Psychosocial safety climate, psychosocial and physical factors in the aetiology of musculoskeletal disorder symptoms and workplace injury compensation claims

Abstract

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 for psychosocial-physical processes in 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.

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

“…Workers in a high‐PSC context are not struggling to maintain depleted resources and are able to invest resources to protect their health and safety at work including accessing and remembering new safety information, monitoring hazards, and effectively using safety materials. Supporting this theorisation, evidence shows that PSC is associated with lower rates of musculoskeletal disorders, workers' compensation claims (Bailey, Dollard, McLinton, & Richards, ) and organisation records of sickness absence rates (Australian Public Service Commission, ; Dollard & Bakker, 2010). Thus, we predict thatHypothesis Team PSC will be negatively related to workplace injuries.…”

“…Second, emotionally exhausted workers with depleted resources to manage work requirements may experience impaired cognitive functioning and be more likely to make mistakes (Ahola, Salminen, Toppinen‐Tanner, Koskinen, & Väänänen, ; Oosterholt, Van der Linden, Maes, Verbraak, & Kompier, ; Sandström, Rhodin, Lundberg, Olsson, & Nyberg, ) and experience reduced job performance (Cropanzano, Rupp, & Byrne, ; Leiter & Maslach, ; Schaufeli & Bakker, ) leading to greater potential for physical or psychological injury. There is a growing evidence that links emotional exhaustion to musculoskeletal (Bailey et al, ), needlestick (Clarke, Sloane, & Aiken, ), and physical injuries (Li, Jiang, Yao, & Li, ). Taken together these combined mechanisms suggestHypothesis The relationship between team PSC and workplace injuries will be mediated by worker emotional exhaustion.…”

Psychosocial safety climate as a moderator of the moderators: Contextualizing JDR models and emotional demands effects

“…We studied the effect of PSC at Time 1 on the interaction effect of job demands and resources on psychological health at Time 2. As an organizational climate construct, PSC is assumed to be stable over time and its lagged moderation effect has been previously tested using several time intervals, for instance, at 3 months (Idris, Dollard, & Yulita, ), 12 months (Bailey, Dollard, McLinton, & Richards, ) and 24 months (Dollard, Opie, et al ., ). While the ‘correct time lag’ (Dormann & Griffin, ) is often debatable (Preacher, ), the effects are influenced by various factors including the stability of variables (Dormann & Griffin, ) and the types of strain (Ford et al ., ).…”

Workaholism profiles: Associations with determinants, correlates, and outcomes

“…Psychosocial safety climate stems emerges when organizations support stress prevention through involvement and commitment, and clearly communicate that employee psychological health and safety is as important as productivity (Hall, Dollard, & Coward, ). Recent research has shown that psychosocial safety climate was negatively correlated with job demands, such as work pressure (Bailey, Dollard, McLinton, & Richards, ; Law, Dollard, Tuckey, & Dormann, ). This result suggests that organizations with high psychosocial safety climate might implement more efficient built‐in workload management procedures, thus possibly helping to reduce workaholism (Schaufeli, Bakker et al ., ).…”