Psychosocial safety climate and its relationship to well-being at work (PsykoSafe)

This research project examines university employees’ perceptions of psychosocial safety climate (PSC), which refers to the shared perceptions of organisational policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of employee psychological health, well-being, and safety. PSC has not been previously studied in Finland, and therefore this research project provides new and important information on the phenomenon and its significance to psychological well-being at work.

The research has three main goals: 1) investigate the perceptions of university teaching and research staff regarding PSC; 2) study the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and perceived well-being at work from a comprehensive perspective through both its negative (i.e. burnout) and positive (i.e. work engagement) dimensions; and 3) investigate whether PSC protects from the detrimental effects of job demands. In addition, the research compares the perceptions of those in an employment relationship and those working as grant researchers on PSC and its relationships to well-being at work.

In this research, both survey and interview data are collected. They serve as comprehensive sources of information on university employees’ perceptions of PSC and its relationships to well-being.

The schedule for the project is as follows:

1. Pilot data for the research is collected in February 2020 from the Faculty of Social Sciences staff.
2. Interviews of staff with resource agreement are conducted in March-April 2020.
3. The actual survey data is collected from university staff in May 2020, and follow-up data is collected in September 2020.

The Farmers' Social Insurance Institution Mela (1.1.2020-31.12.2020).