​​AWB Trend Data for Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) by Australian States
(2009 - 2014)
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​Note: Weighting data has been applied on this dashboard.
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.
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  • 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. (to read more click here)

​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.

​The different risk categories of PSC-12 according to the PSC Risk Benchmarks (Bailey et al., 2015; Dormann et al., 2017)

© T. Bailey & M. F. Dollard (2019)
The following graph displays the PSC benchmarks from the Australian Workplace Barometer (AWB) for the 2014-15 data collection. To interact with the graph choose from the demographic variables (e.g., industry, state, gender, etc.) provided in the two demographic drop-down menus.
The above interactive dashboard displays the composition of workers in each of the PSC the risk categories for a variety of demographic measures. The results show the greatest proportion of workers reporting 'Low Risk PSC' are males in the wholesale trade (69.2%) and females in electricity, gas, and water supply (69.2%) industries. The greatest proportion of workers reporting 'Very High Risk PSC' are females in cultural and recreational services (20.0%) followed closely by females in transport and storage (19.5%) industries.
Results from the Australian Workplace Barometer - for more information go to AWB page.
If you like to ​fill out PSC-12 scale and see your own results at the end, click here. ​

“  In high PSC contexts managers will be cognisant of risk factors and will help to shape jobs where demands are manageable, and resources adequate. Therefore if PSC is assessed, levels of demands and resources can be predicted.  ”

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​Website Editor: Prof. Maureen Dollard
How to cite this website: 
Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWeX) (2019) StressCafé [Promoting healthier, happier, safer, and more productive work environments]. Retrieved from https://www.stresscafe.com.au/
Copyright © 2015