The Impact of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Health Impairment and Motivation Pathways: A Diary Study on Illegitimate Tasks, Appreciation, Worries, and Engagement Among German Nurses

Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) describes an organisation’s policies, practices, and procedures that aim at protecting employees’ psychological health and safety. In line with the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we proposed PSC to be a cause of the causes, that is, an upstream organisational resource that decreases perceived demands and increases perceived resources in the form of illegitimate tasks and appreciation. In turn, this should lead to reduced work-related worries and enhanced work engagement. Based on a diary study across six weeks and a sample of N = 354 nurses, results from multilevel analyses were largely in line with our propositions: On the within level, worries and work engagement were indeed increased during weeks participants reported high illegitimate tasks and appreciation, respectively. On the between level, 2-1-1 multilevel mediation models revealed indirect effects of PSC on decreased perceived illegitimate tasks and, in turn, on decreased work-related worries. Similarly, PSC increased perceived appreciation and, in turn, further increased work engagement. These findings substantiate both the health impairment and the motivational pathway of the JD-R model, and further confirm PSC as an important resource on an organisational level that is able to prevent work stress in terms of decreased demands and increased resources.