Psychosocial Safety Climate and PSC Ideal; Direct and Interaction Effects on JD-R for Mental Health, Job Satisfaction andWork Engagement (Iran)

Abstract

In this chapter the PSC model is investigated from composition and dispersion perspectives. PSC refers to the shared perception of managerial activities to support employees’ psychological health and safety. Theoretically, PSC extends the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) theory. Consistent with composition and dispersion theories, both PSC compositions (average levels) and PSC dispersion (standard deviation (SD)) are investigated. PSC Ideal (PSCLevelPSCSD) is a new concept being introduced for the first time here, and includes both mean and dispersion roles. We expected that PSC at the team level determined job design (JD-Rs; psychological and emotional demands, organisational justice, supervisor support and workplace rewards), employee psychological health, job satisfaction and work engagement. Furthermore, it was anticipated that moderating effects of PSC Ideal (PSCLevelPSCSD) explained more variance than PSC Level. A pilot study (n = 15) to check the validity (face and content) and reliability (with a two week interval) of scales was conducted for the translated measures’ validity and reliability. The ultimate sample (n = 247 from a hospital with 27 teams) voluntarily participated. SPSS-25 and HLM-7 software were applied to analyse the data. Research findings confirmed the PSC research model indicating the importance of higher PSC Ideal rankings having high PSC Level (mean) and low dispersion level (SD). PSC Ideal interacted with JD-Rs to predict employees’ mental health, job satisfaction and engagement. The findings can help hospitals managers to improve and support the employees’ mental health and well-being, job satisfaction and work engagement by including PSC preventive protocol workplace health and safety strategies. In high PSC Ideal situations, the supportive atmosphere would stimulate employees to have consistent and similar perspectives toward the work issues which develop their work-related skills and communications. This study was limited by the sample size, self-report collection, and ignoring of the time growth. Longitudinal designs including more participants, teams and organisations at different range of public and private industries would be recommended for future studies.