Psychosocial hazards: An overview and industrial relations perspective

Abstract

The past two decades witnessed rapidly growing interest in psychosocial hazards at work. The paper overviews the state of knowledge of psychosocial hazards, demonstrating they have long existed, are present in virtually all work settings but seem to becoming more prevalent due to changes in work and society over the past four decades. A number of models seeking to explain psychosocial hazards are critically examined. It is argued there a number of superior alternatives to the currently dominant model–the Job Demands Resources (JDR) model–and these models are more closely aligned to areas of interest to industrial relations. It argues that the combination of several models or a new model based on their strengths could provide both a better understanding of the underlying causes of psychosocial hazards and in turn inform more effective interventions. Drawing on the last point the final sections of the paper consider industry, NGO and union interventions to address psychosocial hazards and the evolving regulatory framework. The paper argues for historically informed industrial relations (IR) perspective using superior models to better understand and address psychosocial hazards.