Hammer Leslie B, Dimoff Jennifer, Mohr Cynthia D, Allen Shalene J
Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
Occup Health Sci. 2024 Jun;8(2):243-268. doi: 10.1007/s41542-023-00171-x. Epub 2024 Jan 30.
The attention to workplace mental health is timely given extreme levels of burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma experienced by workers due to serious extraorganizational stressors - the COVID-19 pandemic, threats to climate change, and extreme social and political unrest. Workplace-based risk factors, such as high stress and low support, are contributing factors to poor mental health and suicidality (Choi, 2018; Milner et al., 2013, 2018), just as low levels of social connectedness and belonging are established risk factors for poor mental health (Joiner et al., 2009), suggesting that social support at work (e.g., from supervisors) may be a key approach to protecting and promoting employee mental health. Social connections provide numerous benefits for health outcomes and are as, or more, important to mortality as other well-known health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol consumption (Holt-Lundstad et al., 2015), and can serve as a resource or buffer against the deleterious effects of stress or strain on psychological health (Cohen & Wills, 1985). This manuscript provides an evidence-based framework for understanding how supervisor supportive behaviors can serve to protect employees against psychosocial workplace risk factors and promote social connection and belongingness protective factors related to employee mental health. We identify six theoretically-based Mental Health Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (MHSSB; i.e., emotional support, practical support, role modeling, reducing stigma, warning sign recognition, warning sign response) that can be enacted and used by supervisors and managers to protect and promote the mental health of employees. A brief overview of mental health, mental disorders, and workplace mental health is provided. This is followed by the theoretical grounding and introduction of MHSSB. Suggestions for future research and practice follow, all with the focus of developing a better understanding of the role of supervisors in protecting and promoting employee mental health in the workplace.
鉴于员工因严重的组织外压力源——新冠疫情、气候变化威胁以及极端的社会和政治动荡——而经历的极度倦怠、焦虑、抑郁和创伤，对工作场所心理健康的关注正合时宜。基于工作场所的风险因素，如高压力和低支持，是心理健康不佳和自杀倾向的促成因素（Choi，2018；Milner等人，2013年、2018年），正如低水平的社会联系和归属感是心理健康不佳的既定风险因素一样（Joiner等人，2009年），这表明工作场所的社会支持（例如来自上级的支持）可能是保护和促进员工心理健康的关键途径。社会联系对健康结果有诸多益处，对死亡率的影响与吸烟和饮酒等其他广为人知的健康行为相当，甚至更为重要（Holt-Lundstad等人，2015年），并且可以作为一种资源或缓冲，抵御压力或紧张对心理健康的有害影响（Cohen & Wills，1985年）。本手稿提供了一个基于证据的框架，以理解上级支持行为如何能够保护员工免受工作场所心理社会风险因素的影响，并促进与员工心理健康相关的社会联系和归属感等保护因素。我们确定了六种基于理论的心理健康支持性上级行为（MHSSB；即情感支持、实际支持、榜样示范、减少污名化、识别警示信号、对警示信号做出反应），上级和经理可以实施并利用这些行为来保护和促进员工的心理健康。本文首先简要概述了心理健康、精神障碍和工作场所心理健康。接下来是MHSSB的理论基础和介绍。随后是对未来研究和实践的建议，所有这些都聚焦于更好地理解上级在保护和促进工作场所员工心理健康方面的作用。
