Manager-driven intervention for improved psychosocial safety climate and psychosocial work environment

Background and objectives

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.

Method

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.

Results

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.

Conclusion

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).