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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).

This study bridges occupational health and innovation management by proposing  psychosocial safety climate (PSC) as a key precondition for employee-driven innovation(EDI). EDI emphasises employees’ unique potential to generate and implement innovative ideas, with conducive working conditions, particularly those supporting psychological health,being crucial. Using a mixed-method explanatory design, the research draws on survey data from 19 work teams (n = 317) and five in-depth interviews with managers to explore the relationship between PSC and EDI. Findings show that all four PSC domains; support and commitment, priority, communication, and involvement significantly influence EDI. The study highlights how PSC leadership and communication about worker welfare play a criticalrole, offering groundbreaking empirical evidence linking PSC and EDI.

This study scrutinizes how the effect of artificial intelligence on workerwelfare is discussed in banking-related news media. We reviewed 162articles from 2021 to 2023 and found only 47 articles that mentionedworkers. Among these articles, where business leaders and other industryexperts were interviewed, a prevailing trend was the lack of attention toworker welfare concerns. However, Fintech innovations pose potentialthreats to working conditions if left unchecked. Despite academicevidence of work intensification and surveillance from AI, the publicdiscourse, including that of union executives, lacks acknowledgment ofthese issues. Urgent action is needed to address these overlookedconcerns and ensure the well-being of bank employees amidsttechnological advancements, now and in the future.

It is widely accepted that the integration of new technologies, work practices and working methods lie at the core of a successful transition to Industry 4.0. However, work-relatedstress can impair this transition. This literature review aims to identify organisational and social work factors linked to work-related stress so that they may be integrated into the transition process. This literature review uses thematic analysis to identify and organise work factors into four levels: community, company, department/group and individual.Companies should integrate identifying and treating causes of work-related stress at the company and department/group-level into the transition to industry 4.0.

Purpose

The study objectives were to (1) identify if providing solution-focused interaction training enables managers and employees to develop and implement actions to improve their psychosocial work environment and (2) test a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as social structures affecting members of the workplace and verify if social interactions effectively change the local psychosocial work environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The intervention involved training managers, supervisors and employees in solution-focused interaction. This study used a controlled interrupted time-series design, with an intervention and control group (CG) and pre- and post-measurements.

Findings

The psychosocial work environment improved, indicating that the training led to better social interactions, contributing to changes in the social structures within the intervention group (IG). Collective reflection between participants in the take action phase was the key to success. The recontextualization uncovered these mechanisms.

Research limitations/implications

The present study supports a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as primarily decided by social structures that emerge in recurrent interactions within work teams. The same social structures also seem to be important for other features of the production system, like job performance.

Practical implications

Training designed to enable high-quality social interactions, like dialogue and collective reflection, has proven to be effective in changing social structures. Moreover, managers may need training in facilitating the collective reflection between participants. Increased focus on social interactions within work teams is suggested for future study of organizational change processes, psychosocial work environment and practical psychosocial work environment management.

Originality/value

The intervention was delivered in the preparation phase to enable an effective take action phase. Both phases are less studied in psychosocial risk assessments research. The recontextualization has never been fully used in psychosocial research.