Identifying and Explaining Evidence-Based Organizational Interventions to Promote Employee Mental Health: A Qualitative Study in Organizations in Tehran

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and explain the components, mechanisms, and implementation requirements of evidence-based organizational interventions intended to protect and promote employee mental health in organizations in Tehran. This qualitative study employed a descriptive-exploratory design. Participants were 24 human resource managers, executive and line managers, occupational health and mental health professionals, and employees with experience of workplace mental health programs in public, semi-public, and private organizations in Tehran. Participants were recruited through purposive maximum-variation sampling. Data were collected exclusively through individual semi-structured interviews lasting between 45 and 75 minutes. With informed consent, the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Theoretical and meaning saturation was reached after the twenty-first interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm data sufficiency. Data were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis using NVivo 14. Trustworthiness was enhanced through member checking, peer analysis, maintenance of an audit trail, maximum-variation sampling, reflexive documentation, and a detailed description of the organizational context. Five main categories were identified: “redesigning work and balancing job demands and resources,” “supportive leadership and manager mental health literacy,” “employee participation, organizational justice, and psychological safety,” “an integrated system of support, referral, accommodation, and return to work,” and “governance, monitoring, and sustainability of organizational mental health.” Participants believed that individual-level training would produce limited and temporary outcomes when excessive workloads, role ambiguity, inadequate staffing, unfair procedures, harmful managerial behaviors, stigma, and concerns about confidentiality remained unchanged. Effective interventions were described as multilevel, participatory, context-sensitive, continuously evaluated, and embedded in organizational decision-making and human resource systems. Employee mental health is shaped not only by individual coping abilities but also by job design, leadership quality, organizational justice, interpersonal relationships, psychological safety, and access to confidential professional support. Organizations should therefore move beyond fragmented wellness activities and implement integrated strategies that reduce psychosocial hazards, strengthen job resources and employee voice, enhance managerial capabilities, provide confidential support and return-to-work pathways, and establish measurable accountability for mental health outcomes.