Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations

In recent years, South African organisations have continued to underestimate the far-reaching negative impacts of mental health at work. This can largely be attributed to a lack of understanding and awareness owing to the under-researched nature of mental health conditions (MHCs) in the workplace, w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Houtzamer, Nathalie
Other Authors: Goodman, Suki
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Organisational Psychology 2022
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613297272946688
access_status_str Open Access
author Houtzamer, Nathalie
author2 Goodman, Suki
author_browse Goodman, Suki
Houtzamer, Nathalie
author_facet Goodman, Suki
Houtzamer, Nathalie
author_sort Houtzamer, Nathalie
collection Thesis
description In recent years, South African organisations have continued to underestimate the far-reaching negative impacts of mental health at work. This can largely be attributed to a lack of understanding and awareness owing to the under-researched nature of mental health conditions (MHCs) in the workplace, within the occupational health psychology (OHP) literature. It has thus become important to understand this phenomenon and raise the awareness needed to combat the negative consequences of MHCs in the workplace. Owing to this need and spurred on by the researcher's experience living with a MHC and her colleague taking his life while battling a MHC in 2016, the researcher sought to investigate the disclosure of MHCs within South African workplaces by affected employees. Specifically, she examined the relationship between when (disclosure timing) disclosure is likely to occur, the people (disclosure targets) to whom disclosure was made, perceived support offered to the people living with MHCs and the disclosers' perceived experiences owing to disclosing a MHC. The target population for the study were employees who have lived with a MHCs within South African workplaces. A sample of (N=109) was used. Data was analysed using the Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and tests such as exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, crosstabulations and the Mann-Whitney U test were used. From the study it was revealed that disclosure of a MHC is more likely to occur after obtaining employment, as opposed to during the selection process. Apart from that it was also discovered that perceived support in respect of employee disclosure of a MHC is significantly lower within the organisation than that from external domains, such as family. In addition, it was found that perceived positive experiences owing to the disclosure of a MHC to an immediate line manager are not significantly different than to the Human Resource Department. Lastly, perceived negative experiences from the disclosure of MHCs to colleagues are not significantly different than disclosure to immediate
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35798
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:54.099Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Organisational Psychology
publisherStr Organisational Psychology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35798 The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations Houtzamer, Nathalie Goodman, Suki Organisational Psychology In recent years, South African organisations have continued to underestimate the far-reaching negative impacts of mental health at work. This can largely be attributed to a lack of understanding and awareness owing to the under-researched nature of mental health conditions (MHCs) in the workplace, within the occupational health psychology (OHP) literature. It has thus become important to understand this phenomenon and raise the awareness needed to combat the negative consequences of MHCs in the workplace. Owing to this need and spurred on by the researcher's experience living with a MHC and her colleague taking his life while battling a MHC in 2016, the researcher sought to investigate the disclosure of MHCs within South African workplaces by affected employees. Specifically, she examined the relationship between when (disclosure timing) disclosure is likely to occur, the people (disclosure targets) to whom disclosure was made, perceived support offered to the people living with MHCs and the disclosers' perceived experiences owing to disclosing a MHC. The target population for the study were employees who have lived with a MHCs within South African workplaces. A sample of (N=109) was used. Data was analysed using the Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and tests such as exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, crosstabulations and the Mann-Whitney U test were used. From the study it was revealed that disclosure of a MHC is more likely to occur after obtaining employment, as opposed to during the selection process. Apart from that it was also discovered that perceived support in respect of employee disclosure of a MHC is significantly lower within the organisation than that from external domains, such as family. In addition, it was found that perceived positive experiences owing to the disclosure of a MHC to an immediate line manager are not significantly different than to the Human Resource Department. Lastly, perceived negative experiences from the disclosure of MHCs to colleagues are not significantly different than disclosure to immediate 2022-02-22T03:58:13Z 2022-02-22T03:58:13Z 2021 2022-02-16T07:53:49Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35798 eng application/pdf Organisational Psychology Faculty of Commerce
spellingShingle Organisational Psychology
Houtzamer, Nathalie
The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations
title_full The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations
title_fullStr The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations
title_full_unstemmed The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations
title_short The disclosure of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) in South African organisations
title_sort disclosure of mental health conditions mhcs in south african organisations
topic Organisational Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35798
work_keys_str_mv AT houtzamernathalie thedisclosureofmentalhealthconditionsmhcsinsouthafricanorganisations
AT houtzamernathalie disclosureofmentalhealthconditionsmhcsinsouthafricanorganisations