Abstract:

In the post-COVID context, managing psychological health and safety has become an increasingly prominent organisational concern. ISO 45003:2021, the first international standard providing guidance on the management of psychosocial risks at work, offers a structured governance framework; however, research examining how organisations operationalise this voluntary and non-certifiable standard remains limited.

This paper draws on a multi-phase qualitative study examining ISO 45003 adoption across UK sectors. Study 1 comprised 28 semi-structured interviews with health and safety leads, human resources professionals, organisational development staff, union representatives, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Universities Health and Safety Association (USHA) representatives across UK Higher Education Institutions, supplemented by 61 organisational documents. Study 1 identified, amongst other things, substantial barriers and enablers to ISO 45003 implementation within higher education contexts.

Building on this, Study 2 focuses on organisations actively implementing ISO 45003 in order to identify enabling conditions, implementation processes in practice and any challenges encountered. To date, six semi-structured interviews have been conducted with organisational representatives across engineering, construction, defence and facilities management sectors. These data are complemented by 18 organisational documents. Together, the project adopts a mixed qualitative design integrating interview and documentary analysis across sectors.

Data were analysed using a hybrid inductive–deductive approach. Initial open coding identified emergent themes, followed by structured analysis using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to examine multilevel determinants. Institutional Theory provided a complementary lens to interpret legitimacy-seeking behaviour and field-level pressures shaping voluntary adoption.

Preliminary findings suggest that implementation is facilitated by prior ISO-based system maturity, particularly ISO 45001 integration, which provides structural readiness for psychosocial risk governance. Leadership commitment and a pre-existing culture prioritising staff wellbeing further enable adoption. Although ISO 45003 is non-certifiable, organisations engaged certification bodies through integrated audit and assessment processes, signalling a preference for structured external validation. However, implementation required substantial internal simplification to make the standard operationally meaningful and secure leadership buy-in.

These findings extend organisational psychology and implementation research by examining how voluntary governance standards become embedded through the interaction of organisational readiness factors and institutional pressures. Ongoing analysis will undertake systematic cross-study comparison to identify transferable determinants across sectors.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Organisational Psychology

Keywords: Employee Health, Safety and Well Being at Work    ;Employee Response to Organisational Change   

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Ruby Roberts