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Poor leadership is a top contributing factor to moral injury, an expert says, in setting out risk minimisation strategies for this little-understood phenomenon.

As reported in this article, moral injury is a "trauma-related syndrome" that's often caused by "grievous moral betrayals, and violations against our deeply held moral beliefs or ethical standards", according to researcher and specialist suicide prevention advisor Dr Nikki Jamieson.

And, she tells HR Daily, while it's not well understood or managed in many workplaces, "the research is very much leaning towards moral injury being considered as a psychosocial risk and/or hazard, particularly because those psychosocial risks that we have in the landscape at the moment have a direct contribution to moral injury".

The recognised psychosocial hazard of poor organisational justice is a "massive" cause of moral injury, Jamieson says by way of example.

She specifically highlights the role that leaders – and leadership betrayal – play in this...