Mental health of business academics within the COVID-19 era: can meaningful work help? A qualitative study
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2021-0170 |
| Published date | 05 January 2022 |
| Date | 05 January 2022 |
| Pages | 764-784 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Mohamed Mousa,Georges Samara |
Mental health of business
academics within the COVID-19
era: can meaningful work help?
A qualitative study
Mohamed Mousa
Department of Management Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru,
Lima, Peru, and
Georges Samara
College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah,
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Abstract
Purpose –Through addressing academics in four public businessschools in Egypt, the authors of this paper
aim to uncover how meaningful work might shape the mental health of the addressed academics post
COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach –The author employed a qualitative research method through semi-
structured interviews with 44 academics from four business schools selected from among 25 public institutions
of higher education in Egypt. The author subsequently used thematic analysis to determine the main ideas in
the transcripts.
Findings –The authors’findings show that business academics usually consider meaningful work as playing
a major role in shaping their mental health, especially after a crisis. This indicates that the more they perceive
their jobs as valuable and worthwhile, the more they can deal with limitations and mental health issues (e.g.
anxiety, stress, inadequate sleep, etc.) that accompany crisis. The findings also show that during the time of the
COVID-19 crisis, employees (business academics in this case) have not placed so much importance to their
autonomy (ability to choose and/or participate in decision-making processes) in the workplace. Instead, they
care more about their relatedness (sense of belongingness) and their level of competence (sense of capability).
Accordingly, the authors showthat having academics that develop a sense of purpose for their academic duties
in a time of crisis has less mental health disorders. Subsequently, post crisis, business academics can feel a
continuous sense of relatedness and find ongoing opportunities to work and learn.
Originality/value –This paper contributes by filling a gap in HR management, in which empirical studies on
the relationship between mental health and meaningful work have been limited so far.
Keywords Meaningful work, Mental health, Academics, Self-determination theory, Business schools,
COVID-19
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the last two decades, research on organizational psychology has witnessed a gradual shift
from addressing negative work experiences, to emphasizing research on employee well-
being, coupled with a growing focus on meaningful work and its implications for employees
and organizations (Jiang and Johnson, 2018). According to Bailey et al. (2016), meaningful
work is associated with positive work behaviour (e.g. citizenship behaviour and high
performance) and healthy attitudes (job satisfaction). Pratt and Ashforth (2003) and Pradhan
and Jena (2017) highlight that some employees perceive meaningful work as vital and more
important than financial incentives and job security. Arnold et al. (2007) indicate that intrinsic
feeling has started to be essential for a growing number of employees in today’s workplace.
May et al. (2014, p. 652) indicate that meaningful work involves “physical welfare, complex
work that provides opportunities for growth and self-expression, emotional engagement and
ER
44,4
764
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 26 April 2021
Revised 9 September 2021
20 November 2021
Accepted 1 December 2021
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 44 No. 4, 2022
pp. 764-784
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-04-2021-0170
financial security”. Moreover, Hackman and Oldham (1975, p. 161) describe meaningful work
as “the degree to which the employee experiences the job as one which is generally
meaningful, valuable and worthwhile”.Tan et al. (2019) consider meaningful work as a subset
of the need for self-actualization introduced by Maslow (1943).Steger (2017) asserts that
meaningful work reflects an intrinsic need that should be fulfilled in order for employees to
feel greater job satisfaction, excel in spite of work hardships, maintain positive relationships
with colleagues and achieve higher levels of performance (Martela and Anne, 2018;Allan
et al., 2018).
Despite growing research on the topic, very few studies have employed meaningful work
as an antecedent for employee mental health (Allan et al., 2018;Bailey et al., 2019;Fr
emeaux
and Pavageau, 2020). This is unfortunate since mental health reflects the sense of an internal
equilibrium through which individuals can fulfil their social roles and manage life’s
challenges (Galderisi et al., 2015), that are continuously increasing in complexity. In fact,
mental health has been considered as one of the 17 sustainable development goals the United
Nations urges its member states to realize and secure, as it helps motivate individuals
towards pursuing wellness and achievement in both their personal and work life (Royal
College of Psychiatrists, 2011). According to Steel et al. (2014), the depression, anxiety and
stress-related disorders that employees might face, which are known as symptoms of poor
mental health, can come as a result of changes in working conditions, the inability to deal with
new work circumstances, the fear of unemployment and the difficulty in accepting lower
social status, among others. Those negative symptoms are perceived to be the main reason
for registering for sick leave in Swedish and Scandinavian organizations (Swedish social
insurance agency, 2018). Moreover, they represent a threat to the well-being and perceived
self-respect of employees (Fossey and Harvey, 2010).
The UnitedNations (2007) has consideredindividualswith continuous poor mentalhealth as
disabled persons. Furthermore,and in line with the equal employmentopportunity act (2010),
many countries adopt what they call “workplace adaptations”in which they provide
individualssuffering from poor mentalhealth with flexible workoptions such as opportunities
to work fromhome, counselling servicesand attempts to alleviatetheir interactionswith others
(Villotti et al.,2012). Unfortunately, this workplace adaptation is available only in developed
countries (Nardodkar et al.,2016). Recently, however, scholars such as Thomas et al. (2019),
Elraz(2018),Kyaga et al. (2011)and Roe and Chopra (2003) havepointed out that the individuals
who suffer from long-term mental health problems tend to sometimes work on themselves,
wisely deal with theirlimitations and accordingly acquire new knowledge, and subsequently
engage in continuous learning activities not only allowing them to retaintheir job but also to
maintain a sense ofpurpose through performing their job duties.
Since November 2019, COVID-19 –the virus which was first identified in China and then
spread across the whole world –has caused more than 4m deaths and around 405m infections
to date. Moreover, this easily spread virus, whose symptoms include chronic cough, diarrhoea
and high temperature, has forced the world to implement restrictive measures while also
suspending many traditional business and work activities (Mousa, 2021a,b). Hiremath et al.
(2020) and Zhang et al. (2020) assert that the restrictions imposed around the world have
caused a global climate of depression and anxiety as it is accompanied by fear of financial
losses, job insecurity, fear of the unknown and the fear of getting infected by the Coronavirus
(Mousa et al., 2021a,b;Zhang et al., 2020). This shows the negative effect of COVID-19 on the
mental health of individuals. Academics were not immune to the negative externalities of
COVID-19, as they had to suddenly shift their work from in-person teaching, conference
attending and community service to a virtual new world where their interaction is primarily
with a computer. Academics, in other words, had to grieve their previous working conditions
and to suddenly shift to a new system, in a context of uncertainty and unpredictability.
Mental health
of business
academics
765
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