Psychosocial safety climate as a precursor to conducive work environments, psychological health problems, and employee engagement Maureen F. Dollard 1 * and Arnold B. Bakker 2 1 Work and Stress Research Group, School of Psychology, Centre for Applied Psychological Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia 2 Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands We constructed a model of workplace psychosocial safety climate (PSC) to explain the origins of job demands and resources, worker psychological health, and employee engagement. PSC refers to policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. Using the job demands–resources framework, we hypothesized that PSC as an upstream organizational resource influenced largely by senior management, would precede the work context (i.e., job demands and resources) and would in turn predict psychological health and work engagement via mediation and moderation pathways. We operationalized PSC at the school level and tested meso- mediational models using two-level (longitudinal) hierarchical linear modelling in a sample of Australian education workers ðN ¼ 209 – 288Þ. Data were repeated measures separated by 12 months, nested within 18 schools. PSC predicted change in individual psychological health problems (psychological distress, emotional exhaustion) through its relationship with individual job demands (work pressure and emotional demands). PSC moderated the relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion. PSC predicted change in employee engagement, through its relationship with skill discretion. The results show that the PSC construct is a key upstream component of work stress theory and a logical intervention site for work stress intervention. This article addresses a gap in the work psychology literature regarding the origins of psychosocial working conditions. We define a new construct, psychosocial safety climate (PSC), and explain how PSC as influenced by senior management affects psychosocial working conditions and in turn psychological health and engagement, via *Correspondence should be addressed to Professor Maureen F. Dollard, Work and Stress Research Group, School of Psychology, Centre for Applied Psychological Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia (e-mail: maureen.dollard@unisa.edu.au). The British Psychological Society 579 Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2010), 83, 579–599 q 2010 The British Psychological Society www.bpsjournals.co.uk DOI:10.1348/096317909X470690