By The Keystone Newspaper Applying a theoretical approach to practical research in the workplace
By Alice Frank
Associate professors of communication studies, Drs. Yuxia Qian and Diana Ebersole, presented their research, “Elevating Organizational Culture by Facilitating Mental Health Disclosures at Work,” to students and faculty on Thursday, Nov. 6 in Sharadin 120.
Their research is centered around Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM), which explains “how people make choices about their private information through communication with others,” according to Sandra Petronio, who introduced the theory to the field of Communications in 2002.
“The communication perspective on mental health issues in organizations is, thus far, fairly understudied,” Ebersole said. “We are particularly jumping in with a theoretical perspective on CPM Theory as a lens for understanding the whole process [of disclosure].”
Ebersole and Qian focus on how mental health disclosures occur within organizational cultures, such as the workplace. This includes why and when individuals choose to disclose non-visible issues.
“We want to make clear from the get-go that we are not only talking about formally clinically diagnosed issues,” Ebersole said. “This is stress, mild anxiety, temporary depression. We are encompassing all mental health issues.”
Ebersole and Qian expressed that mental health issues (MHIs) are the leading cause of disability in organizations, primarily affecting job performance and productivity. MHIs are a factor that severely affects an individual’s social life at work, including how they interact with their colleagues and superiors, exacerbating the negative impacts of the aforementioned consequences.
Photo Credit: Alice Frank
Identity stigma permeates the atmosphere for one’s desire to disclose MHIs in an organizational culture.
“Whether it’s loss of opportunity, loss of promotion, additional stigma, effects to reputation, there are numerous reasons why people are afraid to talk about this stuff at work,” Ebersole said.
Ebersole and Qian’s research is a comprehensive analysis of CPM in organizational cultures, an area that the theory has yet to be deeply studied in. By applying CPM to MHI disclosures in organizations, as well as other concepts and by viewing disclosing as a process with a multitude of effects before, during, and after the fact, it opens up the conversation for working individuals to discuss the reasons as to why they may or may not choose to disclose MHIs at work—creating the potential to re-evaluate identity stigma in the workplace.
Since mental health is a spectrum, disclosures in the workplace can range from “pragmatic to intrinsic,” whether it’s needing accommodations that require disclosure for practical reasons, or simply feeling better if a colleague or somebody in your workplace knew what you were going through.
The structure of pragmatic versus intrinsic reasons is a launchpad for the process of MHI disclosures. Disclosures can also come out inadvertently, in small chunks, or they can be strategically timed, resulting in either positive or negative outcomes.
Ebersole and Qian’s research covers an even wider range of complexities, including data-driven explanations from a series of surveys and one-on-one interviews with a sample size of individuals.
In creating their hypotheses, Ebersole and Qian came up with the following criteria as the primary catalysts for self-disclosure that guided their study. These factors include the urgency to disclose, conversational disclosures and the appropriateness of the situation in which you are disclosing, perceived risks of disclosure, an inclusive organizational culture, and the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX).
In a sample of 78 surveys, there were 51 females, 26 males, mostly between the ages of 18 to 35, but also a significant group between the ages of 46 to 55. In the first group of surveys, the responders were predominantly white. However, these sample sizes have since doubled and include a wider range of genders, ages, and ethnicities.
“One of the limitations is that we are trying to include more samples, and we are also trying to observe this study from this topic from different perspectives,” Qian said. “We want to include more male, female, and different sexual orientations, as well.”
Considering the aforementioned criteria for their hypotheses, which guided the survey responses, they found significance for each of the factors pertaining to MHI disclosures at work, including either positive or negative associations for each factor.
They also conducted 14 interviews to gain further understanding of their theoretical approach to MHI disclosures—a number also set to increase as they continue their research.
“The interviews were about 45 minutes each, so they were pretty substantive conversations.” Ebersole said. “We didn’t have any extreme reticence to share, but they were significant, as well.”
In the interviews, it was noted that the term “trust” was used quite often by interviewees, determining that the inclusivity of an organization, as well as trust of superiors through the LMX, was a major factor in the decision to disclose.
Conversations around disclosure are necessary for eliminating the stigma around MHIs, especially given their potential for impeding work performance.
The work of Ebersole and Qian can guide these conversations and create educational opportunities for workplaces to learn and understand what it means to create an environment where MHI disclosures can occur. Similarly, employees gain a greater understanding of their ability to disclose by learning what CPM is and the communications process that ensues, creating potential for an informed evaluation of the intersection of organizational cultures and MHI disclosures.
Dr. Qian will be presenting their research at the National Communication Association Conference in Denver, Colorado, at the end of November.