Determinants of Employee Physical and Mental Health: The Role of Career Adaptability and Workplace Attachment in the South African Public Service

• Author: Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi,Herring Shava
• DOI: 10.25159/2664-3731/9015
• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Pages: 1-22

Article

African Journal of Employee Relations

https://doi.org/10.25159/2664-3731/9015

https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/AJER

ISSN 2664-3731 (Online), ISSN 2709-0426 (Print)

Volume 45 | 2021 | #9015 | 22 pages

© Unisa Press 2022

Determinants of Employee Physical and Mental

Health: The Role of Career Adaptability and

Workplace Attachment in the South African Public

Service

Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4139-4224

Department of Business Management,

University of Fort Hare, South Africa

chinyaz@gmail.com

Herring Shava

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2094-9585

Department of Management Studies,

Walter Sisulu University, South Africa

hshava@wsu.ac.za

Abstract

The South African public service is noted to be in a state of flux with challenges

affecting employee health. The study investigated the influence of career

adaptability on the relationship between workplace attachment and employee

health. Employee health was measured through two facets, namely physical and

mental health. The study formulated four hypotheses. Data to test these

proposed hypotheses were collected through a survey making use of a self-

administered questionnaire among a sample of 214 public service employees.

The findings indicate support for a relationship to exist between workplace

attachment and facets of employee health. However, no evidence existed to

support the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between

workplace attachment and facets of employee health. Based on these findings,

a range of interventions targeted at employees and the public service are

suggested.

Keywords: workplace attachment; career adaptability; employee health; mental

health, physical health; public service

Introduction

There is a noted rise internationally (Cooper, 2013; Hasin et al., 2018) and in South

Africa (Chinyamurindi, 2019, Henn & Morgan, 2019) of challenges that have an impact

on employee health. International bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO)

have defined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (WHO,

1998). This view has been generally supported among researchers (see Ford et al., 2011;

Chinyamurindi and Shava

2

Ganster & Rosen, 2013; Michel et al., 2015; Pascoe & Richman, 2009). In the extant

literature, health-related challenges have been measured against several outcomes. For

instance, mental illness has been shown to influence employee productivity in the

workplace (De Vries et al., 2015). Sometimes this leads to stigmatisation of those who

suffer from health-related challenges in the workplace (Elraz, 2018). This has been also

shown to lead to stereotyping and even discrimination (Follmer & Jones, 2017).

Another challenge present in the confines of work concerns the phenomenon of

presenteeism (Hemp, 2004) where employees are on the job but owing to illness, injury

or other health complications do not perform to the best of their ability (D’Abate &

Eddy, 2007; Miraglia & Johns, 2016). All these challenges affect practices of human

resources (HR) management and the important role that HR practitioners in

organisations can play in solving this problem (Mathibe & Chinyamurindi, 2021; Shava

& Chinyamurindi, 2021). Studies have indicated a reluctance among employers to hire

employees who may be perceived to be suffering from health-related challenges

(Richards, 2012) despite ongoing conversation framing health aspects such as mental

illness as a disability (Santuzzi & Waltz, 2016).

There are noted gaps in the literature. First, issues regarding employee health to cover

physical and mental health have been researched extensively in health-related

disciplines. There appears to be scant focus on such issues from the disciplines of

management and commerce internationally (Follmer & Jones, 2018) and in South

Africa (Chinyamurindi, 2019). Little is known about the ways in which employees and

HR practitioners not only experience but also deal with challenges of a health nature,

especially mental health (Beatty et al., 2019). This need is even justified in a South

African study in which there is noted scant focus on studying health-related issues

within an organisational context (Mathibe & Chinyamurindi, 2021; Maziriri, Chuchu &

Madinga, 2019; Shava & Chinyamurindi, 2021). Second, health-related challenges such

as mental disorders affect the career development of employees (Harris et al., 2014).

Given that the type of job a person does can be linked to stress (Li et al., 2019), strategies

are needed to assist not just in the way in which employees perform their jobs but also

bearing in mind the role that health-related challenges may play to this effect. Studies

in South Africa have explored the role of organisational issues such as workplace

spirituality (Van der Walt & Steyn, 2019) and psychological capital (Kotze & Massyn,

2019), which influence the psychological well-being of employees. Finally, from an

organisational viewpoint, there is a need to test the role that organisational issues can

play as far as employee-related health outcomes are concerned (Mathibe &

Chinyamurindi, 2021; Shava & Chinyamurindi, 2021). This need is actuated by

acknowledging the unprepared nature organisations have when managing employee

health-related issues (Shann et al., 2014) and the lack of necessary knowledge exhibited

by managers (Martin et al., 2015).