Angela Jayne Martin

University of Tasmania · Menzies Research Institute

Internationally, over 60% of all lifetime cases of mental health disorders are identified as emerging by 25 years of age. In Australia, young people (aged 16–24 years) report the highest prevalence of mental health problems. Acceptability of mainstream services for young people is a concern, particularly for clients 18–25 years, heterosexual males...

Although work is increasingly globalized and mediated by technology, little research has accumulated on the role of culture in shaping individuals' preferences regarding the segmentation or integration of their work and family roles. This study examines the relationships between gender egalitarianism (the extent a culture has a fluid understanding...

Although cross-national work–family research has made great strides in recent decades, knowledge accumulation on the impact of culture on the work–family interface has been hampered by a limited geographical and cultural scope that has excluded countries where cultural expectations regarding work, family, and support may differ. We advance this lit...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to articulate a synergic-mediated model of positive service behaviors enabled by what could be called a “psychosocial resource caravan” for improved customer behavioral intentions to help service organizations especially during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Design/methodology/approach This paper a...

Background and Objectives A multifaceted construct called Occupational Communion (OC), defined as a sense of belonging based on social interaction at work, has been proposed to understand why care workers were positively engaged in their jobs over time, even though they were very demanding. Rich qualitative data on the multiple aspects of OC in car...

This study aimed to identify instruments that may assist organizations with implementing an integrated approach to workplace mental health using three activities from the knowledge to action (KTA) framework. A scoping review of published and grey literature, supported by stakeholder (business end-user and researcher) consultation, identified work-s...

Despite higher reported rates of mental ill-health than the general population, professionals working in the animal care industry have low reported rates of help-seeking behavior. Potential factors involved in veterinary professionals' reluctance to seek help include stigma toward mental ill-health, practical barriers to accessing supports, and a c...

The aim of this paper is to communicate accumulated scientific evidence on the protection and promotion of mental health in the context of work and occupation, discuss the changing work, health and safety policy landscape and guide action by Tasmanian employers and policy makers.

Objective: Australian aged care workforce surveys offer limited information about those who engage in online dementia education regarding their occupational health and well-being. A salutogenic approach was applied to an aged care context to quantitatively assess both positive and negative aspects of health at work to inform the development of wor...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of supportive leadership and psychosocial safety climate on personal hope and resilience among nurses during the pandemic. Conservation of resource theory was employed to explain the effects of psychosocial safety climate and supportive leadership on nurses’ hope and resilience. A cross‐sectional design w...

Background Financial distress is thought to be a key reason why small-medium enterprise (SME) owners experience higher levels of mental health conditions compared with the broader population. Business advisors who form trusting, high-quality relationships with their SME clients, are therefore well placed to: (1) help prevent/reduce key sources of f...

Aim: To develop a taxonomy of positive and negative occupational and organisational factors reported that impact the mental health of veterinary professionals. Methods: Veterinary professionals working in Australasia were surveyed between February and June of 2021. The survey comprised two questions related to participants' perceptions of the po...

This paper presents the psychometric development of a new observer-report research questionnaire for assessing aspects of an individual’s mindfulness that are noticeable to others. Items from five established self-report mindfulness scales were re-worded for observer-report, and 30 were endorsed for potential inclusion by an expert panel (n = 5). F...

Self-employment is a career decision that is likely to be influenced by the gendered dynamics of work and care for parents of young children. We test a theoretical model investigating the effect a transition into self-employment (compared to staying organizationally-employed) has on the work-family interface (work-to-family, family-to-work conflict...

BACKGROUND Workplace-based mindfulness programs (WMPs) have good evidence for improving employee stress and mental health outcomes, although less is known about effects on employee productivity and citizenship behaviours. Most of the supporting evidence for WMPs is derived from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of programs that use in-person or o...

Background: Workplace-based mindfulness programs have good evidence for improving employee stress and mental health outcomes, but less is known about their effects on productivity and citizenship behaviors. Most of the available evidence is derived from studies of mindfulness programs that use class-based approaches. Mindfulness apps can increase...

Background: We conducted a cluster randomized trial of a workplace mental health intervention in an Australian police department. The intervention was co‐designed and co‐implemented with the police department. Intervention elements included tailored mental health literacy training for all members of participating police stations, and a leadership d...

Virtue words, such as justice, fairness, care, and integrity, frequently feature in organizational codes of conduct and theories of ethical leadership. And yet our modern organizations remain blemished by examples lacking virtue. The philosophy of virtue ethics and numerous extant theories of leadership cite virtues as essential to good leadership....

The study examines the effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and psychological capital (PsyCap) on customer engagement through discretionary service behaviors including adaptive and proactive service behaviors (ASB and PSB). A field study of 56 managers, 513 service employees, and 560 customers in 56 branches of insurance companies was carrie...

Objective: Small-medium enterprises (SMEs) are under-represented in occupational health research. Owner/managers face mental ill-health risks/exacerbating factors including financial stress and long hours. This study assessed the effectiveness of a mental health intervention specifically for SME owner/managers. Methods: 297 owner/managers of SME...

This article contributes to an emerging field of virtue-based leadership development scholarship by reporting on the first known empirical evaluation of The Virtues Project as a leadership development programme. This exploratory study seeks to understand if or how The Virtues Project might facilitate the development of good leaders. Our understandi...

This conceptual article advances a virtues-based approach to developing good leaders and good leadership. Virtue and discrete virtues are gaining traction within leadership scholarship, but there remains a lack of clarity regarding exactly what virtue is and precisely how virtues inform leadership. To address this, we articulate a clear conceptuali...

Workplace conditions and experiences powerfully influence mental health and individuals experiencing mental illness, including the extent to which people experiencing mental ill-health are ‘disabled’ by their work environments. This article explains how examination of the social suffering experienced in workplaces by people with mental illness coul...

Increasingly poor and unethical decision-making on the part of leaders across the globe, such as the recent Australian Cricket Ball Tampering Scandal, pose a significant challenge for society and for organisations. Authentic leadership development is one strategy that has been positioned as an antidote to unethical leadership behaviours. However, d...

This meta-analytic review responds to promises in the research literature and public domain about the benefits of workplace mindfulness training. It synthesizes randomized controlled trial evidence from workplace-delivered training for changes in mindfulness, stress, mental health, well-being, and work performance outcomes. Going beyond extant revi...

Developing resilience in the aged and dementia care workforce is an important element of support given their high demand environment. In this chapter, we outline the key known factors relevant for resiliency of aged and dementia care workforces, focusing on direct care workers who provide health care and physical, emotional, and social support to o...

Purpose Mental health conditions such as depression are prevalent in working adults, costly to employers, and have implications for legal liability and corporate social responsibility. Managers play an important role in determining how employees’ and organizations’ interests are reconciled in situations involving employee mental ill-health issues....

Objectives: To examine the impact of guided mindfulness practice on psychological distress and psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, and efficacy) in doctoral candidates. Participants: Recruitment of a convenience sample of doctoral candidates occurred in July 2015 and participants were randomly allocated to the control or intervent...

Purpose An emerging trend in Australian workplaces is to appoint staff trained in mental health first aid as mental health first aid officers (MHFAOs), similar to physical first aid officers (PFAOs) focused on physical health emergencies. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the nature of MHFAO roles in workplaces and develop recommend...

An integrated approach to workplace mental health encompasses three main areas of activity: (i) protecting mental health by reducing work-related and other risk factors for mental health problems, (ii) promoting mental health by developing the positive aspects of work as well as worker strengths and positive capacities, and (iii) responding to ment...

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a higher-order construct reflecting the psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism. This study adopted a multilevel approach to investigate relationships between team-level PsyCap and team- and individual-level outcomes. We also compared two compositional models of aggregation to represent t...

Objective: Small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) require specialized attention regarding workplace mental health (WMH), but can be challenging to engage in WMH promotion interventions. This cross-sectional study analyzed self-reported motivations of SME owner/managers who engaged in a WMH promotion intervention specifically designed for SMEs. Method...

Purpose This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the essence of product innovation capability (PIC) as a dynamic capability by systematically assessing its conceptualization and construct validity. The paper answers the call by numerous researchers to undertake research efforts in order to better understand and operationalize dynamic capabi...

In order to advance theory, key concepts need to be clearly defined (e.g. Kozlowski & Klein, 2000; Suddaby, 2010). Scholars in the field of positive organizational inquiry are engaging in meaningful work on the processes, practices, and attributes which enable optimal human and organizational functioning. Much of this work incorporates the concept...

Objective: To assess depression literacy, help-seeking and help-offering to others in members of the police force in the state of Victoria, Australia. Methods: All staff in police stations involved in a cluster randomised controlled trial of an integrated workplace mental health intervention were invited to participate. Survey questions covered...

Psychological distress is prevalent in doctoral degree training and affects students' completion time. It is crucial to monitor the amount of distress experienced and understand the causes for it to inform the type of support most needed. This mixed method study explored challenges related to candidature, self-reported progress and measures of perc...

Addressing the stigma of mental illness and its effect in the workplace is a contemporary issue in occupational health. The role of leaders is a vital but relatively unexplored dimension of this phenomenon. This study examined the effectiveness and application of an online intervention to reduce depression-related stigma in organizational leaders....

Authentic leadership theories tend to be leader-centric, and often ignore the importance and effect of followers. In this chapter, the role of authentic followers in the leader–follower relationship is considered in greater depth, providing an updated conceptualisation of the construct characterised by (i) a psychological capacity for authenticity...

Virtues at Work: Organizations as Poleis and the case for virtues-based leadership development People around the world have engaged in entrenched traditions of belonging and becoming for millennia. Today, however, our traditional communities, villages, and tribes have, for the most part, dissolved into sprawling suburbia and impersonal city livin...

Leadership theories continue to be aimed at addressing and understanding contemporary challenges in society, such as the problems created by unethical leader decisions and behaviors. In the current paper, we put forward a number of future research propositions following a case study of the Australian Football League (AFL). Specifically, we examine...

Background: Relationships exist between aged care nurses' perceptions of psychosocial work characteristics, job satisfaction and mental health, suggesting these characteristics may be important for the management of aged care services. Aim: An expanded demand-control-support model that included justice perceptions was examined to determine its i...

Dementia is a worldwide health priority and much of the burden of care for people with dementia is placed on family members and informal systems of care in the community. The perspectives of 36 informal dementia carers on current and future community-based services for people with dementia in Tasmania, Australia, are reported using a mixed methods...

The aim of this systematic review was to determine the quality and comprehensiveness of guidelines developed for employers to detect, prevent, and manage mental health problems in the workplace. An integrated approach that combined expertise from medicine, psychology, public health, management, and occupational health and safety was identified as a...

As part of the 20th anniversary celebration for the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (JOHP), this article reviews the literature on work-family with a special emphasis on research published in JOHP and that with health-related implications. We provide a retrospective overview of work-family research, tracing key papers and major theoretica...

Happy and healthy employees are critical to workplace productivity, business success and the Australian economy as a whole. Further, healthy and safe work plays an important role in helping people lead a contributing life A workplace that is able to reap the benefits of having a mentally healthy workforce is one that demonstrates authentic and visi...

Attitudes towards surveillance in the workplace play an important role in determining whether surveillance systems and practices have a positive or negative impact on work behaviour. A survey study of employed Australians (n = 406) was used to test a model in which attitudes towards workplace surveillance were hypothesised to mediate the relationsh...

There is a high prevalence of depression in working adults (lifetime prevalence estimates are one in five people or greater). This presents significant social and economic issues for organizations. Effective workplace management of employee depression and factors that influence these processes has been identified as an important area for research....

This study aimed to investigate the association between mental health and comprehensive workplace health promotion (WHP) delivered to an entire state public service workforce (~28,000 employees) over a three-year period. Government departments in a state public service were supported to design and deliver a comprehensive, multi-component health pro...

Question items used in the 2013 Partnering Healthy@Work survey to calculate workplace health promotion exposures for availability and participation. (ZIP)

Partnering Healthy@Work dataset. (DTA)

Background: Mental health problems are common in the workplace, but workers affected by such problems are not always well supported by managers and co-workers. Guidelines exist for the public on how to provide mental health first aid, but not specifically on how to tailor one's approach if the person of concern is a co-worker or employee. A Delphi...

The research underpinning this article explores the impacts that parenting and primary caring responsibilities have upon academic careers. It takes an innovative approach by exploring three under-researched aspects of this issue: the longitudinal impacts that extend past the years immediately following the birth or adoption of a child; the differen...

The impact of common mental illnesses in the workplace can be reduced by encouraging support from co-workers and promoting early professional help-seeking. The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) course is an evidence-based effective program designed to encourage social support and early help-seeking in the general community. However, little is known ab...

Background: In this paper, we present the protocol for a cluster-randomised trial to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of a workplace mental health intervention in the state-wide police department of the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria. n. The primary aims of the intervention are to improve psychosocial working conditions an...

Background: Workplace health promotion (WHP) has been proposed as a preventive intervention for job stress, possibly operating by promoting positive organizational culture or via programs promoting healthy lifestyles. The aim of this study was to investigate whether job stress changed over time in association with the availability of, and/or parti...

The relationships between employed mothers' work-family conflict and psychological distress are unlikely to be static or one way. Using longitudinal data, the authors investigated reciprocal effects between work-family conflict and psychological distress across 8 years of the family life cycle. They modeled cross-lagged structural equations over 5...

Background Research on workforce development for high-quality dementia care more often focuses on enhancing employee knowledge and skill and less on managing employee stress and coping at work.Objective To review employee stress and coping in response to high job demands in community-based dementia care organizations in Tasmania, Australia.Methods...

Objective: Occupational communion is defined as a sense of belonging based on social interaction at work, found to be a central part of the employees' experiences of positive emotions in dementia care workplaces (Elliott et al., 2013). The aim was to develop a measure of this newly identified construct (OC) to apply to the design and evaluation of...

The concept of psychological ownership (PO) reflects a state in which individuals feel as though the target of ownership (e.g., job or organization) is theirs. In recent years, there has been an expansion of research linking PO with a range of desirable employee attitudes and behaviors. However, the theoretical foundations of the construct, its mea...

One in ten fathers experience mental health difficulties in the first year postpartum. Unsupportive job conditions that exacerbate work-family conflict are a potential risk to fathers' mental health given that most new fathers (95%) combine parenting with paid work. However, few studies have examined work-family conflict and mental health for postp...

Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been conceptualized as an individual-level construct concerned with an employee’s state of positive psychological development. However, research has now started to examine PsyCap as a collective phenomenon. Although positive associations between team-level PsyCap and team-level functioning have been demonstrated e...

This chapter starts with a review and definition of the constellation of concepts that fit within the domain of work–family enrichment (WFE) such as work–family gains, work–family positive spillover and work–family facilitation. It provides a review of definitions and theoretical underpinnings of these concepts, identifying common understandings an...

Managers' attitudes play a key role in how organizations respond to employees with depression. We examine the measurement properties of a questionnaire designed to assess managerial stigma towards employees with depression. Using data from a sample of 469 Australian managers representing a wide range of industries and work settings, we conducted a...

As a common but understudied work setting, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been identifi ed as a sector needing ‘special’ or ‘urgent’ attention in relation to occupational health research and practice (Cocker et al., Int J Mental Health Promot 1–18, 2013; Lindstrom, Social Prevent Med, 2004). However, they are known to be particularly chal...

This study advances both psychological contract (PC) and psychological capital (PsyCap) research by testing a novel theoretical model predicting likely worker response, as a joint function of an individual's level of PsyCap and PC type, to perceived failure by the organisation to meet its obligations to the worker–organisation relationship. With a...

Contemporary fathering is characterized by the combined responsibilities of employment and parenting. Relationships between work–family conflict, work–family enrichment, and fathering behaviors have not been widely investigated. Secondary data from fathers of 4- to 5-year-old children participating in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children w...

Objective Working through a depressive illness can improve mental health but also carries risks and costs from reduced concentration, fatigue, and poor on-the-job performance. However, evidence-based recommendations for managing work attendance decisions, which benefit individuals and employers, are lacking. Therefore, this study has compared the c...

The purpose of the research was to conduct a Delphi expert consensus study (with employer, health professional and employee experts) to develop guidelines for the workplace prevention of mental health problems. A systematic review of websites, books, pamphlets and journal articles was conducted; a 363-item survey developed; and 314 strategies were...

Objective: To examine whether positive mental health (PMH)-a positively focused well-being construct-moderates the job stress-distress relationship. Methods: Longitudinal regression was used to test two waves of matched, population-level data from a sample of older, working Australian adults (n = 3291) to see whether PMH modified the relationshi...

Although there have been several calls for incorporating multiple levels of analysis in employee health and well-being research, studies examining the interplay between individual, workgroup, organizational and broader societal factors in relation to employee mental health outcomes remain an exception rather than the norm. At the same time, organiz...

Background Mental health problems are prevalent and costly in working populations. Workplace interventions to address common mental health problems have evolved relatively independently along three main threads or disciplinary traditions: medicine, public health, and psychology. In this Debate piece, we argue that these three threads need to be int...

Mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety are prevalent and costly on both social and economic levels. Because a large proportion of the costs are borne by employers, organizations need to develop effective responses. We frame dealing with employee mental health issues as a reasonably common, but complex, managerial job demand that re...