy for worker mental health and, (2) validate a tool that quantifies national policy approaches in the interests of bolstering mental health through decent work. • Data were collected across 45 diverse countries, such as Colombia, India, Indonesia, China, and Norway. Data were obtained from national experts such as commissioners and federal ministry leaders. • The tool—the National Policy Index (for worker mental health)—correlated with enterprise-level PSC, highlighting the critical role of national policy in protecting worker mental health. Above and beyond national policy, national union density related to enterprise PSC, demonstrating that social action is imperative. National occupational health and safety (OHS) policy (e.g., legislation) underpins worker health protection and is imperative for healthy and safe working populations. In the interest of bolstering mental health through decent work, this study undertakes a global analysis of OHS policy for worker mental health and develops and validates a short tool quantifying national policy approaches—the National Policy Index (NPI, for worker mental health). Data were collected across 45 countries from 164 global experts (and/or expert groups) to capture policy presence, priority action areas, and drivers and barriers surrounding policy implementation. Analysis revealed top global psychosocial concerns are harassment, mobbing or bullying, work overload, discrimination, and poor work-life balance. Policy priorities are harassment, mobbing or bullying, discrimination, and physical violence. The psychosocial hazards/risks that are most addressed in policies or regulated are physical violence, discrimination, harassment, mobbing or bullying. The main driver for managing hazards is workplace senior management support and having specific national regulations, and the main barrier is poor resource availability. Further, the NPI was developed through exploratory factor analysis and validated through significant correlation with a national policy audit and to the 2019 European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks data, which reports enterprise level psychosocial safety climate (PSC, organisational policies, practices, and procedures for stress prevention). The correlation between the NPI and enterprise-level PSC highlights the critical role of national policy in protecting worker population mental health. Yet above and beyond national policy, national union density also related to enterprise PSC indicating that social action is also imperative. Findings suggest that global mental health can be reinforced via decent work outlined in national policy approaches, particularly legislation, as well as via senior management support, and collective approaches such as union action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our article considers the ways in which changes to the governance, culture and missions of universities have raised significant health issues for staff and students. We report data which indicates that Australian university personnel in 2021 are 2.5 times more likely than the national population to work in a high-risk psychosocial climate. We examine the following features of universities that can threaten health: corporatisation; frequent restructuring; undue pressure to win grants and publish; excessive workloads and casualisation of staff; less democratic governance; a culture of fear and bullying; the use of slogans. These features create dilemmatic spaces and moral crises which affect the health and wellbeing of academics and their ability to perform at their best. Students are also affected in terms of tuition debts and a decline in the quality of the university experience. We conclude with a consideration of what a healthier university organisational environment might look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The psychological safety of frontline healthcare workers receives less attention in policy and from management than either physical safety or productivity goals. In other industries, Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) has been used to better understand how management values shape job design and the health and wellbeing of workers. Our study looks at how PSC theory manifests in healthcare on a day-to-day basis, aiming to explore the factors shaping that climate from the perspective of the frontline worker. A grounded theory approach was used in content analysis of semi-structured interviews with staff from three government hospitals ( N  = 27), including nursing, medical, allied health, and administrative employees. Findings suggest that PSC theory might at a broad level be applicable to a wide range of industries, such as through key themes like ‘Communication’ and ‘Group Expectations’. However it is important to acknowledge industry-specific factors in how PSC is manifested, such as the major role that PSC plays in the management of systemic risks in healthcare like balancing the ‘Conflicting Pressures’ of staff personal safety versus delivering quality patient care. In addition, practical implications of our study include three methods by which management and Australian policy makers can mitigate psychosocial risks, enacting a positive change in safety climates that better value frontline worker psychological health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are predictable outcomes of Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC), workplace psychosocial risks, and psychological health status. • Psychosocial risk factors directly predict physical demands, which are a primary cause of MSDs. Strategies to reduce MSDs require greater attention to modifying psychosocial risks. • Data-driven approaches to intervention and evaluation can be applied to ensure that the right risk factors are targeted. Given the human, industrial and societal costs of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) we evaluated antecedents to MSDs (assessed as pain, doctor diagnosis, and workplace injury) over a six-year period T1 (2014/2015) and T2 (2020/2021). The purpose of the study was to examine the role of the organisational climate (i.e., psychosocial safety climate, PSC) for employees' psychological health and safety as an antecedent to physical demands, and psychosocial risks (e.g., low control, harassment) that in turn might relate to MSDs using a longitudinal design. We used matched data from follow-up telephone interviews of 432 Australian employees. We found evidence for several psychosocial paths; PSC was related to future workplace injuries through decision authority; PSC was related to MSD pain through depressive symptoms. For future doctor diagnosed MSDs, PSC was directly negatively related. Older age, being male and low income was related to work injury; being female associated with MSD pain; and being older was associated with MSD diagnosis. A novel finding was the linkage between psychosocial risks (low skill discretion and harassment) and future physical demands leading to future MSD pain and work injury highlighting a new pathway linking psychosocial and physical aspects. Overall poor PSC was found as a distal antecedent of all MSDs. Decision authority and skill discretion were most critical psychosocial risks in predicting future pain and injuries. Psychosocial factors predicted future demands. Actions should target improving PSC and autonomy and reducing harassment and physical demands, to decrease the incidence of MSDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To create healthy workplaces, organizations need tools for assessing factors contributing to employee well‐being. Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) refers to shared perceptions regarding the extent to which psychological health and safety are prioritized in organizations; it is operationalized in the PSC scale. We evaluated the factor structure of the Finnish version of the PSC‐4 scale, its invariance across time and concurrent and predictive relationships with perceived stress, job exhaustion, and work engagement. Moreover, the mean‐level changes in PSC and well‐being during enforced remote work were studied. Participants were 442 higher education employees who completed a well‐being survey four times between April 2020 and February 2021. The longitudinal factor structure of the PSC‐4 and well‐being indicators were investigated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The statistical analyses supported the one‐factor structure of the PSC‐4 and its measurement invariance across time. PSC was negatively associated with concurrent stress and job exhaustion and positively associated with concurrent work engagement at each measurement. Moreover, PSC predicted subsequent stress between each time point. Cross‐lagged effects were also evident for job exhaustion at T2–T3 and T3–T4 and for work engagement at T1–T2. The mean level of PSC decreased during enforced remote work. To conclude, the Finnish PSC‐4 is a valid tool for evaluating perceived psychosocial safety climate in organizations. PSC predicted well‐being over time and showed subsequent relationships with job exhaustion and work engagement, which is a new contribution to PSC theory and literature. Organizations need to design interventions to improve it, especially during stressful times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated a multilevel model of learning opportunities, worker engagement, and performance. In particular we explored the effect of team-level psychosocial safety climate (PSC)--the climate for psychological health and safety--on individual level job resources (i.e., learning opportunities), engagement, and performance. Because organizational factors (i.e., PSC) precede the design of work conditions, we theorized that PSC plays an important role in engagement and performance by being related to the provision of learning opportunities, and the likelihood that they will be enacted. We expected that PSC would therefore invoke the (individual level) motivational pathway of the Job Demands-Resources model. Participants were 427 employees from 56 teams (each from a different organization) in Malaysia. Team level PSC was positively related to job engagement, mediated by learning opportunities; PSC was related to performance mediated by job engagement. Overall, our findings support the role of team level PSC as an antecedent to positive work conditions and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal agents for workers' compensation claims and physical injury have largely been identified as physical demands. We proposed an integrated theory of physical injury (i.e. musculoskeletal disorder symptoms [MSDs]) and workers' compensation claims, which combined psychosocial and physical mechanisms. A random, population-based sample of 1095 Australian workers completed a telephone interview on two occasions 12 months apart. As expected, the physical mechanism was confirmed; physical demands were related to MSDs, which in turn predicted workers' compensation claims. Further, a novel psychosocial mechanism was confirmed. Psychosocial safety climate (PSC; perceptions about the organisation's climate for psychological health) was a precursor to psychosocial risks (e.g. harassment, violence, bullying and work pressure). In turn, these psychosocial risks were related to emotional exhaustion, MSDs and then workers' compensation claims. Evidence was therefore provided forpsychosocial-physical processesin explaining MSDs and workers' compensation for claims for physical injury. Occupational health and safety legislators and policy makers should be aware that, beyond physical demands, factors usually associated with risk for mental stress claims (e.g. harassment, bullying, and violence) may additionally manifest in physical health problems and workers' compensation injury claims. Focusing on modifying the PSC in an organisation, “the cause of the causes”, may be an effective injury prevention and intervention strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study evaluated the effects of a participatory risk management intervention in an Australian public sector organization. In this quasi-experimental cohort study, intervention workgroups attended capacity-building workshops and developed and implemented action plans to reduce work and organizational stress risk factors (e.g., job design, performance management, work quality, and organizational change) and stress outcomes (e.g., work stress, morale, and sickness absence duration). There were 5 intervention and 17 control workgroups. An existing organizational development survey of work conditions and well-being was administered as a risk assessment and evaluation tool. Data were collected before the intervention (Time 1 [Tl], Intervention n = 94, Control n = 511) and 12 months after (Time 2 [T2], Intervention, n = 123, Control n = 556). Multivariate analysis of variance showed a Group (Intervention vs. Control) × Time (Tl vs. T2) interaction effect with significant improvements for job design, training and development, and morale; and marginal effects for quality and positive performance management. Positive organizational change was not significant. Organizational sickness absence duration decreased, which is consistent with an intervention effect. Results were quite robust against competing explanations (i.e., changing cohorts), although regression to the mean could explain improvements in morale. Top management commitment and support, worker participation, and action plan implementation appeared important for positive change. We discuss the challenges associated with organizational stress interventions that for sustainability reasons try to capitalize on organizational processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression represents an increasing global health epidemic with profound effects in the workplace. Building a business case via the quantification of potentially avertable costs is essential to convince organizations to address depression at work. Our study objectives were to: (1) demonstrate a process path whereby job strain and bullying are related to productivity loss via their effects on depression; (2) estimate the costs to employers of sickness absence and presenteeism that are associated with depression; (3) investigate the relationship between depression severity and costs; and (4) estimate the contribution of job strain and bullying to depression-related productivity loss. A population-based telephone survey was conducted across two Australian states (N = 2074), with a one-year follow-up (cohort design). Results confirmed job strain and bullying affected productivity via depressive symptoms. Total national annual employer costs for lost productivity due to depression were estimated at $AUD8 billion per annum, most of which was due to mild depression. We calculated a population-attributable risk (PAR) estimate of 8.7% for depression attributable to bullying and job strain, equating to $AUD693 million in preventable lost productivity costs per annum. Findings suggest that even sub-clinical levels of depression represent a significant productivity and economic burden not previously recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Psychosocial Safety Climate bridges the individual-team divide in work functioning. • Psychosocial Safety Climate affects work engagement at individual and team-level. • Psychosocial Safety Climate affects team crafting through team resources. • Psychosocial Safety Climate affects individual crafting through individual resources. • Improving Climate should yield improved resourcing, job crafting, and engagement. Beyond its function to protect worker psychological health, psychosocial safety climate (PSC) may be construed as a context factor that affects employee work motivation. This study explores the effect of PSC on various aspects of motivational functioning at work. We expected PSC to be positively related to wellbeing-related outcomes (work engagement and organizational commitment) and that these relations would be mediated through job resources and job crafting, and that they would be evident at both the individual and team level. Multilevel mediation analysis was used with data from 963 health professionals (doctors and nurses) from 66 work units in two Chinese hospitals. At the individual level, there were significant effects of, individual resources on work engagement and organizational commitment through individual crafting; PSC through individual resources on individual crafting, and PSC through individual crafting on work engagement and organizational commitment. At the team level, team resources were related to average team work engagement and organizational commitment through team crafting; PSC was related to team crafting through team resources, and the indirect effects of PSC through team crafting on average work engagement and organizational commitment were significant. Overall, the results support the proposition that the PSC context positively predicts team- and individual-level work motivation. We conclude that PSC theory can serve as an integrative contextual framework to explain the complex interplay of factors from different sources (i.e., the team and the individual) that contribute to work motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Work stress is recognized globally as a social determinant of worker health. Therefore we explored whether work stress related factors explained national differences in health and productivity (gross domestic product (GDP)). We proposed a national worker health productivity model whereby macro market power factors (i.e. union density), influence national worker health and GDP via work psychosocial factors and income inequality. We combined five different data sets canvasing 31 wealthy European countries. Aggregated worker self-reported health accounted for 13 per cent of the variance in national life expectancy and in national gross domestic product (GDP). The most important factors explaining worker self-reported health and GDP between nations were two levels of labor protection, macro-level (union density), and organizational-level (psychosocial safety climate, PSC, i.e. the extent of management concern for worker psychological health). The majority of countries with the highest levels of union density and PSC (i.e., workplace protections) were Social Democratic in nature (i.e., Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway). Results support a type of society explanation that social and economic factors (e.g., welfare regimes, work related policies) in concert with political power agents at a national level explain in part national differences in workplace protection (PSC) that are important for worker health and productivity. Attention should be given across all countries, to national policies to improve worker health, by bolstering national and local democratic processes and representation to address and implement policies for psychosocial risk factors for work stress, bullying and violence. Results suggest worker health is good for the economy, and should be considered in national health and productivity accounting. Eroding unionism may not be good for worker health or the economy either. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Organophosphorus (OP) and pyrethroid (PYR) compounds are the most widely used insecticides. OPs and PYRs are developmental neurotoxicants. Understanding the extent of exposure in the general population and especially in young children is important for the development of public health policy on regulation and use of these chemicals. Presented here are the results of the first investigation into the extent of environmental exposure to neurotoxic insecticides in preschool children in South Australia (SA). Children were enrolled from different areas of SA and assigned into urban, periurban and rural groups according to their residential address. Residential proximity to agricultural activity, parental occupational contact to insecticides and use of insecticides within the household were investigated as potential indirect measures of exposure. We used liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry to measure the following metabolites of OPs and PYRs in urine samples as direct indicators of exposure: dialkylphosphates, p-nitrophenol, 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol, 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol, cis- and trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethyl-cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, cis-3-(2,2-dibromovinyl)-2,2-dimethyl-cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, 2-methyl-3phenylbenzoic acid and 3-phenoxybenzoic acid. Results were analysed to assess factors affecting the risk and level of exposure. Results were also compared to the published data in similar age groups from US and German studies. The results of this study demonstrate that there was widespread chronic exposure to OPs and and PYRs in SA children. OP metabolites were detected more commonly than PYR. Exposure to more than one chemical and contemporaneous exposure to chemicals from both OP and PYR groups was common in the study population. There were some differences in risks and levels of exposure between the study groups. Exposure to some restricted use of chemicals, for example, fenitrothion, was higher in periurban and rural children. There was no difference among the study groups in exposure to chlorpyrifos, used commonly in agriculture and in domestic settings and most frequently found OP pesticide in food in Australia. South Australian children appear to have higher levels of exposure compared their peers in US and Germany. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Psychosocial safety climate is an emerging construct that refers to shared perceptions regarding policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. The purpose of the research was to: (1) demonstrate that psychosocial safety climate is a construct distinct from related climate measures (i.e., physical safety climate, team psychological safety, and perceived organizational support); and (2) test the proposition that organizational psychosocial safety climate determines work conditions (i.e., job demands) and subsequently worker psychological health. We used samples from two different cultures; an Australian sample (N =126 workers in 16 teams within a primary health care organization) and a Malaysian sample (N =180 workers in 31 teams from different organizations and diverse industries). In both samples confirmatory factor analysis verified that psychosocial safety climate is a construct distinct from related climate measures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, psychosocial safety climate was superior to other team level climate measures in its negative relationship to both job demands and psychological health problems. Results supported a mediation process, psychosocial safety climate→job demands→psychological health problems, corroborating psychosocial safety climate as a preeminent stress risk factor, and an efficient target for intervention. We found both physical and psychosocial safety climates were stronger in the Australian, compared with the Malaysian work context. Levels of psychosocial safety climate were significantly lower than those of physical safety climate in both countries indicating a ‘universal’ lack of attention to workplace psychological health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We integrated psychosocial safety climate (PSC) with the job demands and resources (JD-R; Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) framework to examine the impact of both job demands and job resources at work on employee depression, anger, and engagement. PSC refers to a climate for the protection of employee psychological health and safety. As PSC theoretically influences the working environment, we hypothesized that PSC would have an indirect effect on specific negative emotions (e.g., anger, depression) via job demands and an indirect effect on positive emotion (e.g., engagement) through job resources. We used a population-based sample consisting of 269 public and private employees from the State of Selangor, Malaysia. Overall, results using structural equation modeling showed that PSC negatively related to job demands and positively related to job resources. In mediated paths, job demands carried the effect of PSC on anger and depression, whereas job resources carried the effect of PSC on engagement. We also showed that job demands related negatively to engagement, and that the effect was carried by anger and depression. Using multigroup analysis, we found that the model was invariant within both the public and private sectors. These findings suggest that JD-R theory may be expanded to include PSC as an antecedent, and that the PSC model is largely valid in an Eastern, Muslim, developing economy setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 modeling 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. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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. Contributionivalue-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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative workplace behaviour, such as workplace bullying, is emerging as an important work-related psychosocial hazard with the potential to contribute to employee ill health. We examined the risk of two major health issues (poor mental and cardiovascular health) associated with current and past exposure to negative behaviour in the workplace. Data from 251 police officers, who completed an anonymous mail survey at two time-points spaced 12 months apart, support the potential role of exposure to negative workplace behaviour in the development of physical disease and psychological illness. Specifically, we saw significant effects associated with past exposure to such behaviour on indicators of poor cardiovascular health, and a significant effect of current exposure on the indicator of mental health problems. Our findings reinforce the need to continue to study links between employee health and both negative workplace behaviour and more severe cases of bullying, particularly the mechanisms involved to strengthen theory in this area, and to protect against employee ill health (specifically cardiovascular outcomes and psychological problems) by preventing negative behaviour at work. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify key workplace demands and resources for nurses working in very remote Australia and measure levels of occupational stress in this population. The study used a cross-sectional design, utilising a structured questionnaire. Health centres in very remote Australia. Nurses working in very remote Australia experience significantly higher levels of psychological distress and emotional exhaustion, compared with other professional populations. Paradoxically, results also highlight higher than average levels of work engagement. Nurses working in very remote regions in Australia further report moderate levels of job satisfaction. Most significant job demands identified were emotional demands, staffing issues, workload, responsibilities and expectations, and social issues. Key job resources included supervision, opportunities for professional development, and skill development and application. In a context of high stress, high levels of work engagement and moderate levels of job satisfaction do not obviate high workforce turnover for this population. There is a need to reduce job demands and increase job resources in order to foster long-term work engagement and reduced emotional exhaustion. This might subsequently decrease remote area nursing workforce turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychosocial risks in the workplace have the potential for causing psychological and social harm that contributes toward the mental health disability burden. Psychosocial risks are influenced by macrolevel factors such as the psychosocial safety climate within the organization. This paper concerns the development and evaluation of a short instrument to measure psychosocial safety climate (PSC). PSC is conceived as an up-stream resource, and concerns senior management values and attitudes toward care and practices in relation to employee psycho-social well being. In a pilot sample (N = 78) we used an iterative procedure incorporating regression analysis to reduce 26 items down to a parsimonious 12 item, four-factor scale (PSC-12). The PSC-12 was then assessed using confirmatory factor analysis and the scale validated in a second representative sample of Australian workers (N = 398). The PSC-12 showed expected relationships with psychosocial risk factors (e.g., job demands, job resources), worker engagement and health, and work related outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction). We further confirmed the invariance of the factor coefficients and factor covariance across the two multioccupational samples using multigroup analysis. In a third organizational study (N = 16 teams, 106 health care workers) we found that PSC showed group like psychometric properties, and team level PSC was associated with individual level psychological distress and work engagement. PSC showed incremental value beyond a physical safety measure. The results provide initial indications that the PSC-12 can be used across a range of occupations, and within organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 mesomediational 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose and test a comprehensive theory designed to explain seemingly contradictory relations between job demands, emotional exhaustion, and work-family conflict (WFC) reported in the literature. Using job demands-resources theory, effort-recovery theory, and personal resources theory we hypothesized that job demands would spillover to emotional exhaustion as mediated by WFC (causality model), and alternatively that job demands would also spillover to WFC as mediated by emotional exhaustion (reverse causal model). Further, we also hypothesized using loss spiral theory that a more comprehensive model representing reciprocal and cross-linked effects (causal and reverse causal simultaneously) would best fit the data. The hypotheses were tested in a longitudinal study of 257 Australian (Victorian) frontline police officers at two time points approximately 12 months apart. We used structural equation modelling and found in support of the simultaneous reciprocal effects hypothesis, that the more comprehensive model fitted the data better than either the causality or the reverse causal model. Future research should more comprehensively model the important relationships between job demands, emotional exhaustion, and WFC to reflect their complex interplay. Interventions to reduce work demands arising from work pressure and emotional demands are indicated to prevent conflict at home and emotional exhaustion in police officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into work stress has attempted to identify job resources that can moderate the effects of job demands on strain. The recently developed triple-match principle (TMP) proposes that job demands, resources, and strain can be conceptualized as being composed of cognitive, emotional, and physical dimensions. When a psychological imbalance is induced by job demands, individuals activate corresponding resources to reduce the effects of the demands. A closer match occurs when the resources are processed in the same psychological domain as the demands. The further away from a match, the less likely an interactive effect will become. Put simply, the likelihood of finding an interactive effect between job demands and job resources is greatest when demands, resources, and strain are based on qualitatively similar dimensions (i.e. cognitive, emotional, and physical). For example, emotional support from colleagues is likely to buffer the effects of emotional demands on emotional exhaustion. The TMP was tested in a sample of 179 Australian police officers in a two-wave longitudinal study. The likelihood of finding an interactive effect was related to the degree of match between job demands, job resources, and strain with 33.3% of triple-match interactions significant, 22.2% when there was a double-match, and 0.0% when there was no match. These findings lend support to the TMP as a guiding framework, for research, to explore possible interactive effects in work stress research, and for practice, to inform interventions matching resources to occupational demands, to offset strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We investigated the relationship between work stress arising from effort-reward imbalance at work (ERI) and driving anger in a community sample of workers in Nagoya, a mid-sized city in Japan. We hypothesised that ERI would exert a positive effect on driving anger via its influence on trait anger. The study also pioneered the use of the Driving Anger Scale (DAS) in a non-western country and explored cultural differences in the experience of anger on the road. A random sample of 215 (N =138, 64% females; N =77, 36% males) full-time Japanese workers was obtained through random selection of one participant per household in three randomly selected suburbs (response rate 71% of each eligible participant approached). Participants completed a confidential self-report questionnaire. Japanese motorists reported significantly higher levels of ERI than all comparative western samples, and lower total driving anger and anger on all DAS subscales compared with American and Australian samples. British and Japanese drivers did not differ significantly on total driving anger. The findings indicate that Japanese may possess a different acceptance and expression of anger on the road. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses supported our hypothesis. Stress experienced in the workplace originating from a perceived disparity in extrinsic efforts and rewards was associated with increased enduring feelings of anger in employees, and through this anger an elevated level of aggressive feelings on the road. Stress from ERI may spill over into other domains, and changes at work are necessary to alleviate the impact on the individual, organisation and economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Utilizing reports from both observers and direct targets, the authors examined the role of psychosocial work environment factors in workplace bullying, focusing on the moderating effects of control and support resources against job demands. Our sample was 716 Australian frontline police officers who completed an anonymous mail survey. In a direct test of Job Demand-Control-Support theory, the authors found that increased levels of bullying (as assessed by targets and observers) were associated with potentially high stress situations: as job demands increased and as support and control resources decreased. Also, consistent with previous research, most perpetrators were ranked higher than the target, reflecting the role of power in facilitating bullying. Our research is unique in finding evidence for moderating factors within the psychosocial environment and suggests risk assessment of the work environment as an avenue for bullying prevention. Future research should examine more closely the mechanisms underlying bullying within stressful work environments and the reciprocal effect of witnessing and experiencing bullying on psychosocial working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the psychological impact of a problematic industrial climate for citrus growers, their help-seeking behaviour and perspectives on ways to encourage better use of rural mental health services. Design: Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews. Setting: The Riverland of South Australia. Participants: Sixteen citrus growers (12 male, 4 female) from eight Riverland towns. Main outcome measures: Citrus growers' perceived factors relating to psychological stress, coping behaviours, impact of stress on well-being, help-seeking behaviours, barriers to help-seeking and ways to encourage better use of rural mental health services. Results: Work-related stresses grouped under broad themes, including ¿Uncontrollable events¿, ¿Financial hardship¿ and ¿Pressure¿, had negative effects on participants' well-being. Furthermore, it was found that significant difficulties arise because many of the stresses which growers endure are not controllable, and that the alleviation of strain with the help of mental health professionals is uncommon because of barriers preventing help-seeking. Five broad themes of barriers to help-seeking were extracted from the data: ¿Self-reliance¿, ¿Social image¿, ¿Lack of knowledge¿, ¿Negative perceptions of health professionals' efficacy¿ and ¿Restrictive lifestyle factors¿. A specialised model of occupational health for citrus growers was proposed. Conclusions: These results highlight the practical need to address the identified issues in delivery and promotion of health services when facilitating help-seeking within this group. The findings also add to our knowledge of occupational health psychology broadly [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reviewed 25 international and 10 Australian studies published between 1999 and 2004 for evidence of individual and organizational impacts of stress in the health and community services (HCS) sector. Several HCS occupations showed high levels of distress compared to Australian population data. Results were consistent with the Job Demands-Resources model: High demands (e.g., workload, emotional) combined with low resources (e.g., control, rewards, support) were associated with adverse health (e.g., psychological, physical) and organizational impacts (e.g., reduced job satisfaction, sickness absence). Australian-specific issues included rural and remote work and the complex role of Aboriginal Health Workers. Strong associations between modifiable work factors and adverse outcomes provide a rationale for primary preventive policy development by occupational health and safety regulators and workers' compensation authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Both workplace stress and road rage are reported to be on the increase. This study examined the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) model of work stress and its relationship with general anger and driving anger in a community sample of 130 Australian workers. It also examined international differences in driving anger, with Australian motorists reporting lower levels of driving anger than American motorists but higher levels than British motorists. Hierarchical multiple regressions confirmed ERI increased driving anger via the mediating variables of general anger and overcommitment; individuals suffering ERI may develop increased general anger or overcommitment, in turn increasing propensity to experience driving anger. Regressions also showed that overcommitment (but not general anger) moderated the effect of ERI on driving anger; ERI has a greater influence on increasing driving anger in individuals with high overcommitment at work. The results have considerable implications for the safety and emotional health of individuals who perceive an imbalance between their efforts and rewards at work, and overcommitted individuals may be at greater risk. The wider implications of the relationship between work stress, emotional well-being and driving anger in employees, along with the potential of driver education interventions, are discussed as public health issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

National surveillance of psychosocial risk factors in the workplace is important to record the changing work environment and for the development (and monitoring) of policies and programs to prevent stress and promote mental and physical health and well-being at work. This paper overviews national surveillance systems for psychosocial risks and outcomes (35 national systems across 20 different countries, and an additional four multi-country systems), and then looks for convergence between the system, and the current research literature. This paper is the first to provide a compendium of current national surveillance systems on psychosocial risk. It describes the content of each system and gives an overview of sampling methodology, providing an evaluation of comprehensiveness rather than of quality of tools and methods. Recommendations include: (1) surveillance should be the priority for any national research agenda for psychosocial risk management; (2) stakeholders should cooperate with international systems operators to work towards the development of "state of the art" systems; (3) issues for priority inclusion in surveillance systems are emotional demands/emotional labour, workplace bullying, harassment, and violence, exposure to acute stressors, organizational justice, the occurrence and impact of global organizational change, and positive psychological states; (4) systems should be flexible to identify and assess emerging risk factors/groups; and (5) an international surveillance system should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the results of a research conducted by "Youth Studies Australia" on youth homelessness in Australia in 2005. General causes of youth homelessness; Definitions of homelessness; Changes that can be instigated and evaluated to reduce rates of homelessness in rural youth.

The aim of the study was to test the main and interactive effects of the key dimensions of the demand-control-support model in predicting levels of strain (specifically emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and job dissatisfaction) and feelings of productivity and competency (personal accomplishment) in a multioccupational sample of human service workers (N=813). Controlling for demographics, negative affectivity (NA), and quadratic terms, structural equation analyses showed some support for the additive iso-strain hypothesis: jobs combining high demands, low control and low support produced the lowest levels of satisfaction in workers. High demands and low supports only were associated with high depersonalization, and high emotional exhaustion. Support was also found for the additive active learning hypotheses: jobs combining high demands and high control produced the highest levels of personal accomplishment. The study supports job redesign interventions for improving worker well-being and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Impact on Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC): The intervention demonstrated significant positive effects on Psychosocial Safety Climate. • Improvement in Psychosocial Hazards and Working Conditions: The intervention group experienced improvements in work roles, peer support, and employee involvement in planning workplace changes. • Importance of Managerial Training: The study emphasizes the importance of training managers at multiple levels to address psychosocial risks, leading to positive impacts not only at the organizational level but also within individual teams. Psychosocial working conditions contribute significantly to worker health and organizational productivity. This longitudinal quasi-experimental study aims to investigate the impact of a multi-level, manager-led psychosocial risk management intervention on psychosocial safety climate and psychosocial hazards in the workplace. Employees from different teams within one organization were assigned to either an intervention or control group. Managers and employees in the intervention group participated in psychosocial risk assessment training. Intervention group managers also participated in 'leader as a coach' training. Data were collected from employees at baseline (Time 0), six months (Time 1), and 18 months (Time 2) about their Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) and psychosocial working conditions. Using multi-level analysis, we found significant intervention effects at T1 (Time x Intervention interactions) on overall PSC and the PSC domains of management support, priority, and organizational participation. Significantly higher mean scores were noted for the intervention (vs. control) group at T1 and T2. For psychosocial factors, significant intervention effects were found at T1 and T2 for work roles and employee involvement in change and at T2 for peer support. All significant effects were in line with expectations, whereby the intervention made improvements in the intervention group vs the control group, and effects were sustained at T2. Building capability simultaneously in department managers, middle managers, and supervisors through training to work on reducing psychosocial risks had positive effects at the macro -organizational level (improved PSC) and meso -team level (reduced psychosocial risks). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• National or jurisdictional Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) policy is the foundation of organisational health protection and is required to ensure healthy and safe workers. • For the translation of OHS policy to be most effective, implementing organisational action is needed via various key stakeholders. • Our Study: (1) draws on the Theory of Planned Behaviour to better understand perspectives that stakeholders hold in relation to new Australian OHS Psychological Health Regulations, and (2) applies a tool that quantifies behavioural intention to a new population regarding policy implementation. • Data were collected from 101 Victorian (Australia) HSRs. • Results demonstrated current perceptions of the new regulations are positive, and are predicted by stakeholders to positively affect worker mental health. The distinct conceptual factors in the Theory of Planned Behaviour were supported in this sample relating to policy implementation, with attitude as the best antecedent to behavioural intention for policy implementation. National or jurisdictional occupational health and safety (OHS) policy is the foundation of organisational health protection and is required to ensure healthy and safe workers. For the implementation of OHS policy to be most effective, organisational action is needed via various key stakeholders. To unpack OHS policy implementation within organisations—and the roles of those responsible—we draw on the Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural controls, and intentions that health and safety representatives (HSR) hold in relation to proposed OHS Psychological Health Regulations. First, focus groups were conducted to understand key issues relating to HSRs in this area; and second, a questionnaire was distributed to HSRs in the relevant jurisdiction of interest. Results from 101 participants supported a three-factor model comprising attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, rather than a one-factor and two-factor model, therefore supporting the distinct conceptual factors in the Theory of Planned Behaviour in this sample relating to policy implementation. We found attitude was the best antecedent to behavioural intention for policy implementation and could be helpful in predicting future actions. In addition, HSRs who engaged with psychosocial training had higher scores for subjective norms and intentions, and lower scores for attitude and perceived behavioural control than those who did not engage in training. Future research should investigate the enacted behaviour of HSRs in comparison to their Theory of Planned Behaviour responses and further explore the influence of training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore how digital communication relates to worker health and wellbeing within Australian universities prior to COVID-19. To investigate effects of digital communication we sought perspectives of senior Human Resource and wellbeing personnel for semi-structured interviews. Analyses revealed that digital communication creates both negative and positive aspects of work, leading to differing effects and outcomes of health and wellbeing. Themes that emerged included flexibility, collaboration and access to resources, a sense of continual accessibility and connectivity to work, information overload and interpersonal relationships. Depending on how digital communication is managed, we found each aspect has the capacity to be simultaneously positive (i.e., resourceful) or negative (e.g., demanding). Drawing on organisational theory, we propose new ways to conceptualise workplace digital communication and propose practical management approaches. Future research should continue to unpack the relationship between digital communication and work practices, while considering potential management and policy strategies to protect worker health and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace bullying is a significant cause of stress at work. Existing studies, primarily based on Western-oriented frameworks and instruments, have largely overlooked the role of culture. This oversight questions whether understandings generated from those studies can be generalised to employees working in Eastern countries, which differ on important cultural dimensions. To date, there is no Eastern-based instrument for measuring workplace bullying. In two studies, we developed and validated such a measure: the Malaysian Workplace Bullying Index (MWBI). Study 1 entailed a content validation of bullying behaviours via written records (diaries) completed by Malaysian bullying victims. The 19 validated behaviours formed the basis of Study 2, with additions from the wider literature. Study 2 used survey data collected at three time-points from Malaysian employees exposed to bullying at work. The final result was an 18-item scale with two nine-item factors: work-related bullying and person-related bullying. Overall, the MWBI is a psychometrically sound measure of workplace bullying in Eastern workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how safety climates concerning physical safety and psychosocial safety interact in the prediction of working conditions and subsequent worker health. Frontline healthcare was selected as the setting for this study on the dynamic interplay between physical and psychosocial safety climates because of a recent call for attention to working conditions in this industry. Poor safety climates for healthcare workers spill over into adverse outcomes for worker health, and when workers are compromised, then so too is their provision of quality patient care. We developed an integrated model of the relationships between psychosocial and physical safety climates, working conditions, and health and safety outcomes. A multilevel model was tested (N = 463 workers nested within n = 60 teams), and lagged analysis was conducted across four time points, each 6 months apart. The combination of safety climates significantly predict objective outcomes from hospital safety system records on staff accidents, absence, and patient incidents (quality of care), suggesting a dynamic interplay in the prediction of impacts on the worker, organization, and end‐user. Integrated physical and psychosocial safety climate measures can be incorporated into hospital occupational health and safety reporting and response systems as effective lead indicators and key performance metrics for work health and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Experiences of young people from refugee backgrounds in resettlement are impacted by their families, communities, and society. This study investigated factors that affected the psychological wellbeing of refugee-background youth, highlighting the complex relationships between these factors. Quantitative survey data collected from refugee-background youth in Australia, aged 14-26 (n = 556) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that family function and discrimination impacted youth psychological wellbeing, with relationships mediated by levels of integration and resilience. Policies and practices targeting wellbeing can therefore focus on supporting families, to positively influence refugee-background young people and counter negative impacts of discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is a facet‐specific aspect of organizational climate that pertains to employees’ psychological health. We sought to deepen our understanding of how and when resources function by considering the role of PSC as a contextual factor for job demands‐resources model. We explained this using two different mechanisms – PSC as a resource passageway (i.e., channelling, supplying, bolstering, complementing, compensating resources) or PSC as a safety signal (i.e., enabling resource use) effect. Using longitudinal data from 429 Malaysian health care workers from 53 teams and hierarchical linear modelling (HLM), we found team PSC was a stronger moderator of emotional demands than control or rewards on psychological health problems (emotional exhaustion and somatic symptoms), after controlling for the baseline outcomes. A three‐way interaction of team PSC at Time 1 with demands and resources (rewards only) at Time 2 showed that PSC is able to moderate the moderation relationship of demands and resources. Specifically, PSC, as a resource passageway, is providing a range of resources, that likely to compensate and complement low rewards. Hence, when both PSC and rewards were low, emotional demands had the strongest effect on psychological health. This result is robust as it was validated using HLM and split samples of PSC at the upper level. Given the important contextual role of PSC as a ‘moderator of the moderators’, building PSC should be the focus of workplace interventions to protect the psychological health of workers. Practitioner points: Psychosocial safety climate may compensate for job resources, particularly rewards in an organization to protect workers’ psychological health. Psychosocial safety climate buffers the detrimental effect of emotional demands on workers’ psychological health better than rewards and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aim: To present benchmarks for working conditions in healthcare industries as an initial effort into international surveillance. Background: The healthcare industry is fundamental to sustaining the health of Australians, yet it is under immense pressure. Budgets are limited, demands are increasing as are workplace injuries and all of these factors compromise patient care. Urgent attention is needed to reduce strains on workers and costs in health care, however, little work has been done to benchmark psychosocial factors in healthcare working conditions in the Asia‐Pacific. Intercultural comparisons are important to provide an evidence base for public policy. Design: A cross‐sectional design was used (like other studies of prevalence), including a mixed‐methods approach with qualitative interviews to better contextualize the results. Methods: Data on psychosocial factors and other work variables were collected from healthcare workers in three hospitals in Australia (N = 1,258) and Malaysia (N = 1,125). 2015 benchmarks were calculated for each variable and comparison was conducted via independent samples t tests. Healthcare samples were also compared with benchmarks for non‐healthcare general working populations from their respective countries: Australia (N = 973) and Malaysia (N = 225). Findings: Our study benchmarks healthcare working conditions in Australia and Malaysia against the general working population, identifying trends that indicate the industry is in need of intervention strategies and job redesign initiatives that better support psychological health and safety. Conclusion: We move toward a better understanding of the precursors of psychosocial safety climate in a broader context, including similarities and differences between Australia and Malaysia in national culture, government occupational health and safety policies and top‐level management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longitudinal 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Epidemiological evidence suggests that work stress is associated with suicidal ideation (SI). However, only few studies in this area have drawn on well-established theoretical work stress models (i.e., the job-demand-control [JDC] model, the effort-reward-imbalance [ERI] model, and the model of organizational injustice [OJ]). Utilization of such models allows though for theory-based assessments and workplace interventions. Since evidence on those models' relationship with suicide-related outcomes is currently inconclusive (with regard to JDC), markedly sparse (OJ) or lacking (ERI), we aimed to provide additional or initial evidence.Methods: We drew on original data from six cross-sectional studies, which were conducted in four countries (i.e., South Korea, China, Australia, and Germany). Work stress was measured by established questionnaires and was categorized into tertiles. In each study, SI was assessed by either one or two items taken from validated scales. Associations of work stress with SI were estimated for each study and were pooled across studies using multivariate random-effects logistic modeling.Results: In the pooled analyses (n=12,422) all three work stress models were significantly associated with SI with odds ratios fluctuating around 2. For instance, the pooled odds ratios for highest versus lowest work stress exposure in terms of job strain, OJ, and ERI equalled 1.91 (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.52, 2.41), 1.98 (95% CI=1.48, 2.65), and 2.77 (95% CI=1.57, 4.88), respectively. Patterns of associations were largely consistent across the individual studies.Conclusion: Our study provides robust evidence of a positive association between work stress and SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model is a well-recognized theoretical framework assessing the impact of job demands and resources on well-being. Though the model conceptualises job demands and resources in terms of how jobs are both objectively designed and subjectively experienced, most studies have relied only on subjective self-reported data. In a comprehensive test of the model, our study investigates how objective job characteristics at the occupation level are associated with employees' perceptions of job demands and resources in their role, and examines the indirect effect of objective characteristics on employee outcomes via perceived characteristics. Multilevel analyses of multisource and lagged data from 2,049 employees in 97 jobs indicated that perceived job characteristics mediate the effects of objective job characteristics on employee outcomes. Specifically, the objective requirement for positive emotional displays is positively related to exhaustion through perceived emotional demands. Second, objective job hazard exposure is positively related to physical health problems through perceived physical demands. Finally, objective job complexity has a significant positive indirect relationship with work engagement through perceived skill discretion. The results suggest that risk identification and enrichment processes should consider the nature of the job itself instead of merely focusing on employees' cognitive appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care staff in nursing homes are facing increasingly high job demands at work, which can have a detrimental impact on their health and work motivation. The Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) Model offers a theoretical framework to study how matching job resources and matching occupational rewards can buffer the adverse effects of high job demands. The aim of this study is to test the moderating role of matching job resources and matching occupational rewards in the relation between corresponding job demands and employee creativity and adverse health (i.e., emotional exhaustion and physical health complaints). A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among 184 health care workers from a nursing home in The Netherlands. Hierarchical regression analyses showed the proposed 3-way interaction effects of matching cognitive job resources and matching cognitive occupational rewards on the relation between cognitive job demands and employee creativity. In general, findings showed more moderating effects of job resources than of occupational rewards. In line with DISC theory, it is recommended that employers provide health care workers with those job resources that match the type of job demands concerned, conditioned by matching occupational rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research examining work environment influences on workplace harassment has focused on organizational (e.g., social climate, culture) and generic job design factors', but this study focused on jobs in situ at the micro level. Specifically, the link between exposure to harassment and role-specific job demands and resources was explored, arguably the most proximal predictors of work-related behavior. Self-report survey data gathered from a cross-section of sworn police officers employed by an Australian police organization indicated that underresourcing for particular role-related tasks increased the likelihood that police Constables (N = 368) and Sergeants (N = 348) were exposed to harassment at work, irrespective of how demanding the task was perceived to be. An exception was in role domains that involve police-offender interactions, where the likelihood of experiencing harassment was associated with perceptions of higher demands rather than with inadequate resourcing. Our findings suggest that harassment may have its genesis in lack of resources (e.g., budget, time, people, vehicles, computers, office equipment, training, and operational equipment) at the micro level, highlighting the importance of examining demand and resource variables unique to different organizational settings. Practical implications include the need for general increases in concrete resources for frontline police officers as well as the need to further explore and counteract the demands associated with police-offender interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines psychological resources for service employees and their customers, which enhance the service experiences of both parties during service conversations. We investigate whether customer behaviour (customer-initiated support) positively impacts on employees' affect. We also examine the crossover of employees' affect on customers' affect. State positive affect (PA) was assessed in 82 employees of car dealerships and 421 customers on 2 occasions (before and after the conversation). Multi-level analyses showed the hypothesized positive impact of customer behaviour on employees' PA and in turn of employees' PA on customers' PA. Results are integrated in an overall process model whereby customers' PA leads to customer-initiated support, which increases employees' PA and in turn enhances customers' PA. Results suggest direct and indirect crossover effects. This study extends research on customer behaviour offering a positive slant on customer behaviour and suggests to actively involve customers in the service process in order to promote their positive behaviour towards employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]