Mental Health Disorders in Organizations

Mental health disorders are an increasingly important topic in today’s society. Despite this importance, management research on mental disorders remains fragmented, reactive, and isolated from the broader academic discourse. This proposal aims to address these critical gaps through three studies that (1) explore previously unstudied relationships, (2) incorporate insights from neighboring fields, and (3) promote a more cohesive and preventive research agenda. The first study employs novel causal discovery algorithms to map the complex causal relationships between organizational dynamics and mental health disorders across various management disciplines. The second study explores the potential peer support effect of hiring top managers with a history of mental disorders, thereby hypothesizing that the lived experiences of these managers may improve workplace well-being and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. The third study investigates the mental disorder effect of working in multinational enterprises (MNEs) compared to domestic ones, arguing that MNEs introduce unique stressors in the form of increased job demands and reduced job control. Together, these studies substantially contribute to management research on mental disorders by integrating interdisciplinary methods and concepts, introducing innovative research pathways within a novel exploratory framework, and reshaping traditional views on workplace mental disorders in both academia and society.