Managing Employees With Mental Health Issues: Identification of Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge for Development Within Management Education Curricula

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 requires adequate preparation. Hence, we position the development of applied management knowledge (AMK) for effectively managing employee mental health issues as a critical objective for management education. Our study presents an analysis of qualitative data related to managers' experiences of working with an employee with a mental health issue that identifies forms of knowledge used and needed in these situations. Our findings indicate that managers reference specific forms of conceptual and procedural knowledge when (1) becoming aware of the employee's mental health issue; (2) exploring the workplace implications and developing an action response; (3) implementing the response and managing it as an ongoing situation, and (4) engaging in reflective learning. In order to begin the work of curriculum development, we provide a preliminary discussion of educational strategies that may aid in the development of this form of AMK and outline a number of priorities for future research and practice.