Prof. Llewellyn Ellardus van Zyl (UNISA) Claude-Hélène Mayer (UNISA)

Research on positive organisational behaviour (POB) increased exponentially since POB has an influence on various individual, group and organisational variables such as work performance, psycho-social well-being and mental health. However, gender related research on mental health has only been focused on the proverbial ‘negative’ (suffering, challenges, work-role misfit etc). The focus has been on the disease model (psychopathology). Not a lot of research on psychological strengths, well- being and mental health of woman within South Africa, even less on woman in the engineering environment.

Engineering is traditionally seen as a male dominated Multiple roles (employee, wife, mother etc) Glass ceiling effect Subtle Discrimination Questions about competence Sexual harassment Social isolation

Disengagement Higher levels of turnover intentions Decreased organisational commitment In ability to cope with life demands Higher levels of psychological distress (anxiety, stress, depression etc) = decreases in mental health (sense of coherence)

Mental health and well-being in organisations -World wide decreases in physical and psychological well-being -Research focus = predominantly pathology (although significant increase in POB since 2004) Health and well-being in the South African context -Shows similar to world wide trends -Legislation governing Health/Safety – Orgs still do not comply -Sense of coherence has shown to buffer against onset of pathology (activates internal resources) –various contexts -SOC = The extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic, feeling of confidence that one’s environment is predictable and that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected.” -In other words, it’s a mixture of optimism and control. It has three components – comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness.

Gender in organisations -Gender is defined in terms of social roles and norms associated with sex -South Africa – Women has various challenges -Even in research = women have been neglected -Woman average to low levels of sense of coherence Gender and sense of coherence -Men = higher SOC than woman -Woman = Even lower SOC in male dominated environment -However – Women shows higher levels of meaningfulness -Various aspects impacting on SOC

Limited research exists regarding the perceptions of positive leadership behaviour of female leaders within South African who experience unique challenges within the business environment and remain healthy at the same time. We don’t fully understand how working woman within the engineering industry in South Africa perceive their own level of mental health. We don’t understand how working woman within the engineering industry ‘connect’ the concepts of mental health with gender We need to investigate what strategies female leaders suggest contribute to positive organisational behaviour in terms of constructing ‘healthy organisations’

1.How do female leaders in the selected organisation score in sense of coherence? 2.How do female leaders define their ‘life orientation’? 3.How are mental health and gender connected in the eyes of the female leaders? 4.What strategies do female leaders suggest contribute to positive organisational behaviour in terms of constructing ‘healthy organisations’?

The aim was to investigate gender-related subjective perceptions on mental health and sense of coherence from an emic perspective.

-Research design: Embedded case study (mixed method in single context) -Research setting: German engineering company located in South Africa. -Population group: Female leaders (mid, top management) -Sampling method and size: Census based sampling – 15 out of 25 leaders participated -Data collection methods: -Quant – Life orientation questionnaire was administered (Antonovsky, 1979) -Qual – In-depth structured interviews with 10 questions -Data analysis: -Quant – Descriptives (mean SOC score) -Qual – Content analysis with categorisation

Biographic details: Majority were white femaleaged between41 and 50 years regarding the age of the participants, one individual was in the age range of 20–30, five in the range 30–40, seven in the range 40–50 and two in the range 50–60. Out of 110 managers at the headquarters, 25 managers were female; 15 female managers voluntarily agreed to participate in the survey. Ten of the female managers defined themselves as White (seven South African, one German expatriate, one Bulgarian and one Dutch), two as Indian, two as Black and one as mixed-race.

SCORE PER SUBSCALE TOTAL SCORE RESPONDENTCMAME R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

Defining the life orientation that contributes to mental health

Connection between Gender and Mental Health In terms of mental health and gender, in the in- depth interviews, only three of the 15 female leaders referred to a connection between mental health and gender. Of significance here is the fact that these three female leaders scored the highest on SOC. This shows that the three women connected their mental health to reflecting on gender identity issues whilst reflecting on the organisational behaviour and environment at the same time.

Contribution to a healthy organisational environment.

Quantitative Wide variance in SOC scores across participants. Mean = average levels of SOC Women should not be homogenised across cultures due to the varied historical and social situations in terms of race and gender Individuals who recently joined the organisation = lowest SOC Most of the participants scored high on comprehensibility, followed by manageability. Low on Meaning.

Qualitative Personal resources and positive perceptions of health and well- being contribute to the mental health women in this context Life orientation and, thus, mental health were socially determined. Gender does not seem to impact strongly on perceptions of me Female leaders include physical, social, psychological and emotional factors in their view of ‘healthy organisations and see themselves as a whole person

Prof. Llewellyn Ellardus van Zyl (UNISA) Claude-Hélène Mayer (UNISA)