Telfer Research Seminar Series - Kevin Kelloway
What organizations need to know about bereavement, loss and employee suicide
Deadline: October 2, 2026,
***M.Sc. Students, these seminars can count towards the six mandatory Telfer Research Seminars Series required for your program (MGT 6191/ MGT 6991 / MHS 6991) (4 seminars for MSc Project-based students).***
Kevin Kelloway, PhD
Bereavement, loss and grief are universal human experiences that can have profound implications for individual functioning. Organizations, however, are largely unprepared to support employees who are experiencing bereavement. Drawing on a series of recent studies I [a] show that employee bereavement policies are largely insufficient to meet the needs of the bereaved, [b] show that employee needs during a time of loss are described through the C.A.R.E. (Gilbert et al., 2021) model and [c] show that training managers in the C.A.R.E. model results in more supportive responses to employees. In a second line of research, I show the need for organizations and their leaders to respond appropriately when an employee dies by suicide and show the importance of transformational leadership for reducing suicidal ideation among employees. Taken together these studies highlight the role of organizational leaders as interpreters and implementers of organizational policies.
About the Speaker
E. Kevin Kelloway, M.Sc., MFA, PhD is a University Research Professor and Professor of Psychology and Management at Saint Mary’s University. A prolific researcher he served the maximum of 14 years as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. He
