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Sustainability and Mental Health of Employees

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 10218

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Economics and Business, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
Interests: sustainable HRM; strategic HRM; sustainable careers; talent management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Technological progress, competitive environments, and increasing demands at work have become real challenges for employees; quite often, they must take on more responsibilities, maintain a high work tempo, and face constant changes. All these factors have a negative impact on mental health, resulting in a reduction in the potential of human capital. Employees suffer from various mental health disorders, the most common of which are stress and burnout. Worldwide, people are trying to find effective remedies to help alleviate mental health imbalances due to the negative effects of emotional tensions at work. Disclosure of organizational factors affecting the mental health of employees and finding new ways to strengthen it are becoming crucial for both a competitive organization and a happy and healthy society.

This Special Issue aims at gaining theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence on sustainable Human Resource Management practices for strengthening the mental health of employees. This emerging field of research encourages scientists from different fields to contribute to bringing together their ideas and insights on a wide range of issues.

Prof. Dr. Asta Savanevičienė
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Mental health
  • Stress
  • Burnout
  • Health harm
  • Employee wellbeing
  • Sustainable Human Resource Management
  • Workplace
  • Emotional tensions at work
  • Mental health strengthening
  • Mindfulness
  • Meditation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 673 KiB  
Article
Tractors, Talk, Mindset, Mantras, Detachment, and Distraction: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Coping Strategies Used by Farmers in Canada
by Rochelle Thompson, Briana N. M. Hagen and Andria Jones-Bitton
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8566; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118566 - 25 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2176
Abstract
Characterized by high unpredictability and little control, everyday factors make farming one of the most stressful occupations globally. Indeed, farmers around the world and in Canada score more severely on measures of perceived stress and negative mental health outcomes like anxiety and depression, [...] Read more.
Characterized by high unpredictability and little control, everyday factors make farming one of the most stressful occupations globally. Indeed, farmers around the world and in Canada score more severely on measures of perceived stress and negative mental health outcomes like anxiety and depression, and suicide ideation among farmers is disproportionately high. Research investigating effective ways of coping with everyday stress within the time and workload constraints of farming is scarce. This mixed-methods study explores the ways farmers in Ontario and Canada cope with daily farming stressors. Qualitative data from 75 in-depth interviews with farmers and industry professionals in Ontario, Canada, were analyzed to investigate farming-specific coping strategies within the farming context. Quantitative survey responses from 1167 farmers across Canada to the 14-item Ways of Coping measure developed for the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2 were analyzed to determine which coping strategies Canadian farmers use most in relation to the representative national population. The ways of coping endorsed by farmers are presented in this paper, including adaptations of positive coping strategies in the farming context. The descriptions of positive and negative coping strategies used provide direction for effective avenues to reduce stress and boost farmers’ well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Mental Health of Employees)
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23 pages, 1616 KiB  
Article
“An Incredible Amount of Stress before You Even Put a Shovel in the Ground”: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Farming Stressors in Canada
by Rochelle Thompson, Briana N. M. Hagen, Margaret N. Lumley, Charlotte B. Winder, Basem Gohar and Andria Jones-Bitton
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6336; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086336 - 7 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2463
Abstract
Farming is widely regarded as a highly stressful occupation, and many farming stressors have been studied globally. Research on farming stressors in Canada is scarce, yet there is some indication that Canadian farmers have high perceived stress scores and score more severely across [...] Read more.
Farming is widely regarded as a highly stressful occupation, and many farming stressors have been studied globally. Research on farming stressors in Canada is scarce, yet there is some indication that Canadian farmers have high perceived stress scores and score more severely across mental health outcomes compared to the general population. This study provides a comprehensive exploration of farming stressors in Canada with the aim to inform avenues to reduce stress and/or boost the well-being of farmers. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was used. First, qualitative data were collected from 75 in-depth interviews with farmers and industry professionals from Ontario, Canada from 2017 to 2018. These data were then used to inform items measuring self-reported stress across 12 farming stressors in a national cross-sectional survey of farmers’ mental health conducted February–May 2021. Results from both data sources provide an initial understanding of the episodic and chronic stressors faced by farmers in Canada, and the context within which these stressors are experienced. Implications and focus areas for stress reduction and well-being promotion are discussed in this paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Mental Health of Employees)
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14 pages, 261 KiB  
Article
Academics in Lockdown: A Gendered Perspective on Self-Esteem in Academia during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown
by Cyrill Walters, Linda Ronnie, Marieta du Plessis and Jonathan Jansen
Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4999; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064999 - 11 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1831
Abstract
This qualitative research explores the experiences and sense-making of self-worth of 1857 South African women academics during the enforced pandemic lockdown between March and September 2020; the study was conducted through an inductive, content analysis process. Since worldwide lockdowns were imposed in response [...] Read more.
This qualitative research explores the experiences and sense-making of self-worth of 1857 South African women academics during the enforced pandemic lockdown between March and September 2020; the study was conducted through an inductive, content analysis process. Since worldwide lockdowns were imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, women academics, in particular, have reported a unique set of challenges from working from home. Gender inequality within the scientific enterprise has been well documented; however, the cost to female academics’ self-esteem, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, has yet to be fully realized. The findings of the study include negative emotional experiences related to self-worth, engagement in social comparisons, and the fear of judgement by colleagues, which were exacerbated by peer pressure. Finally, the sense-making of academic women’s self-esteem as it relates to their academic identity was reported. Beyond being the first comprehensive national study on the topic, the study’s insights are more broadly useful for determining what support, accommodation, and assistance is needed for academic women to sustain performance in their academic and research duties at universities worldwide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Mental Health of Employees)
12 pages, 1035 KiB  
Article
The Role of Organizational Climate, and Work–Family Conflict in Burnout: The Case of Teachers
by Ana Junça-Silva and Mara Freire
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 13871; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142113871 - 25 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2726
Abstract
Burnout is a major concern for the scientific and educational community, as it leads to harmful consequences, both at a personal and organizational level. Several studies showed that burnout is influenced by multiple factors, including organizational climate and work–family conflict. However, studies analyzing [...] Read more.
Burnout is a major concern for the scientific and educational community, as it leads to harmful consequences, both at a personal and organizational level. Several studies showed that burnout is influenced by multiple factors, including organizational climate and work–family conflict. However, studies analyzing these three variables together in the educational sector are scarce. Thus, this study aimed to analyze whether the organizational climate influenced burnout through work–family conflict. We collected data in two-time points with 253 teachers. The results showed that only the organizational climate dimensions of involvement, control, autonomy, task orientation, and physical comfort were associated with burnout. Plus, only the physical comfort and autonomy climates significantly reduced burnout via the decreases in work–family conflict. Thus, these organizational climates’ dimensions seem to be essential factors to reduce not only work–family conflict but also burnout in the educational sector. This study tested the mediating role of work–family conflict on the link between organizational climate and burnout, with a group of teachers. Additionally, the data was collected during the pandemic crisis of COVID-19. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Mental Health of Employees)
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