Psychosocial Hazards as Communication Channel Degradation

AbstractThis paper proposes that psychosocial hazards in the workplace are a specific class ofcross-scale communication channel degradation, formalisable through the General Theory ofRegulated Stability (GTRS), Bounded Communication Systems Theory (BCST), and theEcological Homeostasis (EH) framework. The 2022 Australian model WHS regulations onpsychosocial hazards are positioned as addressing a regulatory problem that wasindependently solved three decades earlier in a different domain: special education. TheIndividualised Education Plan (IEP) methodology, developed and practised over 33 years ofwork with neurodivergent and vulnerable students in New South Wales, is shown toconstitute a mature, validated psychosocial hazard management protocol operating on thesame theoretical architecture that the WHS regulations now require but do not yet provide.Four communication channels are identified (interoceptive, relational, organisational,regulatory), and the 14 psychosocial hazards from the Safe Work Australia Code of Practiceare mapped to the specific channels they degrade. The Captured Regulatory System (CRS)construct distinguishes captured safety cultures (Type II stuck cycle) from mere negligence(Type I), providing a diagnostic the current regulations lack. The paper does not claim thatschools and workplaces are identical. It claims that psychosocial regulation operates throughthe same architectural principles in both, and that the IEP methodology’s 33-year evidencebase constitutes a proof of concept for the formal framework proposed here. Keywords: psychosocial hazards, WHS, ecological homeostasis, GTRS, BCST, communication channeldegradation, IEP methodology, special education, psychosocial regulation, captured regulatory system,allostatic load, worker wellbeing, Safe Work Australia, Code of Practice, Sovereign Ideas Papers, SIP,HATI², SymbioMind