Organizational Change and Employees' Mental Health: The Protective Role of Sense of Coherence

Objective: To examine the impact of sense of coherence (SOC) on psychiatric events in the context of organizational merger. Methods: Data were derived from a prospective Still Working study using questionnaire and health register data. The study population (n = 4279) consisted of employees with no psychiatric events prior to the 5-year mental health follow-up. Results: Employees with a weaker premerger SOC were at a higher risk of perceiving the organizational change negatively (odds ratio = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.57 to 2.14) and had an elevated risk of postmerger psychiatric events (hazard ratio = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.94). A stronger SOC decreased the adverse effect of negative appraisal of change on psychiatric events. Conclusions: A strong premerger SOC seems to be a protective factor for mental health when the employee experiences negative changes during an organizational merger.