Supporting Mental Health at Work (Comment on “The Epidemic of Mental Disorders in Business”)

Abstract

Kensbock, Alkærsig, and Lomberg (KAL) (2022) address the important topic of employee mental health in organizations. For three reasons, we caution readers against embracing KAL’s proposition that employee mobility spreads mental disorders across organizations through a contagion process. First, we view harmful contagion as the least plausible of three theoretical mechanisms that imply similar empirical results. Second, despite detailed employment and healthcare data from Denmark, the empirical analysis does not distinguish harmful contagion from the alternative mechanisms. Third, KAL’s infectious disease metaphor and language risk further stigmatization of vulnerable populations with mental disorders. We offer suggestions for continuing research on healthy organizations.