Redefining Human Capital Sustainability: An Integrative Conceptual Framework Harmonizing ISO 45003 and the Job Demands-Resources Model for Psychosocial Risk Assessment
Abstract
Although Corporate Social Sustainability programs have matured and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks have become institutionalized, organizations remain structurally under-prepared for the rising incidence of workplace burnout worldwide. This conceptual paper addresses a silo that has lingered at the intersection of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) scholarship on one side and corporate sustainability reporting on the other: the absence of a defensible theoretical bridge between micro-level psychosocial risk management and macro-level human capital outcomes. We align the structural hazard taxonomy codified in ISO 45003 (International Organization for Standardization, 2021) with the dual-pathway psychological mechanics of the Job Demands–Resources(JD-R) model (Demerouti et al., 2001) and assemble a streamlined conceptual framework that treats systematic Psychosocial Risk Assessment (PRA) as the operational engine connecting structural hazard controls to quantifiable social sustainability indicators. Adjacent constructs drawn from Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC), Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI), Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, and the recovery-experiences literature are integrated into a single causal architecture anchored by a Core Proposition suitable as an entry-point hypothesis for new investigations. The contribution advances the JD-R model into the regulatory and corporate-governance vocabulary, and it extends ESG Social measurement beyond lagging demographic indicators toward leading, auditable risk scores. The framework is intended to function both as theoretical scaffolding for occupational health psychology researchers and as a strategic roadmap for chief human resource officers, boards, sustainability committees, and investor analysts.
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