School of Human Resources Management (SHRM) Professor Duygu Biricik Gulseren’s research focuses on healthy and safe work (e.g., leading healthy workplaces, chronic pain at work, work-life-health interface) and leadership (e.g., transformational leadership, abusive supervision, leadership development).

Her recent article on creating psychologically healthy workplaces explores the relationship between leadership and mental health mediated by psychological safety at work. Prof. Gulseren’s research highlights how organizations need preventative solutions - beyond treating mental health issues - to create healthy workplaces. She argues that leaders are critical resources in organizations; and that developing healthy leadership can be a promising solution for workplace mental health issues. Her research proposes a psychologically healthy leadership model.

More recently, her research has also focused on the complex interplay between work and chronic pain. She flags the need for a deeper understanding of work conditions that help or hinder chronic pain, to help develop more effective workplace interventions and policies. Through her research, Prof. Gulseren aims to develop methods and tools that enable organizational leaders to address the topic of pain and pain disability in the workplace.

“Being in pain affects how workers perform, if they’re able to focus on their tasks, and how they interact with customers and coworkers. Consequently, unaddressed chronic pain has serious financial implications for organizations. Our findings show that about 80% of the leaders recognize pain as an organizational problem and they want to support their employees in pain, but they don’t know how to help.”

Connect with Prof. Gulseren, to know more about her research and collaborate with her.