The fish rots from the top: how senior management values and priorities shape worker mistreatment through psychosocial safety climate (PSC)

A positive organizational psychosocial safety climate (PSC – the climate for employee psychological health and safety) could prevent workplace mistreatment (bullying and harassment). However, the origins of PSC and the pathways through which it operates remain insufficiently understood. Our values‑driven systems approach proposes that senior management (SM) pro-human values and priorities, shape supervisors’ positive perceptions of PSC and, in turn, reduce the likelihood of worker mistreatment. Study 1 used a multilevel conceptualization of organizations, combining structure and work-role functions, across 33 public sector agencies and 413 nested work units. At the organizational level, SM values and priorities (n = 1341) related to supervisors’ PSC (n = 5341) and in turn the mistreatment of workers (n = 21996); at the work unit level, supervisor support further reduced mistreatment, when organizational PSC (a cross-level moderator) was high. Study 2 used three-wave multisource organizational-level data across 117 agencies: SM values and priorities Time 1 (T1; n = 2332) predicted supervisor PSC T2 (n = 4718) and in turn bullying of workers T3 (n = 26112). Challenging SM values and priorities is likely an efficient lever, to improve PSC at scale, bolster effective supervisor support in work units, and prevent mistreatment of workers.