Implications for Organizational Effectiveness and Employee Mental Health

1. Designing Healthy and Innovative
Organizations
Implications for Organizational
Effectiveness and Employee Mental Health
Don de Guerre
Concordia University, Canada
Adapted from Emery,, 2006 and de Guerre, 2006

2. Designing Healthy Innovative Organisations
• Brief overview of the results from a 2006 joint Canadian and
Australian ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’ research project.
• Identification of the critical factors leading to improved
mental health and high levels of organisational innovation.
• Strategic imperatives to improve organisational
competitiveness.

3. Research based approach
Diagnostic questionnaire
• All questions previously piloted in various
research projects
• Comprehensive list of questions for all
influences on
• Motivation,
• Innovation
• Productivity and
• Mental health
•Able to scientifically map causal links between
key factors and company performance

4. ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’
• Consortium of researchers and organisations
• Partners in Canada & Australia
• AMERIN Pty.
• Department of Applied Human Sciences
Concordia University in Montreal
• CIHR grant (Canada only)
• The most recent and up to date research
on STS and organisational effectiveness

5. ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’
Research Design:
• Pre- & post-intervention test of Mental
Health, Demographic & organisational factors
• Intervention: to change organisational design
principle from
• First design principle (DP1) which gives dominant
hierarchy (bureaucratic, authoritarian structure) to
• Second design principle (DP2) which gives non
dominant hierarchy based on peer negotiations
•Therefore,
• equal, symmetric relationships in a participative
democratic structure

6. Four Organizational Types
Democratic Structure
Re-organization
Re-structuring
Democratic (DP2)
Un-democratic Process
Democratic
Process
Bureaucratic (DP1)
LF & TLC
Un-democratic Structure

7. Most popular options
• Work as individuals but have to coordinate with others
to achieve collective goals (37.9%), most in Australia
(48.1%)
• Teams with leaders (37.3%), most in Canada (43.8%.)
• Team spirit (7.9%)
• No teamwork (6.4%)
• Teams without leaders for short term projects and/or
problem solving (5.8%)
• Teams without leaders have responsibility for meeting all
agreed team goals (4.8%)

8. Major hypothesis:
•Better Mental Health after intervention than before
•Shift from:
• lower to higher levels of responsibility in workforce
• lower to higher control of work by employees
• unequal & asymmetric power relations to equal &
symmetric ones
• lower to higher employee engagement and
better company performance

9. ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’
Also predict:
• Equality will produce more positive affects
than inequality (DP1, r = -.33; DP2, r = .46)
• Positive affects correlate with
• Motivation (.59)
• Mental health (.38)
• Innovation (.33) and Productivity (.26)
• Accountability (.32)
• Low absenteeism (.29)
• Good relations and trust (.44)

10. ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’
Therefore the objectives are to:
• Produce healthier workplaces & people
• Produce higher innovation and productivity
• Through intervention (PDW) designed to produce
• greater responsibility for coordination & control
• more equal & symmetric relations
• more positive affect
• Test the effect of interventions on MH, ‘before’ & ‘after’
• determine the contribution of risk amplifiers & attenuators

11. Results
• Same set of factors produce
• Innovation
• Productivity
• Mental health
• Therefore, what is good for the organization is
also good for the people – no conflict
• Cascading series of causes from design principle to
outcomes

12. High level causal path analysis
Outcomes
Enabling conditions
Basic conditions
Design principles and structures

13. High level causal path analysis
Productivity
Innovation
Mental Health
Low sick days
Outcomes
Motivation / Positive affects / Conditions for innovation / Good
relations and trust / Intellectual satisfaction
Not negative affects
Enabling Conditions
Intrinsic motivators (6 psychological criteria
Basic Conditions
Not DP1
DP2
Design Principles & Structures
Not Laissez-faire

14. Break Out of Determining Cluster
DP2
Low
DP1
Intrinsic
Motivators
Motivation
Innovation &
Productivity
Mental
Health

15. Six Criteria for Productive Human Activity Total
Scores
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Low total scores on 6
criteria
High total scores on 6
criteria
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

16. Elbow Room or Autonomy in Decision Making
80
70
60
50
too little & far too little
40
just right
30
too much & far too much
20
10
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

17. Room to Set Goals
80
70
60
50
too little & far too little
40
just right
30
too much & far too much
20
10
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

18. Motivation
90
80
70
60
50
Don't like it or hate it
40
Like it or love it
30
20
10
0
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

19. Total Positive Affects
60
50
40
Low
30
High
20
10
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

20. Total Negative Affects
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Low
High
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

21. Creative Working Mode
25
20
15
Low
High
10
5
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

22. Fight/Flight Dynamics
60
50
40
Low
30
High
20
10
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

23. Dependency Dynamics
40
35
30
25
Low
20
High
15
10
5
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

24. Trust and Quality of Relationships
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Low
High
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

25. Intellectual Satisfaction
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Low
High
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

26. Accountability
60
50
40
Weak & very weak
30
Strong & very
strong
20
10
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

27. Sick Days
40
35
30
25
None
20
More than 6
15
10
5
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

28. Innovativeness
45
40
35
30
Extremely & very
low
25
20
High, very high &
extremely high
15
10
5
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC

29. Productivity
40
35
30
Low, very &
extremely low
25
20
Very & extremely
high
15
10
5
0
%
%
%
%
DP1
DP2
LF
TLC