Depression in the Workplace: An Examination of Exemplar Messages for Internal Communications
Open Access
Author:
Gessner, Julia Nicole
Graduate Program:
Media Studies
Degree:
Master of Arts
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 15, 2019
Committee Members:
Denise Bortree, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Jessica Myrick, Committee Member Frank Dardis, Committee Member
Keywords:
social cognitive theory exemplification theory employee-employer relationship organizational public relationship two-way symmetrical communication
Abstract:
The Center for Disease Control in the U.S. estimates that 50 percent of Americans are diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their lives. This research combines public relations theories with existing theories that have been applied to health communications with the goal of providing communications professionals, corporation leaders, and human resource professionals with information about how to approach the concept of mental health in the workplace. After providing two-way symmetrical communication and organizational public relations measures related to their perceptions about their employer, participants were exposed to one of five messages in a 2 (exemplar/non-exemplar) x 2 (instruction/non-instruction) experiment. Results indicated that the exemplar messages were significantly likely to predict higher levels of self-efficacy related to seeking out help for depression for others with the employee’s reported organizational public relationship with the employer moderating this relationship, while two-way symmetrical communication without a message was found to predict perceived self-efficacy for assisting others. Instructional messages were not found to be effective.
