The introduction of psychosocial health and safety regulations has accelerated organisational efforts to identify and manage psychosocial hazards. Yet many organisations struggle to strike the right balance between meaningful risk management and overly complex compliance systems that generate administrative burden, defensiveness, or initiative fatigue. At the same time, the emerging regulatory environment has created a rapidly expanding market of frameworks, tools, and consulting solutions, some of which risk becoming an “Emperor’s New Clothes” phenomenon, where approaches are promoted before their effectiveness has been demonstrated.

This presentation explores the practical challenge of implementing psychosocial hazard management within a large, complex tertiary education institution through the lens of the “Goldilocks principle”: seeking approaches that are not too much, not too little, but just right. Drawing on a real-world implementation case, it outlines how the 16 commonly recognised psychosocial hazards were translated into a practical organisational risk framework that integrates organisational psychology, work design, and work health and safety practice.

Attendees will gain insights into designing scalable psychosocial risk systems, maintaining proportionality in response, and critically evaluating emerging market solutions. The session will be particularly relevant for organisational psychologists navigating the intersection of psychosocial risk, organisational change, and regulatory compliance in complex organisational systems.