Expert warns of a 'breeding ground' of psychosocial injuries under employers' nose
An organisational culture and mental health expert is warning employers of "microcultures" in the workplace, which can be a breeding ground for psychosocial injuries among employees.
Anna Kiaos, founder of Mind Culture Life Australia, defined microcrultures as small teams and subgroups in the workplace where language and behaviour shift in ways senior leaders and HR are not privy to.
Kiaos' research on the topic revealed that these discreet microcultures are established to keep work moving despite employees falling out of alignment with their leaders' systems, values, and priorities.
Other factors driving the rise of microcultures include sustained workload pressure, conflict, and leadership churn, where employees are left to gather among themselves behind the scenes.
This makes an organisation appear "functional" upon first glance, according Kiaos.
"But backstage, employees were expressing cynicism, withdrawal and 'us versus them' language, and creating workarounds to cope with rising pressure," she warned.
"Senior leaders and HR teams were largely unaware of these shifts until serious psychological injuries, resignations, and legal disputes began to emerge."
And in the expert's experience, when one employee lodges a psychological injury claim, there is a higher chance that another employee from the same microculture will follow.
"When HR teams say 'we didn't see this coming', it's usually because the signals were happening backstage, not in the places organisations typically measure," she said.
'Frontstage' version of employees
While employees settle in their own microcultures, they present what Kiaos said is a "frontstage" version of themselves at work.
These are the versions that they present to their leaders that suppress what they really think until they feel it's safe to express them.
"When employees feel pressure to look aligned and positive, they stop being honest about what's really going on," Kiaos warned.
"That makes psychosocial risks invisible until they turn into burnout, resignations, or psychological injury workers' compensation claims."
Addressing this hidden challenge
In a landscape where employers have the obligation to proactively address psychosocial risks at work, Kiaos said the goal for HR leaders is to go beyond the areas where signals of psychosocial injuries usually happen.
"The goal is to identify those signals earlier, before a psychological injury becomes a legal, operational and human crisis," Kiaos said.
She pointed out that this will not require a complex surveillance system, but deliberate listening and structured observation.
HR leaders should pay attention to employees' everyday language and doncut across the hierarchy of an organisation.
"Microcultures reveal changes in tone, increased cynicism, informal workarounds and 'us versus them' language, which are often the first signs that psychosocial hazards are forming," Kiaos said.
"Correctly identifying and thereafter intervening with the right approach is key to stopping microcultures from becoming a breeding ground for psychological injury workers' compensation claims."
