When Silence Speaks: The Link Between Psychosocial Safety and Misconduct

At this month’s (June 2025) Corruption Prevention Network NSW forum, our Principal Consultant, Michael Krawczyk (MBA, CAMS, CFCI), delivered a powerful and thought-provoking presentation on Psychosocial Safety and Organisational Integrity.

Here’s a snapshot....

Psychological safety means feeling safe to speak up, to share ideas, raise concerns, or admit mistakes, without fear of blame, exclusion, or negative consequences. It underpins trust, learning, and accountability within teams. But it’s only one piece of a broader picture.

Creating an environment where people feel psychologically safe relies on psychosocial safety, the broader organisational systems, structures, and conditions that protect and support people’s mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. This includes how work is designed, how expectations are communicated, how leadership is exercised, and how support is provided day to day.

When chronic stressors such as unclear roles, inconsistent leadership, excessive workloads, or lack of support go unaddressed, they begin to corrode trust. Over time, they create instability, not just for individuals, but for the organisation as a whole.

Most critically, these conditions make it harder and riskier for people to speak up. Formal reporting channels may exist, but they’re avoided. Early signs of concern are missed or dismissed. In these environments, accountability weakens, team cohesion breaks down, and a culture of silence takes hold. Left unchecked, this can create the conditions in which misconduct, unethical behaviour, and in some cases, serious integrity risks, are allowed to grow.

Psychosocial risk is the silent enabler of misconduct and corruption

When people don’t feel safe to speak up, they stay silent. Fear of backlash, stigma, exclusion, or simply not being taken seriously creates an environment where wrongdoing often goes unchallenged, not because employees are indifferent, but because the perceived personal cost of speaking up is too high. These conditions, where stress, low trust, and poor support are embedded into the work environment, are what we refer to as psychosocial risks. In these environments, misconduct becomes more difficult to detect, and minor issues can escalate into significant risks. 

Culture Starts with Leadership Behaviour

The tone from the top isn’t just symbolic, it’s operational and deeply consequential. Employees don’t form their perception of workplace culture by reading policy documents or mission statements. Instead, they watch what leaders do in practice. They observe how issues are handled, whether concerns are genuinely heard, how consistently expectations are applied, and whether accountability is modelled or avoided.

When leaders respond to issues with transparency, fairness, and consistency, they reinforce the organisation’s values in real time. This builds psychological safety, a climate where people feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes, or raise concerns without fear of retaliation. Over time, this creates a culture of trust, integrity, and shared responsibility.

Conversely, when leaders deflect blame, minimise concerns, or react defensively, employees take note. Even subtle signals, brushing off a complaint, shielding a senior staff member from scrutiny, or inconsistency in decision-making, can erode confidence. In these environments, silence becomes the safest strategy, and problems fester beneath the surface.

Culture, then, is not driven by intention but by action. The ‘tone from the top’ must be more than aspirational; it must be demonstrated daily through leadership behaviour that reflects the organisation’s stated values. Trust is not declared; it is earned.

This is more than an HR issue; it’s a business-critical risk

Psychosocial safety is often miscategorised as a wellbeing concern, but in reality, it sits at the heart of risk management, governance, and performance. When people feel psychologically unsafe, unable to raise concerns, question decisions, or admit mistakes, communication deteriorates. Collaboration gives way to guardedness, decision-making becomes risk-averse or politically motivated, and early warning signs of issues are overlooked or actively suppressed.

In this environment, poor behaviours go unchallenged, ethical lapses are ignored, and systemic risks are left to grow unchecked. Leaders are left flying blind, with limited insight into what’s really happening on the ground, until a crisis makes it impossible to ignore.

The cost of neglecting psychosocial safety is significant. It contributes to higher turnover, disengagement, reputational harm, increased workers' compensation claims, and potential breaches of WHS and other legal obligations. But more than that, it undermines the organisation’s ability to respond to change, adapt under pressure, and foster innovation, all of which require trust and openness.

Treating psychosocial safety as a strategic priority isn’t just good practice, it’s essential to building a high-performing, resilient organisation. It must be embedded into leadership behaviour, risk frameworks, governance structures, and everyday culture. Anything less leaves the business exposed.

Psychosocial risks extend beyond individual well-being, shaping how people communicate, make decisions, and hold one another accountable. When these risks are ignored, organisations become more vulnerable to misconduct, disengagement, and serious reputational or legal consequences.

At Riskwise, we support organisations to create cultures where people feel safe to speak up, raise concerns, and contribute without fear. Our psychosocial risk services help you uncover barriers to trust, understand the real impact of leadership behaviours, and strengthen the systems that support a safe and high-performing workplace.

Get in touch to explore how we can support your organisation to better understand its risk profile, strengthen leadership capability, and create a safer, more accountable workplace, one where issues are surfaced early, not after the damage is done.