Creating Healthy Academic Workplaces: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go from Here?

Abstract Research goals and why the work was worth doing: Academia is in crisis. Numerous studies show that academics worldwide suffer from enormous workloads, health problems, stress, and burnout. However, there is still a dearth of knowledge on how academic workplaces can be designed and organized to sustainably protect academics’ well-being. The current project set out to take on these issues. First, we performed a systematic review of the literature to ascertain those factors that influence the mental health and well-being of academics. Second, we investigated intervention studies that have aimed to test the effects of evidence-based interventions on the mental health and well-being of academics. In so doing, we are (this research is ongoing) gaining insights into the factors that contribute to health and well-being, and the particular interventions that may be implemented by universities to improve academics’ health and well-being. Theoretical background: Academia has changed dramatically over the last decades. Increased competition among universities and the publish-or-perish culture of contemporary academia has led to an intensification of work (Orhan, 2020; Urbina-Garcia, 2020). Rising student numbers, increased pressure to publish in top-tier journals, and the growing bureaucratization of universities have put additional pressure on academics (Morini, 2019). Academics are now expected to be a sheep with the five legs, having to excel in multiple areas of their work, including teaching, research, fundraising, management, administration, service, and public engagement (Bal et al., 2019). Coupled with the fact that all these domains are dynamically evolving, not in the least part due to digitization and the rapid fading of disciplinary boundaries, means that many academics are stretched beyond their contractually agreed work hours. Design/Methodology/Approach/Intervention: We are currently in the advanced stages of conducting a systematic review of the literature on this topic. Our search strategy is iterative and started by scouring Web of Science databases across academic disciplines. We searched for peer-reviewed academic articles published until 2020, using the following keywords: mental health or well-being and academi* workplace/universit* in the title, abstract, or keywords. Results obtained or expected: After this initial search, which yielded 1743 papers was performed, we identified 74 papers relevant for the current review. The high number of exclusions was mainly due to many studies focusing on student rather than staff well-being. The resulting papers were divided among the authors, and each was read by two independent coders. The findings revealed two main clusters, Cluster 1, work and organizational factors, and Cluster 2, socio-environmental factors. Within these clusters several subcategories emerged: The work and organizational factors included workload; job content; organizational practices and procedures; contractual conditions; and infrastructure. The socio-environmental factors included managers and supervisors, colleagues, students, and collaborators. Using keywords that we generated from the identified clusters we are currently in the process of conducting a more exhaustive query of the extant literature. Specifically, we generated a tripartite query that operationalized and further specified mental health, type of study, and sample, and are running this across Psychinfo, Eric, Web of Science, and Scopus. Limitations: The current review is limited in terms of its topical focus to on mental health and well-being, not including physical health. While physical health is of utmost importance to do one’s job properly and is also interconnected with psychological and emotional well-being, we felt it was beyond the scope of the current review. Furthermore, universities can likely do more to improve working conditions to enhance mental health and well-being than to change the physical health of individuals. Research/Practical Implications: While there is ample research on stress, burnout, and health problems of academics, a neglected topic within research are the factors that actually improve and sustain mental health and well-being of academics. To remedy this, the contribution of the current work is threefold. First, we uncover how policies and practices in academia shape the mental health and well-being of academics in universities. Second, we identify evidence-based interventions that have been shown to improve the mental health and well-being of academics and may be adopted and implemented by universities to improve academics’ health and well-being. Third, we show the gaps in current research on mental health and wellbeing policies and practices in academia and advance an agenda for future research. Originality/Value: This is the first systematic review on the factors that promote health and well-being of academics, and therefore provides important insights into how healthy academic workplaces can be designed.COST Action CA1911