The relationship between exposure to employee involvement management practices, sense of coherence, and depression in male and female state employees

The reduction of work-related psychological disorders and work stress has become a major concern in public health and in work organizations. Many organizations are addressing this problem by introducing stress management programs. However, most of these programs focus on individual behavior change and coping skills to assist individuals in adapting to stressful situations. These programs typically do little to reduce the work-related sources of the stress.;The purpose of this study was to examine ways in which work environment affects depression and mechanisms that may be involved. Work environment is examined through the level of implementation of employee involvement (EI) management practices, i.e., increasing skills and knowledge, sharing information, redistributing power, and rewarding performance. A major objective was to propose and investigate a model incorporating possible causal relationships between EI practices, perceived work stress, and depression, and by suggesting a possible mechanism, sense of coherence, through which management practices may affect depression. Gender differences were also examined.;An integrative model of employee involvement (EI) management practices, sense of coherence (SOC), perceived work stress, and depression was examined with 573 employees of a state human services facility using both single-group and multigroup LISREL analyses. Consistent with the hypothesized model, increased levels of EI practices were indirectly associated with lower levels of depression through both SOC and perceived work stress. Moreover, as predicted, gender differences were apparent in the model. For women, higher levels of EI practices were associated with higher levels of SOC and lower levels of perceived work stress than for men. There were no gender differences in the paths between SOC, perceived work stress and depression.;These results suggest that: (1) EI practices may increase SOC and reduce perceived work stress in both men and women, but to a greater degree in women; (2) As suggested by Antonovsky (1987), SOC may be altered through long-lasting environmental change, in this case through a change in work environment.;Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) also revealed job category and gender differences in levels of depression and SOC.