A Thematic Network Analysis of Psychosocial Factors Associated with Occupational Stress and Employees’ Mental Health
Keywords:
Occupational Stress, Mental Health, Psychosocial Factors, Thematic Network Analysis, Employees, WorkplaceAbstract
This study aimed to identify and explain the network of psychosocial factors shaping occupational stress and mental health among employees working in public and private organizations in Tehran. This qualitative study employed thematic network analysis. The participants were 24 employees from public, private, service, and industrial organizations in Tehran, selected through purposive maximum-variation sampling. Data were collected exclusively through individual semi-structured interviews lasting between 45 and 75 minutes. Theoretical saturation was reached during the twenty-first interview, followed by three additional interviews to confirm data saturation. All interviews were audio-recorded with informed consent, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo 14. The analytic process involved initial coding, identification of basic themes, organization of related themes into organizing themes, development of global themes, and examination of the relationships among the resulting themes. Credibility and dependability were enhanced through participant checking, peer review, maintenance of an audit trail, prolonged engagement with the data, and maximum-variation sampling. Analysis of the interviews generated 326 initial codes, 68 basic themes, 17 organizing themes, and five main categories. These categories were structurally embedded and poorly designed work demands, destructive leadership and perceived organizational injustice, erosion of workplace social capital and interpersonal relationships, work–life conflict combined with economic and job insecurity, and individual and organizational protective resources. The global theme was conceptualized as “psychological erosion resulting from an imbalance between occupational demands and available resources.” The thematic network indicated that excessive workload, low job control, role ambiguity, perceived injustice, insufficient social support, economic pressure, constant work connectivity, and inadequate psychological recovery interacted dynamically and reinforced one another. Autonomy, supportive leadership, workplace trust, meaningful work, flexible arrangements, and effective recovery strategies were identified as protective resources. Occupational stress was experienced as a systemic and relational phenomenon rather than the consequence of a single stressful event or individual vulnerability. Sustainable improvement in employee mental health therefore requires multilevel interventions that modify job design, workload, organizational justice, leadership practices, psychological safety, workplace relationships, and work–life boundaries. Interventions focused solely on individual stress-management skills are unlikely to produce lasting outcomes unless the organizational sources of psychosocial risk are simultaneously addressed.
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