Promoting Mental Health and Gender Equity in the Workplace
Healthy professional knowledge workers
Employee mental health is crucial to meaningful and productive work experiences. Depression, anxiety disorders, and other mental illnesses can affect how people relate to others and how they function. In the workplace, mental health issues can also compromise workers’ interpersonal relationships and abilities to get tasks done.
“Mental health issues can be particularly challenging for those who work in knowledge-intensive sectors such as health, education, and finance because of the importance of the mental acuity of such professionals to provide knowledge-based services to clients, patients, and students,” explains Dr. Ivy Bourgeault, Telfer School of Management Professor and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health Human Resources.
As a result, many workers struggling with mental illness in these sectors are forced to take a medical leave while others suffer in silence, fearing stigma and backlash in the workplace. Both situations can have serious consequences for employees, organizations, and the economy. A 2015 report prepared for the Mental Health Commission of Canada shows that one in five people in Canada suffer from mental health issues every year, with an estimated cost to the economy of more than $50 billion.
The first interdisciplinary and collaborative research to study workplace mental health in Canada
Promoting psychological health and safety in the workplace in the areas of health, education, and finance is crucial because of the significant role that professionals in these sectors play in creating knowledge, driving innovation, and developing the economy. Understanding the importance of this, Professor Ivy Bourgeault has launched an interdisciplinary and collaborative research program entitled “Healthy Professional/Knowledge Workers: Examining the Gendered Nature of Mental Health Issues, Leaves of Absence & Return to Work Experiences from a Comparative Perspective.”
Professor Bourgeault and a team of 21 researchers from Canada and the United Kingdom, including Telfer School Professors Laurent Lapierre and Darlene Himick, will study how male and female knowledge workers experience mental health issues at work, what motivates them to stay at work or negotiate a mental health leave, and how they return to work after such a leave. The researchers will work in collaboration with at least 30 non-academic organizations representing a range of professional associations, unions, regulators, employers, and government agencies in Canada.
Professor Bourgeault’s team has been awarded a $1,425,000 Partnership Grant for their project on workplace mental health. The grant is part of the Healthy and Productive Work Initiative jointly overseen by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
“Professor Bourgeault’s success in securing a CIHR-SSHRC Partnership Grant strongly indicates that this Telfer School-led research team can make a valuable contribution, helping policy-makers and organizations more effectively promote mental health and gender equity in the workplace in Canada,” says François Julien, Dean of the Telfer School of Management.
How does gender influence mental health experiences, leaves, and return to work?
The role gender plays on how knowledge workers experience mental health is noticeably absent in research. The research team’s preliminary findings suggest that female knowledge workers are affected differently by workplace mental health issues: they reported higher work absences and perceived higher life and work stress than did their male counterparts. To better understand how and why this happens, Professor Ivy Bourgeault’s team will use a gender lens to examine knowledge workers’ experiences with mental health in three scenarios:
1) staying at work despite significant mental health issues: What are the key factors that prevent knowledge workers from taking a leave? Do men and women working in these professions access health support systems and resources differently in their organizations?
2) taking a mental health related leave of absence: What are the key factors that lead knowledge workers to take a mental health related leave of absence? Do men and women experience the process of contemplating/negotiating a leave of absence in the same way? Do they face similar or unique workplace conflicts once they choose to take a leave?
3) returning to work after a mental health related leave: What happens when knowledge workers decide to go back to work after taking a mental health related leave? Are the factors that motivate female and male knowledge workers to return to work different?
Helping policy-makers and leaders promote mental health in the workplace
By examining the gendered experiences of male and female knowledge workers who have dealt with mental health issues, the research team’s goal is to identify, evaluate and develop evidence-based interventions in order to promote mental health in the workplace.
Ultimately, the team hopes to inform and influence policy-makers and organizations in the development of more effective and equitable policies, practices, and programs that can mitigate the negative effects of mental health issues in the workplace and reduce the gap created by the systematic barriers that male and female knowledge workers face in their experiences with mental health related leaves and subsequent returns to work.
The team will also focus on how organizational leaders can play a meaningful role promoting psychological health and safety in the workplace:
“The behaviors and leadership styles of supervisors and managers is an important influence on workplace mental health, preventing leaves of absence and facilitating return to work of different workers, but research also shows that these leaders can unfortunately encounter several procedural and organizational constraints,” explains Professor Bourgeault.
The interventions that the research team will develop could help organizational leaders overcome these constraints and better support workers who are facing mental health issues.
Report offers roadmap to increase diversity in federal government suppliers
Professor Barbara Orser and a research team from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa have examined diversity in small and medium enterprise (SME) suppliers to the Government of Canada. Conducted in collaboration with Public Services and Procurement Canada, the report, Benchmarking SMEs as Suppliers to the Government of Canada: Inclusion, Innovation and International Trade, provides the federal government with a roadmap to increase diversity in SME suppliers.
The study addressed three critical questions identified in previous Telfer research.
- To what extent is the gender of firm owners associated with the propensity to contract with the Canadian federal government?
- To what extent is being a supplier to the federal government associated with SME performance, in terms of the likelihood of innovation, exporting and growth?
- What are the primary obstacles associated with contracting with the Canadian federal government, as perceived by different categories of SME suppliers?
2018 Telfer School Research Excellence Awards
Established Researcher of 2018
Professor Bijan Raahemi
Having earned an international reputation as an expert in data analytics, Dr. Raahemi has been able to attract external research and partnership grants to continue developing high impact research projects. For instance, in a new research project about high dimensional data, Professor Raahemi and his team are developing solutions that will improve services in the healthcare sectors, prevent fraud in financial transactions, and safeguard businesses from cyberspace attacks.
Professor Raahemi is also building a new technology that will help public transit companies reduce passenger wait times. In partnership with SMAT Transit Solutions, Professor Raahemi and his research team are developing an algorithm that will predict the number of passengers who are on the bus and the number of passengers who are still waiting at the bus stations. Ultimately, this new tool will help public transport companies decide how many additional buses are needed in a particular bus route during peak hours.
Emerging Researcher of 2018
Professor Jonathan Li
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For instance, in his forthcoming article in Operations Research, he developed advanced mathematical models that complement the current measures of loss. Financial institutions such as banks should not rely solely on historical data (past market behavior) to measure risk. Complementary tools like the one Professor Li proposes will help banks create risk models that provide a more comprehensive picture of what is likely to happen in the market in the future.
Professor Li’s study makes a crucial contribution to research in risk management. Finding solutions that can help banks better measure and control their loss will also benefit society in general. The decisions banks make not simply affect major investors and big corporations, but also anyone who has mutual funds, retirement funds, or an education fund for their children.
Two Cities, Curious Minds Management Theses at 3 Universities in the National Capital Region
Are a master or doctoral student at the Telfer School of Management, the Sprott School of Business, or the Département des sciences administratives at Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)? Apply today to participate in a 10-minute Thesis Competition organized by the three schools and share your research ideas!
On October 5th, 2018 at UQO, you’ll have the opportunity to square off against business-school peers for $6,000 in cash prizes. If your proposal does not make the shortlist, you can still use it to contribute to a poster session to be held the same day.
Why a 10-minute Thesis Competition?
By this point in your academic career, you’re probably well acquainted with the traditional academic presentation structure: research problem, theoretical framework, methodology, results, and conclusions – in that order. That you would want to adhere to that structure for most presentations doesn’t surprise us. We get it. It’s a big part of your academic training.
But there’s another important skill for young researchers to have: communicating the impact and significance of their work right up front, and in plain language. So with the Telfer-Sprott-UQO 10-minute Thesis Competition, we’re asking presenters to abandon the traditional academic presentation structure. Instead, find an alternative way to present your project in a way that a lay person would understand. Explain what’s innovative about your project and the potential impact of the research. Tell a story. Look for creative ways to explain how and why your research matters.
Important Deadlines:
- September 7, 2018 - Proposals Sent via OpenConf
- September 14, 2018 - Responses Sent to Students
- September 21, 2018 - Program Published
- October 5, 2018 - Competition Held at UQO
For more details, please click here.
Annual Conference on Accounting and Finance: Once Again a Major Success
For a fourth consecutive year, The Telfer School of Management hosted the prestigious Annual Conference on Accounting and Finance. Held on May 11, the 2018 Annual Conference on Accounting and Finance brought together more than 180 academics and professionals from around the globe.
Academics and professionals shared their knowledge in engaging presentations and discussions that covered timely and relevant topics in the fields of accounting and finance, including behavioural finance, corporate governance, textual analysis in accounting research, accounting history, and auditing.
This year’s distinguished keynote speakers were Jerold Zimmerman, Professor Emeritus at the University of Rochester and founding Editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics; and Andrew Karolyi, Harold Bierman, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Finance at Cornell University, and Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Financial Studies.
Zimmerman discussed how internal control systems are critical to the survival and success of organized crime. Karolyi presented the advances in the FinTech industry while highlighting the surprising lack of research by finance scholars and professionals on such an important topic.
The Telfer School of Management would like to recognize the efforts of the organizing committee who made this prestigious research event a great success again, in particular the co-chairs, Professor Lamia Chourou and Professor Cheryl McWatters, Father Edgar Thivierge Chair in Business History, as well as Professor Samir Saadi.
The Telfer School of Management would also like to acknowledge the generous support of the CPA Ontario, the Father Edgar Thivierge Speaker Series, the CPA-Canada Accounting and Governance Research Centre, the University of Ottawa, Pearson, and Wiley.
We look forward to the 2019 Annual Conference on Accounting and Finance, scheduled for May 10, 2019.
- Academics and Leading Health Professionals Discuss the Opportunities and Challenges in the Use of Analytics and AI in Canada’s Healthcare
- Towards a Digital Platform to Support Innovation and Learning in Health Organizations
- An innovative way of supporting community-based care for patients with complex needs
- A valuable and much needed contribution to maternal health services
