Mental health and individual and organisational outcomes of managers in the agricultural sector: a latent profile analysis

Abstract

The work environment is an environment that influences an individual’s mental health. There is a growing awareness of the role of work in promoting or hindering mental health and well-being. Well-being at work places the emphasis on the probability of what an employee could achieve if he or she were supported by the organisation. Therefore, organisations must focus on creating a positive work environment that will allow an employee to flourish and function optimally for the benefit of the employee and the organisation. Constructs such as job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave could be related to mental health and have an impact on managers’ work environment. Mental health can be defined as a state of health such as illness, possibly indicated by a series of symptoms that are present at a specific time. Mental health consists of emotional, social, and psychological well-being. Keyes describes mental health according to three distinctive profiles, namely, languishing, moderate mental health, and flourishing. Managers in the agricultural sector may experience individual and organisational outcomes differently. The purpose of this study was to identify mental health profiles for managers in the agricultural sector and to determine how profiles differed with respect to job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave. A cross-sectional research method was used to collect the data. A convenience sample (n = 507) of managers in the agricultural sector was used. A biographical questionnaire, the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form, the Job Satisfaction Scale, the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale, and the Turnover Intention Scale were administered. Confirmatory factor analysis and latent profile analysis were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that four mental health profiles for managers in the agricultural sector could be extracted: languishing, moderately languishing, moderately flourishing, and flourishing. The results showed significant differences between the mental health profiles of managers and job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave. Managers in the agricultural sector with different mental health profiles might experience job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and intention to leave differently. Furthermore, the results indicated that this study challenged Keyes’s dual-continuum model and suggested a four-factor model for mental health. Recommendations for future research were made.