Introduction to the special issue on Workplace Mental Health

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1516
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Author: E. Kevin Kelloway
• Date: 01 December 2018

Introduction to the special issue on Workplace

Mental Health

E. Kevin Kelloway

Saint Mary’s University

Abstract

Mental health is an issue of increasing concern to both

individuals and organizations in Canada. The articles

presented in this special issue present several approaches

to dealing with workplace mental issues and highlight the

need for more research in this area. In particular there is

a pressing need for evaluative research to, identify which

strategies work to improve individual and organizational

well-being. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley &

Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: workplace mental health, psychological health

and safety, stress

Résumé

La santé mentale est un problème qui préoccupe de plus en

plus les personnes et les organisations au Canada. Les

auteurs des articles contenus dans ce numéro spécial

présentent plusieurs approches utilisées pour se pencher

sur les problèmes de santé mentale au travail et soulignent

la nécessité d’effectuer plus de recherches dans ce domaine.

Plus spécif‌iquement, il y a un besoin pressant de

recherche évaluative axée sur l’identif‌ication des stratégies

eff‌icaces capables d’améliorer le bien-être individuel et

organisationnel. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley

& Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés: santé et la sécurité psychologiques en milieu de

travail, santé mentale en milieu de travail, stress

Introduction

As I have observed elsewhere (Kelloway, in press) there

have been several dramatic changes in social norms in my life-

time. The use of seat belts, once unheard of, is now

commonplace and unremarkable. Conversely, smoking ciga-

rettes—once ubiquitous—is now increasingly rare. In much of

the developed world, another cultural revolution has focused

on how we recognize and talk about issues of mental health.

The success of the “Mind your Mental Health”or the Bell

“Let’sTalk”campaigns has resulted in individuals more readily

disclosing their own struggles with mental health issues. The

commonestimate is thatone in f‌iveCanadians is affected by men-

tal healthissues at any given point. This means that each of us—as

individuals, as family members, as friends, and as co-workers,

and managers—are affected by mental health issues.

There is no doubt that increased attention to issues of

mental is warranted. Mental illness (that is, diagnosable con-

ditions characterized by signif‌icant distress and impaired

functioning) and mental health problems (that is, more short

term and less disruptive problems such as stress) are consis-

tently identif‌ied among the leading causes of death, disabil-

ity, and ill health in the developed world (World Health

Organization [WHO], 2004; Watson Wyatt Worldwide,

2007). Mental health problems are also more common in the

working population than are physical ailments (Ipsos Reid,

2012) and, not surprisingly, have signif‌icant consequences for

workplaces and organizations. The signif‌icant cognitive and af-

fective impairments associated with mental ill health (WHO,

2004) can manifest in the workplace as compromised job perfor-

mance (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1999;

WHO, 2004), absenteeism, reduced productivity, and mounting

reliance on short-and long-term disability claims (American In-

stitute of Stress, 2005; McDaid, 2011; McDaid & Park, 2011;

Mental Health Commission of Canada [MHCC], 2012; Sauter,

Murphy, & Hurrell, 1990).

In the face of the increased awareness of mental health is-

sues, organizations have begun to implement a wide variety of

programs and resources designed to assist employees: mental

health policies, promotion programs, and comprehensive mental

health strategies (Dimoff & Kelloway, 2013; Dimoff, Kelloway,

& Burnstein, 2016; Goetzel Ozminkowski, Sederer, & Mark,

2002; Irvine, 2011; MHCC, 2012) as well as on-site meditation

rooms and complementary mindfulness training or massage ther-

apy (see for instance Day, Gillan, Francis, Kelloway, &

Natarajan, 2009) are increasingly common. Such programs have

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

35: 505–508 (2018)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1516

Can J Adm Sci

35(4), 505–508 (2018)© 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 505