The mediating role of perceived stress between safety climates and health outcomes and the moderating function of engagement

Abstract

Nowadays, it is very common to hear people grumbling about how stressed out they are at their jobs, and this is a growing concern, particularly since the WHO describes how work related stress affects an individual’s health. This study aims to try to understand the relationships, if any, between psychosocial risk factors, an organisation’s safety climate, and the engagement and the health of white collar employees. This project first provides a critical review of the main theories and the research that has already been conducted in relation to the study’s areas of interest. From this review, it was noticed that the literature only marginally addresses certain areas, with this study thus attempting to address two of these: Research Question 1: ‘Do psychosocial risk factors mediate the relationship between safety climate and health outcomes?’ Research Question 2: ‘Does work engagement moderate this relationship?’ To address these research questions, data was collected by means of a questionnaire, which was completed by 452 white collar employees working in both public and private organisations, with the analysis then being conducted using SPSS; more precisely, factor analysis and multiple regressions, with significant interactions being plotted to analyse the relationship direction. Results revealed that all risk factors (apart from change, which showed full mediation), partially mediate the relationship between the safety climate and health. Engagement also moderates the relationship between the risk factors control and change with health, with the other risk factors not being moderated by engagement. The results expose how important it is to address the stressors that exist in the employees’ working environment as this, in turn, can improve the employees’ engagement, with the latter buffering certain stressors, thus obtaining a positive vicious circle with the end result being an improvement in the employees’ health. These results are further discussed in the last chapter of this study, followed by a number of practical recommendations in line with the study’s results.