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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relation of psychosocial risks to information security (IS). Although psychosocial risks at the workplace have been extensively researched from a managerial point of view, their effect on IS has not been formally studied to the extent required by the gravity of the topic.

Based on existing research on psychosocial risks, their potential effects on IS are examined.

It is shown that as psychosocial risks affect people at the workplace, they diminish their ability to defend IS.

Psychosocial risks are identified as a factor in IS breakdown. Future research should be directed towards assessing the significance of the effects of various psychosocial risks on IS, creating an assessment methodology for the resulting IS posture of the organisation and devising mitigation methodologies.

The proposed approach will provide a significant part of the answer to the question of why IS fails when all prescribed measures and controls are in place and active. More effective controls for psychosocial risks at the workplace can be created as the incentive of upholding IS will be added to the equation of their mitigation.

The organisational environment in which human beings are called upon to function in a secure manner will be redefined, along with what constitutes a “reasonable request” from human operators in the context of IS.

Bringing together psychosocial risks and IS in research will provide a better understanding of the shortcomings of human nature with respect to IS. Organisations and employees will benefit from the resulting psychosocial risk mitigation.

The purpose of this study is to identify new psychosocial risk factors in the assessment of job demands and job resources in hospitality employment and to initiate the development of a psychosocial hospitality risk indicator (PHRI). The argument is underpinned by the findings from an exploratory study of health and safety representatives (HSE) in the hospitality sector.

Using focus-group interviews with 15 HSE representatives from 13 hospitality companies in lodging, housekeeping, and food and beverage segments, this research explored perceived psychosocial risks in different hospitality jobs through the lens of the JD-R (job demands-job resources) model.

This study suggests that factors such as conditioned flexibility, technological requirements, multicultural workforce interactions, lack of support from customers and lack of emotion ventilation represent new risk factors in the psychosocial work environment if not properly managed. A list of items to assess these new psychosocial risks is provided, and a model of different knowledge sources for the further development of the PHRI is suggested.

This is the first paper to identify new psychosocial risks in hospitality employment through the lens of a health and safety work perspective. A key theoretical contribution of this research is the extension of the JD-R model with new variables representing service-specific job demands and resources and the development of items for future risk assessment in hospitality jobs.

Psychosocial risks in the workplace include occupational risks such as stress, harassment, burnout, and workplace violence that affect the physical integrity and mental health of employees (Bunker et al., 2003). Work-related psychosocial risks are relevant to the design and management of the job and its social and organizational contexts (Leka, Griffiths, & Cox, 2003). In this study, it was investigated which factors are effective in the psychosocial risk assessments of blue-collar workers in Turkey and whether there is a significant effect of gender in these assessments. The sample of the research consists of 663 employees working in a production facility in Tekirdag. The results showed that cognitive demands, the meaning of work, and development opportunity variables differed by gender from psychosocial risks. Women evaluate lower scores than men in expressions related to cognitive demands, the meaning of work, and development opportunities. Quantitative demands, emotional demands, burnout, and job satisfaction did not differ significantly by gender. The findings provide an understanding of the potential risks in the working conditions of blue workers in Turkey and provide the basis for future research.

Due to the “European Union Framework Directive on Safety and Health at work” (Directive 89/391/EEC, 1989), every employer is obliged to avoid psychosocial hazards when designing work. Little is known empirically about the barriers that workplace actors experience while developing and implementing OSH measures that prevent psychosocial hazards. The purpose of this paper is to explore barriers, causes and attempts to overcome them and discusses them with reference to relevant theoretical concepts and models that help to explain how these barriers hinder the development and implementation of OSH measures.

Semi-structured interviews with workplace actors in charge of psychosocial risk assessment (PRA) were conducted in 41 business cases, and transcripts were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Barriers, causes and attempts to overcome them were extracted inductively and discussed with reference to relevant theories and explanatory models.

The complex nature of psychosocial risks, hindering general beliefs, lack of a perceived scope for risk avoidance, lack of assumptions of responsibility among players on all hierarchical levels, discrepancies between formal responsibility and decision authority, and low reflexivity on processes of development and implementation of interventions were described as barriers. Causes and attempts to overcome these barriers were reflected upon by workplace actors.

Recommendations on the organisation of PRA will be given with respect to the reported results and relevant research in this field.

This qualitative study explores the barriers to developing and implementing OSH measures to eliminate psychosocial hazards, from the perspective of actors in charge of PRA, and why they might fail.

The study objectives were to (1) identify if providing solution-focused interaction training enables managers and employees to develop and implement actions to improve their psychosocial work environment and (2) test a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as social structures affecting members of the workplace and verify if social interactions effectively change the local psychosocial work environment.

The intervention involved training managers, supervisors and employees in solution-focused interaction. This study used a controlled interrupted time-series design, with an intervention and control group (CG) and pre- and post-measurements.

The psychosocial work environment improved, indicating that the training led to better social interactions, contributing to changes in the social structures within the intervention group (IG). Collective reflection between participants in the take action phase was the key to success. The recontextualization uncovered these mechanisms.

The present study supports a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as primarily decided by social structures that emerge in recurrent interactions within work teams. The same social structures also seem to be important for other features of the production system, like job performance.

Training designed to enable high-quality social interactions, like dialogue and collective reflection, has proven to be effective in changing social structures. Moreover, managers may need training in facilitating the collective reflection between participants. Increased focus on social interactions within work teams is suggested for future study of organizational change processes, psychosocial work environment and practical psychosocial work environment management.

The intervention was delivered in the preparation phase to enable an effective take action phase. Both phases are less studied in psychosocial risk assessments research. The recontextualization has never been fully used in psychosocial research.

The current pandemic and ongoing climate risks highlight the limited capacity of various systems, including health and social ones, to respond to population-scale and long-term threats. Practices to reduce the impacts on the health and well-being of populations must evolve from a reactive mode to preventive, proactive and concerted actions beginning at individual and community levels. Experiences and lessons learned from the pandemic will help to better prevent and reduce the psychosocial impacts of floods, or other hydroclimatic risks, in a climate change context.

The present paper first describes the complexity and the challenges associated with climate change and systemic risks. It also presents some systemic frameworks of mental health determinants, and provides an overview of the different types of psychosocial impacts of disasters. Through various Quebec case studies and using lessons learned from past and recent flood-related events, recommendations are made on how to better integrate individual and community factors in disaster response.

Results highlight the fact that people who have been affected by the events are significantly more likely to have mental health problems than those not exposed to flooding. They further demonstrate the adverse and long-term effects of floods on psychological health, notably stemming from indirect stressors at the community and institutional levels. Different strategies are proposed from individual-centered to systemic approaches, in putting forward the advantages from intersectoral and multirisk researches and interventions.

The establishment of an intersectoral flood network, namely the InterSectoral Flood Network of Québec (RIISQ), is presented as an interesting avenue to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and a systemic view of flood risks. Intersectoral work is proving to be a major issue in the management of systemic risks, and should concern communities, health and mental health professionals, and the various levels of governance. As climate change is called upon to lead to more and more systemic risks, close collaboration between all the areas concerned with the management of the factors of vulnerability and exposure of populations will be necessary to respond effectively to damages and impacts (direct and indirect) linked to new meteorological and compound hazards. This means as well to better integrate the communication managers into the risk management team.

Examines the behaviour of the industrial buyer, and studies the purchasing of reprographic equipment. Looks at straight replacement purchases, first time purchases, rebuys involving high cost equipment and rebuys due to dissatisfaction, in terms of a perceived risk model. Accepts that the industrial communications practitioner receives much less planning guidance than his consumer‐based counterpart. States current research is founded on the belief that a theory of communication appropriate to industrial buying must take on 6 main points – these are itemised and discussed. Discusses research design; research methodology; the determinants of perceived risk in industrial buying; risk handling behaviour in industrial buying; and a perceived risk model of buyer behaviour and its implications for competitive industrial marketing policy – all these are examined in great depth and each one given individual conclusions. Concludes that these examples by no means exhaust all the possible empirical bases from which industrial marketing policies may be devised, they serve to illustrate the way in which the model can be realistically applied to derive such competitive policies.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive review on the implementation and the effect of Japan's Stress Check Program, a national program to monitor and control workplace psychosocial factors that was initiated in December 2015.

We comprehensively reviewed articles published in Japanese and English, assessed the performance of the Stress Check Program and summarized future challenges. We also discussed the implications for practice.

The available literature presented a scientific basis for the efficiency and validity of predictions using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire, which is the instrument recommended to screen workers with high stress in the program. No study has verified the effect of the program on workers' mental health by using group analysis of stress check results. There is room for improvement in tools that contribute to identifying workers with high stress and in measures for improving the work environment. The Stress Check Program contrasts with risk management of psychosocial factors at work, widely adopted in European countries as a strategy for improving workers' mental health by focussing on the psychosocial work environment.

Although the effectiveness of the Japanese program needs further evaluation, future developments of the program would provide insight for national policies on psychosocial risks/psychosocial stress at work.

This paper is the first systematic review on the implementation and effects of Japan's Stress Check Program.

Primarily, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the interaction and direct effects of tie strength between sender and receiver of word of mouth (WOM) and the receiver’s service purchase decision involvement on WOM influence. A secondary aim is to investigate how a distinctive conceptualization of perceived risk, consisting of two types (outcome risk and psychosocial risk), affects service purchase decision involvement. A conceptual model incorporating these constructs and associated hypotheses is developed and tested.

In a survey of actual service consumers, respondents were asked to recall a recent instance where they had received service purchase information via WOM, and relate their responses to this instance. Established scales were used to measure the constructs. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling.

Principally, findings demonstrate a strong interaction effect between service purchase decision involvement and tie strength. Also, results highlight the complexity of the perceived risk construct, suggesting that it is appropriately modeled as two types: outcome risk, and psychosocial risk.

This research has contributed to the service marketing literature by testing a model that predicts WOM influence. Evidence confirmed that the effect of service purchase decision involvement on WOM influence is moderated by tie strength. Additionally, a conceptualization of two different types of risk associated with purchase decisions was suggested, together with empirical confirmation of their hypothesized antecedent effects on service purchase decision involvement. Findings have special implications for the literatures of persuasion, social and interpersonal influence, as well as consumer behavior in general.

To harness the power of WOM, managers should understand who their target audience is and how consumers are related to each other (tie strength) and to the service purchase decision (service purchase decision involvement). Recommendations are made with specific illustrations of how firms can leverage tie strength under conditions of low service purchase decision involvement to enhance WOM influence.

The formidable power of WOM wields substantial influence on consumers, particularly within a service (vs goods) purchase context, typically characterized by higher perceived risk and lower search qualities. The significant interaction between tie strength and service purchase decision involvement is a unique contribution to the service WOM literature.

Knowledge regarding the importance of the psychosocial work environment for health and well-being in the workplace is extensive. However, more knowledge is needed about how the managers’ organizational conditions are related to what occupational health and safety management (OHSM) is actually conducted and how this relates to the work-related health of employees. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate if managers’ organizational conditions are associated with the conducted OHSM, and if the conducted OHSM is associated with the psychosocial work environment and well-being of the employees.

An electronic questionnaire was sent to managers and their employees working in 10 different organizations in Sweden, resulting in 1,097 valid responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the results.

The SEM analysis showed that managers’ conditions were related to employee well-being via OHSM and psychosocial work environment (job demands and job resources).

This study contributes to the existing literature in the field of OHSM by placing explicit focus on the role of organizational conditions for conducting OHSM. By studying not only the link between work environment and health, but also focus on the underlying organizational structures for OHSM, provides additional possibilities for prevention of the increasing work-related illness. As such, this paper contributes to a more holistic perspective in the field of OHSM.