More and more organizations focus with employees’ mental health challenges. Absence from work due to sickness, early retirement and ageing society force the organizations to rethink the way how human resources are managed. Whereas the mental health of employees is related with organizational performance, economic growth and sustainable society, the strengthening of employees’ mental health becomes “the survival strategy”. Hereby, it is analysed whether and which kind of approaches organizations implement to reduce stressors at work and to strengthen employees’ mental health, e.g. workplace health promotion initiatives, job design, occupational health and safety measures or mindfulness activities. These approaches are anchored in a variety of conceptual models, as job-demand-control model, the job-demand-resources model or organizational mindfulness, that focus on the relationship between organizational factors and employees’ mental health. The research in that field is increasing; however it still lacks empirical evidences.
The aim of that research – to investigate linkage between organizational factors and employees’ mental health and to provide insights on employees’ mental health strengthening.
The objectives:
1. To identify the organizational factors strongly influencing employees’ mental health.
2. To provide comparative study concerning organizational factors influencing employees’ mental health in in three Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
3. Based on German experience and empirical project results from the involved Baltic countries to provide the „best practices“ for employees’ mental health strengthening.
4. To analyse the possibilities of „best practices“ implementation and dissemination in three Baltic countries.
Project funding:
This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.
Project results:
The study of organizational factors and employee health was carried out in three Baltic countries:
• The study allowed to identify critical organizational factors influencing the mental health of workers
• The study has identified the key mental health problems of employees
• The study revealed some differences in the three Baltic countries
Insights related with strengthening of employees’ mental health were provided:
• Applicability of instruments for employees’ mental health strengthening was evaluated taking into account the survey results
• Effectiveness of instruments for employees’ mental health strengthening was evaluated taking into account the experience of best practices in Germany
Period of project implementation: 2017-01-15 - 2017-11-15
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
Project partners: Tallinn University of Technology, Riga Technical University, University of Bremen
