Academy Fellow

Prof Dollard’s research in the social sciences is at the intersection of work and organisational psychology, mental health and safety science. Legacies of her intellectual and inspirational leadership in the social sciences include the development of the ARC funded Australian Workplace Barometer (AWB), the first comprehensive national Australian population based psychosocial risk assessment tool (survey); the StressCafé, the interactive public face of the AWB and related research; and the establishment of the Asia Pacific Academy for Psychosocial Factors at Work.

Prof Dollard is a world leader in the field of mental health and psychosocial factors at work and pioneer of Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC − defined as the corporate climate for worker psychological health) theory and measurement. In explanation of distress at work the social sciences have focused on specific workplace hazards, risks and behaviours that give rise to mental distress and poor health at work. PSC theory goes further by proposing that the root cause of psychosocial risks to worker psychological health, such as poor work design, bullying and harassment, is because of corporate values and priorities as well as failures in consultation and communication systems (i.e., PSC). PSC is a leading indicator and predicts the quality of work on offer, workplace hazards and risks, and the health and wellbeing of the workforce. PSC as a leading indicator is proving valuable to industry and the social sciences it provides a clear and efficient target for primary prevention. PSC tools translating well in industry because they are predictive and have national benchmarks against which organisations can rate their future risk for psychosocial hazards and psychological health issues, and there is an estimated dollar cost at each level of risk for sickness absence, presenteeism, and workers compensation claims. PSC theory has inspired many empirical investigations globally. National and international organisations are using PSC as a key performance indicator (KPI), and national surveillance of PSC is underway in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, US (Quality of Worklife Survey), Quebec, and British Columbia. The PSC tool is also used to design, implement and evaluate workplace change and evaluate the impact of national policies. 

Through an ARC Laureate Fellowship, Prof Dollard established the Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory at UniSA, a research platform for ground-breaking, interdisciplinary, international, research. It brings together world class researchers, to inspire and conduct rigorous research on PSC, and collects, collates, analyses, synthesises and publishes PSC data at the global, national, and organisation level, with the potential to change workplace policy-making world-wide. Moreover, through the ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick award, Prof Dollard instigated a Thinker in Residence and PhD Thinkers program to inspire the next generation of female academics in the field. 

Prof Dollard’s research in the social sciences has informed public policy and has been influential in ground-breaking new WHS regulations in Australia that explicitly include psychological health and psychosocial hazards and has put psychological health on equal footing to physical health under the Model Work Health and Safety Act. Deloitte Economics in their Regulatory Impact Statement used AWB benchmarking data and the AWB interactive tool, and PSC theory as their evaluation framework to estimate costs and benefits of the new regulations. 

Fellow of the European Academy for Occupational Health Psychology

ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow 

Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, School of Medicine. 

Member of the Society of Organisational Behaviour 

Board Member International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH)

2019 Ferguson-Glass Oration

NSW Centre for WHS Research Foundation

WorkSafe Vic Work Well Expert Research Reference Group

ARC Advisory Panels, Centres of Excellence and Laureate 

1. Dollard, MF, Dormann, C & Idris, MA 2019, ’Psychosocial safety climate: a new work stress theory and implications for method’, in MF Dollard, C Dormann & MA Idris (Eds), Psychosocial safety climate: a new work stress theory, Springer, Switzerland, Ch. 1, pp. 3-30. 

2. Dollard, MF & Bakker, AB. 2010, ‘Psychosocial safety climate as a precursor to conducive work environments, psychological health problems, and employee engagement’, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, vol. 83, no. 3, pp. 579-599 

3. Dollard, MF, & Bailey, T. (2021). Building psychosocial safety climate in turbulent times: The case of COVID-19. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(7), 951–964. 

4. Law, R, Dollard, MF, Tuckey, MR & Dormann, C. 2011, ‘Psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement’, Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 1782-1793. 

5. Dollard, MF, Dormann, C, Tuckey, MR & Escartin, J 2017, ‘Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and enacted PSC for workplace bullying and psychological health problem reduction’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 844-857.