Psychological Safety in the Workplace - Research Paper Example

Psychological Safety in the Workplace Psychological Safety is a key issue within a workplace environment since it positively or negatively affects work productivity and growth at the workplace. This essay will aim to explore the various aspects of psychological safety, the relationship between occupational health and work motivation and protection of mental health at the work place. It will also discuss work models that reduce psychosocial risks at the workplace. Psychological safety comes about when the workplace is psychologically safe; creating a workplace that prevents mental harm to the workers (Leka, 2010). Several factors contribute to mental harm. These include harassment, discrimination, bullying, disrespect, excessive work, emotional abuse and abuse of power among other things that contribute to mental injury. Psychological hazards at the workplace also arise from the physical work demand, work complexity and lack of unity and harmony at the work place. There is a need for motivation to deal with these aspects. Work motivation is beneficial since it contributes to increased productivity at the workplace. It is a high time that employers invest in promoting psychological safety to eliminate factors associated with psychosocial problems at the workplace. There is a need for employers to identify hazards related to work environment and adopt or formulate measures that will regulate these hazards. The employers should provide adequate information to the workers to promote psychological safety at work. They should incorporate regulations that protect the mental health of all workers. Factors such as bullying, harassment and prejudice, should face harsh penalties in order to dissuade others who might have similar behaviours (Woods, 2010). There is no doubt that motivation at work will result to a good mental health and attitude. This in turn has an impact on employee behavioural patterns, which lead to increased productivity and realisation of goals and targets set by the organisation. Motivation enables the workers to shift their behaviours and adopt mental toughness in times of hardships at work and promotes unity in day-to-day activities at work. It helps the workers to work in harmony and perform tasks in the best way possible. For example, a harassed worker will most likely perform work related duties poorly. The same will happen with a bullied new employee at the place of work. Motivation enables the organisation to survive when there are hard economic times, since the workers co-operate and continue to be productive. The aspect of motivation only comes in when there is a proper psychological safety, which the organisation should work towards promoting (Burke et al, 2011). The failure on the part of employers to address the aspect of psychosocial health can lead to escalated claims of disability such as disorders related to mental health, increase in conflicts among workers at the work place, poor health and job commitment and poor levels of job satisfaction. This in turn contributes to dwindled work performance, increased costs, a compromised safety and a higher turn over. It ultimately leads to lowered productivity, devalued employees and substantial losses to the organisation. Psychological safety is an aspect that every worker should understand, and employers should provide adequate information the employees. They should ensure that resources are readily available since these initiate the workers to become more equipped and be able to handle psychosocial changes in their work environment. It is an individual issue that every worker should internalize, and be able to affirm that indeed it is a requirement in the work environment. The workers should take steps towards promoting safety within their environment. This can happen through encouragement. Encouragement nurtures behaviours of the workers and instils motivation within them. The management can contribute by acknowledging the workers in order to instil pride to the workers (Jackson et al, 2012). Positive psychology Practicing Positive psychology at the workplace, can contribute a lot in creating a better work environment, which promotes positive mental attitude towards work, dealing with work related stress and other work related factors. Positive psychology involves engaging the workers to shift attention from the negative psychosocial factors such as stress, conflicts, and work burnout, and to focus on the positive aspects. The organization can introduce aspects that create fun in the working environment. Events, such as team building and retreats, contribute towards promotion of better relationship among workmates and eliminate the aspect of strangeness since the workers open up as they relate with each other. These events also promote the cultivation of harmony and unity at workplace (Liao et al, 2010) Provision of job resources ensures that the employer get protection from factors such as work demand, work related pressure, and negative emotional state. The provision of resources ensures the workers engagement and commitment to work. Burn out on the other hand, is a representation of a psychologically affected worker, by factors such as stress and depression, and anxiety. Increment of job resources ensures that the increase of workers engagement and commitment and safety. The organisation can provide a wide range of resources such as knowledge of safety, autonomy and psychological support. The policies and regulations of the work place can provide such knowledge, which creates awareness on the importance of safety. Autonomy equips the employees with the freedom to decide on their own what deem fit to do, during working time. Support is essential particularly when job burnout overwhelms a worker. This can come from the supervisor or from the colleagues. Positive psychology in the work place contributes to the provision of support and resources that enhance psychological safety in the work environment. Positive psychology also promotes a positive mood at the work place (Jackson et al, 2012). Emotional Intelligence, Attitude and Mood The day-to-day interactions between the workers, emotional intelligence promotes the harmony required for the workers to work together. This in turn contributes to increased work performance. Emotional intelligence also helps the workers to understand one another in times of crisis and be able to perceive the needs of each other. This contributes to intrinsic benefits. The attitude of the employee is highly significant to the work performance. Positive attitude motivates the worker to perform tasks diligently. The organisation should ensure that the workers get adequate motivation by providing freedom to choose tasks and delegating duties while providing minimal supervision. According to Antoniou (2009), there is a better task performance when freedom of choice of task comes into a combination with a good work attitude. Attitude promotes self-control and ensures that the worker remains focused to duties, and motivates the workers to look forward to tasks that are more enjoyable. Attitude goes hand in hand with mood. A poor mood results from negative vibration in the mind. It affects the attitude towards work and tampers with emotions of the workers. A poor mood can create poor communication in the work place, poor language and lack of focus and commitment. Burnout and stress are the greatest contributors towards a poor mood. It is the duty of the organisation to put in place measures that promote favourable moods among all workers. The organisation can use the concept of positive psychology (Jackson et al, 2012). Other factors that influence mood and attitude in workers are altruism optimism and hope. These contribute to a better job performance, commitment, work happiness and job satisfaction. Optimism ensures that the worker is resilient enough to overcome barriers and obstacles. Altruism on the other hand, is a helping behaviour when the workers face hard times. This can come from colleagues or from the supervisors. Altruism replaces negative moods with positive moods since it provides emotional support to the already overwhelmed worker (Cooper & Cartwright, 2009). Once the employees have the freedom to choose for themselves and understand that psychological safety lies squarely in their hands they can provide emotional support to their colleagues, hope, and optimism in times of crisis (Liao et al, 2010). According to (Naswall, 2008), a hopeful perspective in life contributes to optimism and resilience in dealing with opportunities or obstacles. One is able to take opportunities with more enthusiasm bounce back during adversities. Duffy (2012) states that fun activities at work improve the moods of workers and ensure that employees enjoy their work. It casts out routine boredom and enhances better relationships between workers. The workers become more empowered and step up to take leadership roles and increases satisfaction at work and commitment in the organisation. According to Cameron& Spreitzer (2012), such fun activities should be staff and supervisor oriented, strategy-oriented and social-oriented. Staff and supervisor-oriented fun activities promote teamwork and ensure that the workers are team players who fully participate towards achieving the goals of the organisation. Strategy-oriented activities incorporate more autonomy among the employees in the work place and cultivate various strengths within the workers. Social-oriented activities are organisational-based social events that cultivate better relationships between the employees the supervisors and the extended community. For example, a company’s beach or Christmas parties, or barbecue. Models involved in psychological safety Demand Control Model (DCM) The Demand Control Model is a design model that enhances psychological safety in the work place by promoting an environment that fosters learning and autonomy. Robert A. Karasek designed this model on the basis of relationship between demand and control in the place of work. It works on an assumption that employees in active jobs have a higher tendency of seeking situations that challenge them in order to gain mastery and obtain more skill and knowledge. The model encourages social support in the work place and better interaction between the workmate and managers. However, the assumption in this model has faced criticism from researchers who believe that the interaction between demand and control lacks evidence. They believe that the model lacks the ability to support its assumption since it does not replicate the findings consistently. The researchers refute the model on the basis that it is straightforward and does not capture the work environment adequately. The model however shows evidence that psychological safety at work and job satisfaction comes because of high control of job in the work place. On the other hand, high job demand without high control, leads to poor psychological safety in the work place. It causes anxiety, stress and burnout (Edmondson, 2012). Demands-Resources Model (JD-RM) This model expands more on the DCM model. The model encourages a positive attitude at work and focuses on the interrelation between job demand and job resources. The model states that high job demand encompassed with high job resources leads to an improved attitude at work by the employees. The model describes demands as those aspects of the organisation, sustained through physical and psychological effort. These aspects include the physical aspects of a job, the psychological aspects, and the social and organizational aspects of a job. Unlike DCM, this model states that outcomes of a job and the motivation that would come from that job have a direct relationship to the available resources. According to this model, there is an enhancement of psychological safety when there are more resources. Abundant resources create challenging tasks to the workers, and enhance commitment and job satisfaction (Edmondson, 2012). Job Characteristics Model (JCM) Hackman and Oldham designed this model on the basis of five characteristics. These include skill variety, task autonomy, task significance, task feedback and task identity. There is an assumption that workers with a desire to grow in terms of skill and knowledge usually exhume a positive attitude and better work performance and outcome. The workers with the urge to grow professionally will most likely have better work turnover, lower absenteeism and higher job satisfaction. The model states that maximization of the workers potential depends on high task control and the element of feedback. This aspect is essential in ensuring psychological safety at work since it reduces factors such as poor moods and wrong attitude (Edmondson, 2012). In conclusion, Psychological Safety is a key issue within a workplace environment since it positively or negatively affects work productivity and growth at the workplace. Psychological safety comes about when the workplace is psychologically safe, the one that prevents mental harm to the workers. Several factors contribute to mental harm. These include harassment, discrimination, bullying, disrespect, excessive work, emotional abuse and abuse of power among other things that contribute to mental injury. Psychological hazards at the workplace also arise from the physical demands of the work, the complexity of the work and lack of unity and harmony at the work place. This essay explored and discussed the various aspects of psychological safety, the relationship between occupational health and work motivation and protection of mental health at the work place. It has discussed the impact of positive psychology at the work place and aspects of emotion, attitude and mood and their impact in psychological safety at work. Finally, this essay has discussed and elaborated the three models in psychological safety, which include the Demand Control Model, the Job Demands-Resources Model and the Job Characteristics Model. References Antoniou, A.-S. G. (2009). Handbook of managerial behavior and occupational health. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Burke, R. J., Cooper, C. L., & Clarke, S. (2011). Occupational health and safety. Burlington, VT: Gower. Cameron, K. S., & Spreitzer, G. M. (2012). The Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship. New York: Oxford University Press. Cooper, C. L., & Cartwright, S. (2009). The Oxford handbook of organizational well-being. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Duffy, M. P., & Sperry, L. (2012). Mobbing: Causes, consequences, and solutions. New York: Oxford University Press. Edmondson, A. C. (2012). Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate, and compete in the knowledge economy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. (2012). Managing human resources. Mason, OH: South Western/Cengage Learning. Leka, S. (2010). Occupational health psychology. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Liao, H., Martocchio, J. J., & Joshi, A. (2010). Research in personnel and human resources management: Vol. 29. Bingley: Emerald. Naswall, K. (2008). The individual in the changing working life. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press. Woods, S. A., & West, M. A. (2010). The psychology of work and organizations. Andover, UK: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More