Safety and Health at Work Vol. 13 Supplement 2022
Increasing urgency of psychosocial risk management in the changing world of work: the added value of linked surveys

Safety and Health at Work Vol. 13 Supplement 2022
Increasing urgency of psychosocial risk management in the changing world of work: the added value of linked surveys

Increasing urgency of psychosocial risk management, the changing world of work: the added value of linked surveys

Psychosocial risks are changing and are becoming even more important. Digitization is one of the drivers and facilitates the exchange of information and communication, and aims to make the workplace more efficient by using artificial intelligence, robots and cobots. This development also supports globalization and sets the scene for large scale outsourcing where production is more and more situated in low-wage countries, in order to be sold and consumed or used in higher wage countries. In addition, in Europe anyway, tertialization takes place, where local (mainly public) services as well as the commercialized service sectors are increasing to either accommodate the greying work force as well as the search for new (digital?) products and services. This results in changed and new labour relations as well as changing ‘demands and autonomy or dependencies for the workforce, both for employers and employees. The urgency to monitor psychosocial risks
in their multilevel context appears more important than ever. In addition, insight into the drivers and barriers of psychosocial risk management is compelling. Can we link the indicators of a changing world of work to what is happening in organizations and in workers? Can we capture all
these changes using the abstract and standardized way we generally measure psychosocial risks in surveys as we generally do? In this presentation we will discuss what we actually pick up of these changes in psychosocial risks as measured in Europe. Additionally, we will discuss the perception of psychosocial risks at work by employees as related to the perception hereof by employers (or their spokesmen) and risk management at the enterprise level. By not only considering the survey information on itself, but also linking information from respondents with different roles in the organization, or even by linking surveys that collect their data from different sources using multi-level modelling, we will show that additional information relevant for policy makers as well as practical information on drivers and barriers at the enterprise level may
become available. First we present the trends in digitization and in psychosocial risks at work and the awareness of these trends and their impact on employers as well as on mental and physical health outcomes of workers. Linking surveys to hard figures on morbidity and mortality show that there are significant and valid causal relationships between psychosocial risks and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. These data may convince policy makers in countries where psychosocial risks are considered ‘not to exist’. By linking surveys, interesting information can be gained on the topic of psychosocial risk awareness and risk management, as well as on its drivers and barriers at the enterprise level. When comparing the drivers and barriers of psychosocial risk manage-
ment to those for general OSH risk management or physical risk
management, the specific needs for stimulating psychosocial risk
management at policy, as well as at enterprise level are highlighted.
Using new technology in monitoring and by linking these data in the future, we will broaden our insights in effective psychosocial risk management.

Irene Houtman

Elsevier Korea LLC

January 2022

Sri Wahyuni

PDF

English

Text

Safety and Health at Work Vol. 13 Supplement 2022