Combining management research with infectious disease epidemiology, we propose a new perspective on mental disorders in a business context. We suggest that—similar to infectious diseases—clinical diagnoses of depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders can spread epidemically across the boundaries of organizations via social contagion. We propose a framework for assessing the patterns of disease transmission, with employee mobility as the driver of contagion across organizations. We empirically test the proposed mental disorder transmission patterns by observing more than 250,000 employees and more than 17,000 Danish firms over a period of 12 years. Our findings reveal that when organizations hire employees from other, unhealthy organizations (those with a high prevalence of mental disorders), they “implant” depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders into their workforces. Employees leaving unhealthy organizations act as “carriers” of these disorders regardless of whether they themselves have received a formal diagnosis of a mental disorder. The effect is especially pronounced if the newcomer holds a managerial position.

将管理研究与传染病流行病学相结合，我们在商业环境中提出了关于精神障碍的新观点。我们建议，与传染病类似，抑郁症，焦虑症和与压力有关的疾病的临床诊断可以通过社会感染在组织范围内流行。我们提出了一种评估疾病传播模式的框架，其中员工流动性是整个组织内传染的驱动力。我们在12年的时间里观察了超过25万名员工和17,000多家丹麦公司，以实证方式测试了建议的精神障碍传播模式。我们的发现表明，当组织从其他不健康的组织（精神疾病患病率很高）中雇用员工时，他们会“植入”抑郁症，焦虑症，和与压力有关的疾病进入他们的员工队伍。离开不健康组织的员工将成为这些疾病的“携带者”，无论他们自己是否已接受精神疾病的正式诊断。如果新来者担任管理职务，这种影响尤其明显。