A Reanalysis of Occupation and Suicide: Negative Perceptions of the Workplace Linked to Suicide Attempts

Suicide is the ultimate outcome of poor psychological well-being; however, there is a paucity of research examining the link between occupation and suicide, despite early academic interest and the known importance of work to our everyday lives. We propose that this body of research was abandoned prematurely, and we provide a reanalysis by integrating the Job Characteristics Model and the Conservation of Resources model with extant suicide research. Specifically, we hypothesize that work design characteristics (job autonomy, task variety, physical demands) and threats to personal resources (absence of viewing work-as-career, work-family conflict, family-work conflict, job dissatisfaction) are linked to suicide attempts via depression and suicidal ideation. Utilizing three measurement occasions and 2,855 participants from the AddHealth database, our findings indicate that job autonomy, task variety, work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and job dissatisfaction all indirectly contribute to employees' suicide attempts via depression and suicidal ideation. Thus, negative employee perceptions of the workplace environment have much more severe consequences than is typically examined. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for developing a theoretically derived nomological net around suicidal behavior in an organizational context, and offer strategies for managers and employees to construct a work environment that is conducive to employee well-being.     

Positive Psychology in the Workplace

An economy in a downward spiral, rising unemployment, anxieties about future job loss, lack of access to affordable health care, a crisis in the financial industry, and declining consumer confidence are among some of the challenges creating significant stress in the lives of workers and their families. What impact are these stressors having on the day-to-day lives of people in the workplace? What role do concepts of positive psychology have in helping people to not only cope more effectively, but open their hearts and minds to move forward with newfound confidence, resilience, determination, hope, and vision for a better future? How can workers and their organizations create a more positive and proactive workplace that bridges economic and human goals? The purpose of this article is to examine these questions through an integrative analysis of conceptual and empirical approaches to positive organizational behavior and outcomes. Theory and research covering such areas as self-determining behavior patterns, emotional intelligence, psychologic capital, innovation, and workplace change are described, analyzed, and applied to individuals, groups, and the overall organizational system. These themes come together through the concept of a virtuous organization. These organizations have cultures infused with a strong ethical–moral foundation and leaders who bring out the best of their employees. Organizations of virtue strive to do well by doing good and strive to do good by doing well. These organizations succeed by having multiple bottom lines, not just economic ones. As such, they bridge the goals of economic development with human development.     

Correlates of Suicide Stigma and Suicide Literacy in the Community

Public knowledge and attitudes toward suicide may influence help‐seeking for suicidality. This study aimed to identify correlates of suicide attitudes and knowledge. Australian adults were invited to complete an online survey, with 1,286 responders. Less exposure to suicide, older age, male gender, less education, and culturally diverse backgrounds were associated with poorer knowledge; while younger age, male gender, and culturally diverse backgrounds were associated with more stigmatizing attitudes toward people who die by suicide. The results suggest suicide literacy and stigma reduction programs would benefit community members, particularly males and individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds.     

Risk Factors Proximate to Suicide and Suicide Risk Assessment in the Context of Denied Suicide Ideation

Health care providers have significant opportunities to identify individuals at near‐term risk for suicide, but lack empirical data on near‐term risk factors. This study aimed to identify dynamic, state‐related risk factors observed by clinical practitioners within the last 30 days of life of 157 patients who died by suicide and to compare these near‐term risk factors among patients who denied versus responded positively to having suicide ideation (SI ) when last asked by a clinical practitioner prior to their death. Risk factors charted for the majority of all decedents were a history of prior suicide ideation and/or suicide attempt, current anxiety/agitation and sleep problems, current interpersonal problems or job/financial strain, current comorbid diagnoses, current social isolation/withdrawal, and a family history of mental disorder. Two‐thirds of patients denied having SI when last asked and one‐half of these patients were dead by suicide within 2 days. Decedents who denied having SI were quite similar in charted diagnoses, symptoms, behaviors, and environmental circumstances to decedents who responded affirmatively to having SI . Reliance on verbalized or reported SI as a gateway to a suicide risk assessment is questioned and the need for better understanding near‐term risk for suicide, particularly in the absence of stated SI , is highlighted.     

Well-Being and Trust in the Workplace

This paper uses life satisfaction regressions based on three surveys in two countries (Canada and the United States) to estimate the relative values of financial and non-financial job characteristics. The well-being results show strikingly large values for non-financial job characteristics, especially workplace trust and other measures of the quality of social capital in workplaces. For example, an increase of trust in management that is about one tenth of the scale has a value in terms of life satisfaction equivalent to an increase of more than 30% in monetary income. We find that these values differ significantly by gender and by union status. We consider the reasons for such large values, and explore their implications for employers, employees, and policy-makers.     

Suicide in the Israeli army

The present study was an attempt to analyze the problem of suicide in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Suicide is increasing among populations aged 18-21, which in Israel is the age when most young people are called up for a 3-year period of compulsory military service. The service may have a catalytic effect on suicide. but on the other hand may serve as a control mechanism reducing suicide. The study used data for the period 1974-1985, and examined suicide in combat and noncombat units by duration of service and by preservice psychiatric, medical, and motivational data. The suicide groups were also compared with a matched sample of nonsuicide groups along the relevant variables. The findings seem to be consistent with some established theoretical perspectives of situational stress, social support, and status incompatibility, and seem to bear practical implications for the reduction of suicide.     

Suicide in the Medically Ill

“The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveler returns puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?” (Hamlet III, i)     

Workplace Friendship in the Electronically Connected Organization

This study examined information communication technologies and workplace friendship dynamics. Employees reported factors that influenced their initiation of friendship with a coworker and reported patterns and perceptions of communication with their workplace friend via different communication methods. Results indicated that personality, shared tasks, and perceived similarity are the most important factors to coworker friendship initiation, and the importance of physical proximity to workplace friendship is diminishing in the electronically connected workplace. Results confirm the primacy of face‐to‐face interaction for workplace friendship initiation and maintenance. E‐mail, phone, and texting were also central to communication among workplace friends. The amount of time spent telecommuting affected workplace friendship initiation and communication. Finally, generational differences were identified with respect to Internet‐based communication methods.     

Psychoanalysis in the Workplace: An Introduction

This symposium provides an orientation for psychoanalytic clinicians to the world of psychoanalytically oriented organizational consulting, executive coaching, and related applications of psychoanalysis in the workplace. Psychologists and psychoanalysts have played a significant role in the development of organizational consulting and executive coaching, and many clinicians today express interest in transferring their skills from clinical settings to organizations and corporations. This introduction emphasizes the psychoanalytic clinical skill of ongoing reflection on relational processes and experiences, but it also recognizes that consulting requires additional and highly specific knowledge, skill, talent, and training.     

Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

This study attempted to test assumptions derived from the sex-role spillover model of sexual harassment developed by Gutek and Morasch (1982). One hundred fourteen male and 120 female undergraduates were asked to read scenarios describing potentially sexually oriented behaviors toward women in three different types of job settings (job types: female dominated, male dominated, and mixed). The independent variables were (a) the status difference between the supervisor and subordinate (small vs. large), (b) job type, (c) sex of subject, and (d) sex type of subject (same-sexed, cross-sexed, androgynous, or undifferentiated). The results indicated that ambiguous behaviors are perceived as being more sexually harassing in male dominated and mixed settings than in female dominated settings. The implications for future theory and research on sexual harassment are discussed.     

Interpersonal Mistreatment of Women in the Workplace

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the work included in the special issue: Interpersonal Mistreatment of Women in the Workplace. In doing so, the authors develop a multilevel conceptual model, illustrating how the research included in the special issue address causes and consequences of interpersonal mistreatment at the micro, meso, and macro-level of analysis. In addition, the integrated model demonstrates how factors at different levels both influence and are influenced by those at other levels of analysis. Based on this collective work, the authors encourage researchers interested in addressing the mistreatment and marginalization of less powerful groups to consider the multilevel causes and consequences of such behavior. It is only through holistic examinations that researchers can we fully understand this insidious problem and encourage people—whether likely targets of mistreatment or not—to take a stand to end this treatment in workplaces and other society as a whole.     

Suicide prevention in the psychiatric hospital

It is currently impossible to distinguish between patients with depression who will make a suicide attempt and those who will not. Prevention, therefore, must be based on the assumption that any patient with more than mild symptoms of depression is at risk of suicide, and can only be effective if it is applicable to all patients with moderate to severe depression. A treatment strategy that differentiated between regressive and progressive therapeutic measures was developed for patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Regressive, as opposed to progressive, treatment meant that the patient was temporarily relieved of virtually all responsibilities for self and others. Progressive measures were strictly avoided for all patients with symptoms of depression, regardless of the primary diagnosis. This strategy was tested on 5,149 inpatients and day patients over a period of 6.25 years and compared with 6,891 patients over the 15.75 years prior to this period. The suicide rate was 97 (per 100,000 admissions) compared with 319 in the previous period. The treatment method appears to be able to reduce the suicide rate. Although this result was achieved with hospital patients, it suggests that a regressive treatment method could be promising if developed for outpatient treatment as well.