RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
5. Develop multilevel approaches to intervention design, implementation and evaluation
By opening avenues for a better understanding of the interactions among individual, job, organizational and even macroeconomic antecedents of employee mental health, the use of more sophisticated multilevel measurement and analysis approaches could also enable the
development of more effective interventions (Probst, 2010). We urge intervention researchers to broaden the design and evaluation of interventions by considering multilevel approaches. This is especially important in light of the mixed evidence on the effectiveness of organizational level interventions (Graveling, Crawford, Cowie, Amati, & Vohra, 2008; Martin, Sanderson, &
Cocker, 2009). A divergence between the level at which an organizational intervention is implemented (the work group) and the level at which it is evaluated (the individual), and this mismatch may be the source of unreliable or inconsistent evaluation outcomes. Multilevel theory suggests a number of ways in which levels of analysis can be taken into account in organizational intervention research. These include, among others, challenges associated with implementing multilevel research, specifically relating to the fit between theory and
measurement or aggregation strategy, sampling, and response rates of groups. Cross-level moderation issues are also relevant here, where, for example, the extent of team agreement about the extent of implementation of an org or team intervention (so-called dispersion models) might moderate the effect of the intervention on individual outcomes (Bliese & Jex, 2002).
Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to outline the advantages of a multilevel approach to improving understanding of the relationship between the psychosocial work environment, employee mental health and organizational interventions. In particular, we argued that
consideration of the role of shared experiences and resources of individuals working in a given
workplace may bolster intervention engagement and delivery and ensuring levels of intervention action and intervention evaluation are congruent may also offer more accurate evaluation
results. Drawing on organizational climate literature, we illustrated a number of important theoretical and methodological considerations.
We have provided what we hope is an accessible, non-technical overview of a multilevel approach that researchers could adopt in order to progress this field of research. Whilst the inherent challenges of conducting multilevel research should not be underestimated (Kulik, 2011), our recommendations will hopefully help to advance understanding of the relationship between the psychosocial work environment and employee mental health and improve intervention implementation and evaluation. In sum, we remind researchers that employee mental health is determined by a range of factors beyond the individual, that these reside in the broader workplace, organization and society in which work takes place, and that our
understanding of employee mental health and interventions that address it will be incomplete if these multiple levels of influences, and the interactions among them, are not taken into account.
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Table 1. A breakdown of levels of analysis (intervention implementation) across intervention target outcome, and intervention evaluation foci
Level of intervention implementation
Intervention target (content) – examples:
Intervention evaluation foci (criterion) – examples:
Job Job characteristics Individual level:
Evaluations
Table 2: Summary of key compositional models for aggregating individual level data to the meso level.
Compositional model Operationalizes the collective construct as:
Example Additive The sum or average of lower
level scores regardless of the Direct consensus A certain level of agreement is a
prerequisite for aggregation and then each member is assigned the average for the group. Primarily concerned with the level or
Referent shift As per the direct consensus method but the referent is the group not the individual (e.g. we not I)
Dispersion A measure of variability.
Primarily concerned with the
Based on information provided in (Li & Cropanzano, 2009).