I31 - General Welfare; Well-BeingReturn

Frequent alterations, unpredictable workloads, and blurred lines between professional and personal life all contribute to adverse effects on mental health. As a result, there is a growing need for managers to be attuned to their employees' emotional well-being and to cultivate the ability to openly, safely, and confidentially address mental health matters. Training in mental health awareness can equip managers with the skills to recognize early signs of common mental health conditions, engage in conversations about mental health, and actively promote well-being to prevent mental health challenges. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mental health intervention on self-compassion and stigmatisation attitudes among leaders and their followers. The present study is a part of a large European research project. A pre-post research design was implemented in two Czech SMEs to investigate the effect of mental health awareness training on leaders and their followers. The research focuses on two dependent variables – self-compassion as a personal resource and stigmatisation as the attitude towards mental health. The moderating role of learning transfer and the opportunity to use the training was taken into account. For the leaders, the results indicate a statistically significant increase in self-compassion and a decrease in stigmatising attitudes toward mental health issues. There is no statistically significant moderating role of training transfer variables. For the followers, a statistically significant change was evident in decreased stigmatising attitudes. The results need to be interpreted in the context of organisational changes that both companies went through during the research project resulting in more stress, workload, and drop-outs.
Implications for the Central European audience: There is a need for knowledge on how to prevent well-being-related problems in a changing world with more remote work and more mental health issues. The present study adds to this need by exploring the effect of mental health awareness training on two organisational levels – leaders and their followers. The practical contribution of this research is to provide specific recommendations on how to stimulate mental health awareness for leaders through training interventions and thus promote employee well-being.

The rapidly changing dynamics in the challenging work life have rendered the concept of well-being crucial and necessary for both organizations and employees. In recent years, there has been a consistent increase in studies focusing on employee well-being, driven by the understanding that happier employees tend to be more productive. However, the literature lacks a substantial number of critical examinations of well-being practices. While this gap in the literature has guided the scope of our work, it has also piqued our curiosity about criticisms of these practices, as well as positive attitudes and approaches towards them. With this study, our aim was to examine the positive and critical perspectives of various actors with different levels of knowledge and experience regarding well-being practices and to explore their needs to participate in well-being practices by relating them to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. In the light of the findings, another objective was to facilitate the integration of well-being practices as a philosophy/approach within organizations and enhance their more effective and comprehensive utilization.
Implications for Central European audience: When examining both common and differing views of the participants on well-being practices, the participants were positioned in different areas of a pyramid model. At the top, there are employees of the consultancy firm (Wellbees) and well-being experts, who evaluate well-being practices with a more idealistic, sophisticated and long-term perspective, without considering the current economic and social conditions of the country. In the middle level, there are HR managers whose views on well-being are limited to more job-oriented issues, rather than addressing employees’ higher-level needs. At the low level, there are employees who evaluate well-being practices from an individual perspective and find them beneficial in terms of socialization, building interactions and increasing motivation. It is inevitable to consider the views and approaches of all actors involved in well-being practices holistically to effectively manage.

The discourse on employee well-being within organizations has evolved significantly over the last decades, reflecting a deeper and more diverse understanding through various perspectives and methodologies. This thematic issue aims to bridge the existing gap between the recognition of diverse well-being practices and the critical examination of their applications in the workplace. By doing so, we hope to foster a nuanced appreciation of these efforts, acknowledging the inherent complexities and challenges, and inspiring more effective and meaningful well-being initiatives.

The research focuses on the perception and implications of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. The aim of the paper is to prove the validity of an existing theoretical model (presented in Romanian research before COVID-19) for the Czech situation during COVID-19 and draw managerial conclusions. Quantitative primary data were collected via questionnaires and analysed using structural equation modelling, evaluating cause-effect relationships between latent variables in two steps: a structural model (showing latent constructs and paths between them) and an outer model (displaying relationships between each latent construct and the indicators defining it). Ten latent variables were defined, and relationships among them were identified. Thirteen hypotheses were tested, of which seven were accepted. Concerning similarities with the previous study, the present study accepted two hypotheses identically to the previous one, while one hypothesis was accepted only in the Romanian research. Model relevancy was proved. The research contributed to extending current literature findings.
Implications for Central European audience: Based on the hypotheses tested, autonomy and homonomy in telework should not be understood as contrary but complementary phenomena; managers should support both. Positive emotions about telework should be cultivated because they contribute to work-life balance and positively affect the intention to work from home. Work-life balance is positively related to the positive perception of the social implications of telework.

The characteristics of the workplace environment have a significant impact on executive well-being and organisations benefit when executives cope effectively with the stressors in their work and private life. Many aspects of coping with stress have been studied, but few studies have focused on the coping resources of executives and senior managers. This study focused on the relationship between coping resources and level of well-being as a factor of stress mitigation among a target middle-aged group of Czech executives and senior leaders. Using data collected from 100 executives and senior managers in Prague, Czech Republic, multiple regression analysis was used to examine the variables related to executive coping resources and their combined effects on executive well-being. The analysis revealed that executives who made use of a mix of coping resources showed better well-being. Furthermore, cognitive, emotional, spiritual/philosophical, and physical coping resources were shown to be positively related to total well-being. However, social coping resources showed no direct association with executive well-being. The findings suggest that executives can benefit from a much more extensive combination of coping resources than initially expected to provide better life satisfaction, and that overall physical and mental health is a mitigating factor against stress and burnout.