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. 2015 Mar 13;10(3):e0119492.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119492. eCollection 2015.

Associations between work environment and psychological distress after a workplace terror attack: the importance of role expectations, predictability and leader support

Marianne Skogbrott Birkeland  1 , Morten Birkeland Nielsen  2 , Stein Knardahl  3 , Trond Heir  4
Affiliations

Associations between work environment and psychological distress after a workplace terror attack: the importance of role expectations, predictability and leader support

Marianne Skogbrott Birkeland et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Experiencing terrorism is associated with high levels of psychological distress among survivors. The aim of the present study was to examine whether work environmental factors such as role clarity and predictability, role conflicts, and leader support may protect against elevated levels of psychological distress after a workplace terrorist attack. Data from approximately 1800 ministerial employees were collected ten months after the 2011 Oslo bombing attack which targeted the Norwegian ministries. The results show that after a traumatic event, lower role conflicts, higher role clarity, higher predictability, and higher leader support were independently associated with lower psychological distress. These findings suggest that the workplace environment may be a facilitator of employees' mental health after stressful events.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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