Psychosocial Climate as Antecedent for Resources to Manage Emotional Demands at Work

Background: Effectively managing emotional demands in the workplace is crucial in professions such as healthcare, education, and social work. Recent studies indicate that the psychosocial safety climate within an organization can significantly mitigate the negative effects associated with high emotional demands. Method: This study examines whether psychosocial safety climate is associated with six practical strategies for managing emotional demands that have previously been found to be associated with less burnout. It utilizes longitudinal data from 1457 participants across 129 different workplaces in various emotionally demanding professions. The associations were analyzed using linear regression and Poisson regression techniques. All analyses incorporated cluster-robust standard errors to account for potential dependencies arising from respondents sharing the same workplace. Results: The results indicate that higher levels of psychosocial safety climate are significantly associated with the availability of practical strategies. Furthermore, the incidence rate of receiving multiple types of support increases significantly for each point increase in psychosocial safety. Additionally, these relationships remain consistent even under high work demands. Conclusions: The results underscore the importance of fostering a psychosocial safety climate and increasing the availability of practical strategies to manage emotional demands in the workplace. This approach may safeguard employee well-being in high-demand professions.