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What is Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC)?

PSC is a specific aspect of organisational climate, defined as “policies, practices, and procedures for worker psychological health and safety”

PSC is largely determined by management and leadership within organisations. The PSC construct has four main aspects that connect to best practice principles in the stress prevention, intervention, and safety climate literature.

  • First is senior management support and commitment to psychological health through involvement and proactivity. This aspect is evident when senior management take quick and decisive action to address and correct issues that affect psychological health.
  • Second is priority the management give to employee psychological health and safety versus productivity goals. For example, job demands (e.g., work pressure, emotional labour, physical demands) may be modified to make them more manageable, and management have the discretion to offer a variety of resources, such as work flexibility, autonomy, and social support that may buffer demands and reduce work stress.
  • Third is organisational communication that concerns how the members of the organisation communicate about psychological health and safety, including identification of risks to mental health, strategies for risk control and hazard management.
  • The final aspect, organisational participation concerns expectations for involvement from all levels within the organisation regarding stress prevention. It includes the integration of stakeholders such as employees, unions, and health and safety representatives in occupational (psychological) health and safety processes.
    (View this pdf file to learn more)

How to interpret PSC results?  

​PSC is measured using a 12 item scale (PSC-12) with scores ranging from 12 to 60. The following benchmarks were created to show risk levels and prognosis for PSC scores.

Learn More

See more about the PSC benchmarks from the Australian Workplace Barometer (AWB) for the 2014-15 data collection.

Psychosocial Safety Climate Fact Sheet

Download Australian Workplace Barometer Psychology Safety Climate Factsheet (PSC) in "pdf" format

Chronicles of PSC Studies: A Journey Through Progression – Published and Unpublished Works
How to cite the PSC Database:

Afsharian, A., Dollard, M., & Crispin, C. (2026). PSC map and league table (PSC Database). Retrieved from https://www.stresscafe.net/awbproject-278749-565613.html

A Report on the Status of Global PSC:

Since 2010, numerous Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) studies have enhanced our understanding of global working conditions across various sectors. To date, 370 PSC studies have been reported to the PSC-GO team, contributing to the extensive PSC literature in journals, books and industry reports. The majority of this research comprises cross-sectional (55.1%) and longitudinal (23%) designs, with fewer reviews (9.5%) and qualitative studies (4.6%). Experimental approaches are scarce (0.5%).

The research spans diverse industries, with the most representation from Multi-industries research (28.1%), Healthcare (23.2%) and Education (13.5%). In terms of participants’ occupations, healthcare workers and educational staff make the greatest contributions to research.

The distribution of respondents by country reveals that the highest representation is from Australia (25.1%), Malaysia (12.4%), and Sweden (5.4%), which are the most represented. Other notable countries include China (4.6%), the USA (4.4%), Canada (3.5%), Germany (3.2%), Iran (3%) and Japan (1.9%).

There are still PSC publications and data to review.

If you possess any pertinent PSC data or projects, please contact Dr Ali Afsharian at the Adelaide University. Additionally, kindly ensure you upload your PSC research findings, including the Mean and Standard Deviation, to stresscafe.net using the link below.

Note: Some of the PSC Means and Standard Deviations (SDs) are estimated based on the means of the provided PSC scale items or a different range of responses. If you have any concerns or feedback, do not hesitate to contact us. 

Click here to submit your PSC data

Congratulations to PSC scholars for their recent PSC studies, which are below.

  • Nickel, S. F., Korger, S., Schindler, W., Heytens, H., Krieg, G., Drewitz, K. P., et al. (2025). Integrated psychosocial care in intensive care (IPS-Pilot): Study protocol of the systematic, multi-method development of a complex intervention (Phase A). JMIR Research Protocols, 14, e65682. https://doi.org/10.2196/65682
  • Pienkowski, M., Dollard, M., & Smith, P. (2026). The combined effect of psychosocial safety climate and OHS vulnerabilities on workplace injury risks. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.70049
  • Korger, S., Nickel, S. F., Gehrig, J., Nießen, R. K., Elgner, M., Apfelbacher, C., … Binneböse, M. (2026). Psychosoziale Belastungen, Bedarfe und Ressourcen unter Gesundheitsprofessionellen auf deutschen Intensivstationen: Fragebogensurvey. PPmP – Psychotherapie · Psychosomatik · Medizinische Psychologie, 76(1), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2718-6053
  • Heytens, H., Korger, S., Nickel, S. F., Schindler, W., Elgner, M., Şahin, K. A., Krieg, G., Schürmann, K., Gehrig, J., Brenner, L., Binneböse, M., Rose, M., Gündel, H., & Apfelbacher, C. (in press). Piloting a pragmatic randomized controlled trial on the effects of integrated psychosocial care in intensive care units (Phase B of the IPS pilot project): Protocol for a feasibility study. JMIR Research Protocols. https://doi.org/10.2196/77490
  • Martins, T., Bucher Andary, J., Bellagamba, D., Simon, M., & Zúñiga, F. (2026). Adaptation and psychometric evaluation of a patient safety culture instrument for home care: A multicentre cross-sectional study. Journal of Advanced Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.70479
  • Kikunaga, K., Yokouchi, N., Yokoyama, K., & Nakata, A. (2026). Self-endangering work behavior is enhanced by a poor psychosocial safety climate at the workplace among Japanese workers under flexible time arrangements: Fixed effects model analysis in a longitudinal study. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.70051
  • Nhete, A. (2025). Exploring the effects of job stress on employee satisfaction and performance in private security companies in Botswana. International Journal of Applied Research in Business and Management, 6(5). https://doi.org/10.51137/wrp.ijarbm.501
  • David, G., & Tripney Berglund, R. (2025, December). Developing a psychosocial safety climate maturity model: An international Delphi study. Paper presented at the ICOH-WOPS and APA-PFAW Conference, Vietnam. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-75238
  • Singh, C., Cropley, D. H., Dollard, M., & Potter, R. (2025). Ready, set, Industry 5.0: The role of organisational psychosocial safety climate, innovation capacity and attitudes towards change. Journal of Organizational Change Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-10-2024-0596
  • Geisler, M., Åkerberg, A., Spets, M., & Starräng, G. (2026). Sustainable employment in social care: The role of psychosocial safety climate, quality of work, and job crafting. Health & Social Care in the Community, Article 2229131. https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/2229131
  • Dai, W., Nie, C., Lu, J., Hu, L., Zhang, L., Zhai, Y., & Zhang, J. (2026). The mediating role of job competence in the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and reflective practice among cardiac interventional nurses: A cross-sectional study. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8393745/v1
  • Chen, L., Yang, X., & Zhang, Y. (2025). The mediating role of presenteeism in the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and work engagement. Journal of Nursing Management, Article 4081706. https://doi.org/10.1155/jonm/4081706
  • Johari, F. S., Idris, M. A., Ratnaningsih, I. Z., & Yulita, Y. (2025). A panel study of job demands and practices toward infection prevention and control among healthcare workers: The moderating role of competing safety climate constructs. Industrial Health.
  • Fouquet, É., Legault, M. È. B., Biron, C., & Poulin-Daigle, B. (2026). Interventions aimed at improving psychosocial safety climate in the workplace: A scoping review protocol. BMJ Open, 16(1), e108955. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-108955
  • Hubert, P., Etgen, S., Mojzisch, A., Roswag, M., & Häusser, J. A. (2025). Examining the underpinnings of psychosocial safety climate in organizations: A crafting and identity perspective. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 98(4), e70075. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.70075
  • El Mansouri, C., Bounade, C. D., Yang, L. I., & Muhammad, B. (2026). Investigating the impact of psychosocial safety climate on safety behavior of phosphate mine workers: A dual mediation analysis. IDRiM Journal, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.5595/001c.157698
  • Brown, V. S. (2025). Management influence on psychological safety: Results from employees in U.S. federal government organizations in the state of Hawaii. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 16, 229–251. https://doi.org/10.30845/ijbss.v16p16
  • Hander, N. R., Erschens, R., Klein, T., Jarczok, M. N., Mulfinger, N., Rieger, M. A., … Rothermund-Nassir, E. (2026). Working conditions, job stress and work-related consequences among hospital employees: Differences by professional group, working hours and job levels: A cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE, 21(3), e0343567. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343567
  • Firoz, M., Ghosh, K., & Sharma, D. (2026). When Knowledge Sharing Goes Wrong: A Conceptual Examination of Knowledge Sabotage. Knowledge and Process Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.70053
  • Glawing, C., Kylin, C., Karlsson, I., & Nilsson, J. (2026). Perceptions of registered nurses in the ambulance service in Sweden on their psychosocial work environment: A cross-sectional study. International Emergency Nursing, 86, 101798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2026.101798
  • Mohd Rahim, S. S. Z., Thangiah, N., Baharudin, F., Rosely, M. F., & Hoe, V. C. (2026). Psychosocial safety climate and conflict management styles as predictors of workplace bullying among house officers in Malaysian public hospitals: A multicentre cross-sectional study. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10105395261425351

PSC citations in PDF.

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