6 research outputs found
The wicked character of psychosocial risks:Implications for regulation
No full textPsychosocial risks constitute a significant problem in most workplaces, and they are generally considered more difficult to regulate than many other occupational health and safety risks. This article investigates the challenges of regulating psychosocial risks in the workplace. The difficulties lie in the particular nature of psychosocial risks: their complexity, uncertainty, value, and power divergences. Psychosocial risks therefore resemble ‘wicked problems’, typically characterized by unclear cause-effect relationships and uncertain solutions. We use the ‘wicked problems’ concept to show how workplace regulation, and particularly the enforcement in the form of inspection andaudits of certified occupational health and safety management systems, face challenges in assessing psychosocial risks and the strategies used by regulators to overcome these challenges. While regulation has become more effective in several countries, a better understanding of the nature of the challenges is still needed. It is necessary to accept the uncertain nature of psychosocialrisks in the search for more efficient regulation. Achieving more effective regulation should involve stakeholders in the workplace who deal with the prerogatives of management, and should help develop the competencies of the inspectors and auditors in the field
Hard work in soft regulation:A discussion of the social mechanisms in OHS management standards and possible dilemmas in the regulation of psychosocial work environment
No full textCertified occupational health and safety management (OHSM) systems have become a global instrument in the regulation of work environment (Frick and Wren 2000; Gallagher et al. 2001, Rocha 2010; Robson et al 2007). However, their actual impact on occupational health and safety – in particular on ‘softer’ psychosocial areas of the working environment – has been questioned (Hohnen & Hasle 2011; Walters and Frick 2000; Hasle & Zwetsloot 2011). This has resulted in recent British attempts to develop new publically available guidelines (PAS 1010) to be used together with OHSAS 18001 focusing specifically on psychosocial risk management attempting to guide and control not only management systems and related procedures but also the concrete work domain in which psychosocial risks are produced, experienced and monitored (Leka 2011). Based on an analysis of OHSAS 18001 and PAS 1010 the present paper analyses these attempts and discusses why the new guidelines – particularly focusing on regulating the psychosocial working environment – only partly succeed in solving the shortcomings of OHSAS 18001. The paper shows how the problems of addressing contemporary complex and psychosocial working environment issues are related to general social regulatory mechanisms in international standards
The Wicked Character of Psychosocial Risks: Implications for Regulation
No full textPsychosocial risks constitute a significant problem in most workplaces, and they are generally considered more difficult to regulate than many other occupational health and safety risks. This article investigates the challenges of regulating psychosocial risks in the workplace. The difficulties lie in the particular nature of psychosocial risks: their complexity, uncertainty, value, and power divergences. Psychosocial risks therefore resemble ‘wicked problems’, typically characterized by unclear cause-effect relationships and uncertain solutions. We use the ‘wicked problems’ concept to show how workplace regulation, and particularly the enforcement in the form of inspection and audits of certified occupational health and safety management systems, face challenges in assessing psychosocial risks and the strategies used by regulators to overcome these challenges. While regulation has become more effective in several countries, a better understanding of the nature of the challenges is still needed. It is necessary to accept the uncertain nature of psychosocial risks in the search for more efficient regulation. Achieving more effective regulation should involve stakeholders in the workplace who deal with the prerogatives of management, and should help develop the competencies of the inspectors and auditors in the field
Hard work in soft regulation:A discussion of the social mechanisms in OHS management standards and possible dilemmas in the regulation of psychosocial work environment
No full textCertified occupational health and safety management (OHSM) systems have become a global instrument in the regulation of work environment (Frick and Wren 2000; Gallagher et al. 2001, Rocha 2010; Robson et al 2007). However, their actual impact on occupational health and safety – in particular on ‘softer’ psychosocial areas of the working environment – has been questioned (Hohnen & Hasle 2011; Walters and Frick 2000; Hasle & Zwetsloot 2011). This has resulted in recent British attempts to develop new publically available guidelines (PAS 1010) to be used together with OHSAS 18001 focusing specifically on psychosocial risk management attempting to guide and control not only management systems and related procedures but also the concrete work domain in which psychosocial risks are produced, experienced and monitored (Leka 2011). Based on an analysis of OHSAS 18001 and PAS 1010 the present paper analyses these attempts and discusses why the new guidelines – particularly focusing on regulating the psychosocial working environment – only partly succeed in solving the shortcomings of OHSAS 18001. The paper shows how the problems of addressing contemporary complex and psychosocial working environment issues are related to general social regulatory mechanisms in international standards
The wicked character of psychosocial risks:Implications for regulation
No full textPsychosocial risks constitute a significant problem in most workplaces, and they are generally considered more difficult to regulate than many other occupational health and safety risks. This article investigates the challenges of regulating psychosocial risks in the workplace. The difficulties lie in the particular nature of psychosocial risks: their complexity, uncertainty, value, and power divergences. Psychosocial risks therefore resemble ‘wicked problems’, typically characterized by unclear cause-effect relationships and uncertain solutions. We use the ‘wicked problems’ concept to show how workplace regulation, and particularly the enforcement in the form of inspection andaudits of certified occupational health and safety management systems, face challenges in assessing psychosocial risks and the strategies used by regulators to overcome these challenges. While regulation has become more effective in several countries, a better understanding of the nature of the challenges is still needed. It is necessary to accept the uncertain nature of psychosocialrisks in the search for more efficient regulation. Achieving more effective regulation should involve stakeholders in the workplace who deal with the prerogatives of management, and should help develop the competencies of the inspectors and auditors in the field
Audit of psychosocial risk management systems:between tacit knowledge and standardization
No full textorganizations on how to manage risks. Internal and external audits of compliance with thestandard are key elements. Auditors should be competent to carry out the task and befamiliar with risks of the areas they are auditing. The competences and practice of internalauditors have been studied in two Danish municipalities. The results show that auditorshave a varied background and a limited knowledge about psychosocial risks. They havedifficulties in carrying out audits and the results are mainly influenced by personalpreferences
