Psychosocial Factors

The word “psychosocial” is often used when talking about causes of MSD. It can be confusing.  It is useful to separate “workplace psychosocial” factors from “individual psychosocial” factors.

• Workplace psychosocial factors refer to the perceptions of the work environment that have an emotional meaning for workers and managers. Examples include overload or lack of control.
• Individual psychosocial factors refer to individual characteristics, such as psychological distress.

The work organization determines to a large extent the type and degree of psychosocial work factors experienced by workers. Different work organizations will create different psychosocial workplace factors. Electronic performance monitoring is an example of a work organizational factor that leads to negative psychosocial work factors. Workplace psychosocial factors are important for workers’ health in general, mental health, as well as MSD.

With this in mind, multiple studies show a consistent pattern of workplace psychosocial factors that are also MSD hazards. Psychosocial factors include a mix of jobs, work environments and organizational characteristics. They include factors such as low job control, low decision latitude, conflicting job demands, or low supervisor support. On the positive side, these hazards are generated by the organization and therefore can be changed by the organization.