Résumé
Purpose – Maintaining a healthy and productive workforce is a challenge for many organizations. This is even truer for organizations in the healthcare sector, which face staff shortages and work overload. The aim of this study is to identify the resources and constraints that influence managers’ mental health and to explore how managers perceive them.
Methodology – A qualitative approach was chosen to document the resources and constraints of managers in their day-to-day realities. The sample comprised executive, intermediate, and firstlevel managers from a Canadian health center. A total of 62 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The coding process was based on the model of Nielsen et al. (2018; IGLOO) to which an employee-related level was added (IGELOO).
Findings –Results highlight the importance of considering not only resources but also constraints
in examining managers’ mental health. Overarching context, organizational constraints, and the management of difficult employees seemed to play important roles in the stress they experienced.
Practical implications – The results afford a better understanding of the importance of intervene at different levels to promote better organizational health. Also, results highlight the importance to set up organizational resources and act on the various constraints to reduce them.
Originality – In addition to addressing the reality of managers in the healthcare sector, this study supplements a theoretical model and suggests avenues for interventions promoting more sustainable organizational health.