Senior managers’ perceptions of mental health and organizational intervention strategies for improving mental health and well-being

• Date: 29 November 2024
• Pages: 42-63
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-07-2023-0087
• Published date: 29 November 2024
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Healthcare management,HR & organizational behaviour,Human resource policy,Employee welfare
• Author: Marit Christensen,Anne Iversen,Davide Giusino,Karoline Grødal,Siw Tone Innstrand,Josefina Peláez Zuberbühler,Mabel San Román-Niaves,Marisa Salanova,Ivana Šípová,Lilly Paulin Werk

Senior managers’ perceptions of

mental health and organizational

intervention strategies for improving

mental health and well-being

Marit Christensen and Anne Iversen

Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

Trondheim, Norway

Davide Giusino

Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Karoline Grødal and Siw Tone Innstrand

Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

Trondheim, Norway

Josefina Pel

aez Zuberb€

uhler, Mabel San Rom

an-Niaves and

Marisa Salanova

WANT Prevenci

on Psicosocial y Organizaciones Saludables, Universitat Jaume I,

Castellon, Spain

Ivana 

S

ıpov

a

Department of Psychology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, and

Lilly Paulin Werk

Department of Psychotherapy and Diagnostics, TU Braunschweig University,

Braunschweig, Germany

Abstract

Purpose –This study aimed to explore senior managers’ mental models regarding perceptions of mental health

and how these perceptions might inform intervention strategies.

Design/methodology/approach –The study is part of a broader European project aiming to design, develop,

implement and validate assessment, intervention and evaluation toolkits to promote mental health in the

workplace across Europe. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted among senior managers as

part of a needs analysis in small-to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public workplaces in four European

countries (Italy, Spain, Czech Republic and Germany) in 2020 and 2021.

Findings –The results showed that the interviewed senior managers had two different mental models regarding

their perception of mental health, which differed with respect to the conceptualization and thereby their

perception of strategies for organizational interventions for improving mental health and well-being. The

individual-centric mental model is focused on problem solving and treatment of mental illness at only the

individual level. The holistic multilevel mental model is focused on mental illness as well as mental health and

well-being at multiple levels of the organization through prevention and promotion strategies. The senior

managers’ mental models seem to inform their perceptions of suitable strategies for organizational interventions

for improving mental health and well-being.

IJWHM

18,1

42

The authors would like to thank all the other H-WORK Consortium members who contributed to the

project development and are currently contributing to its implementation in various but indispensable

ways.

Funding: This paper has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and

Innovation Program under the project H-WORK – Multilevel Interventions to Promote Mental Health in

SMEs and Public Workplaces (Grant Agreement No. 847386).

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1753-8351.htm

Received 5 July 2023

Revised 19 February 2024

29 August 2024

Accepted 10 October 2024

InternationalJournal of Workplace

HealthManagement

Vol.18 No. 1, 2025

pp.42-63

©Emerald Publishing Limited

1753-8351

DOI10.1108/IJWHM-07-2023-0087

Originality/value –The study supports previous calls for more research on how senior managers’ perception of

mental health inform their strategies when planning for organizational interventions.

Keywords Senior management, Organizational interventions, IGLO model, Mental models, JD-R,

Mental health

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

In recent years, the prevalence and seriousness of mental health problems have increased

among the European population (European Commission, 2016). Most managers in European

countries are worried about their employees’ experience of stress and mental health; however,

less than 30% of organizations in general have procedures for dealing with these issues

(EU-OSHA, 2019). Employers and managers in small-to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

and the public sector seem to a larger extent to lack the knowledge, training and supervision to

deal with these issues and find suitable interventions to improve mental health (Nielsen et al.,

2018). Organizational interventions are defined as planned, behavioral and theory-based

actions for changing the way work is designed, organized and managed (Nielsen et al., 2010).

Research on organizational interventions for well-being and mental health show conflicting

results, suggesting they are challenging to implement (Montano et al., 2014). Moreover,

organizational interventions might exist on all levels within an organization; individual, group,

leader and organizational (IGLO) level (Nielsen and Miraglia, 2017). Given this complex

nature of organizational interventions, it is essential to understand their efficacy in achieving

their goals of improved employee mental health and well-being (Nielsen and Miraglia, 2017).

Notably, managers are one of the main drivers of the successful implementation of

organizational interventions to promote mental health and well-being (Nielsen and

Randall, 2013).

Senior manager’s role in organizational interventions to promote mental health and

well-being has not received much attention in the intervention literature (Hasson et al., 2018).

Senior managers play an essential role in the implementation and sustainability of

organizational interventions, and it is recommended that they are involved in promoting

mental health projects within their organization and supporting the work (Nielsen and Noblet,

2018). Senior managers make decisions about strategies, organizational changes and policies

that have a long-term impact on the organization (Karanika-Murray et al., 2015). Previous

literature shows that organizational interventions progressed through support from senior

managers. They were important in starting a project, and their active involvement seems

central to satisfactory results (Mellor et al., 2013;Framke and Sørensen, 2015;Ipsen et al.,

2015). In practice, the involvement of senior managers in initiatives aimed at building

healthier and more satisfying working environments is generally perceived as inadequate

(Nielsen and Noblet, 2018). Little research has been conducted on how managers themselves

perceive their roles, tasks and responsibilities in organizational interventions (Genrich et al.,

2020;Hasson et al., 2018). This limits our understanding of how managers can improve the

implementation of organizational interventions (Hasson et al., 2014). Concrete suggestions

are lacking in the literature regarding how senior management can be assisted to act in a way

that supports organizational interventions (Nielsen and Noblet, 2018). In their systematic

literature review, Genrich et al. (2020) propose that future research should investigate how

managers’ attitudes and perceived organizational norms toward the organizational

intervention objectives influence their behavior when implementing the interventions.

Moreover, senior managers’ perceptions are relevant during the organizational intervention

process, specifically in the beginning of the process. For example, the five-phase model of

organizational interventions (Nielsen et al., 2010;Nielsen and Noblet, 2018) is a processual

framework for the work of organizational development, including (1) preparation/initiation,

(2) screening, (3) action planning, (4) implementation and (5) evaluation of interventions

(Nielsen et al., 2010). The foundation for a successful intervention is laid in the preparation

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