Scholarly Impact Report 2023

CATHERINE MCAULEY SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, UCC

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THEME 5 - MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: PEOPLE, ORGANISATIONS, AND PLACES

Understanding Sources of Stress, building Wellbeing and Resilience among Customer Success Employees in Germany. This project is funded by UNIC Engaged Research Seed Funding Pilot Scheme 2023. As business models become more digitalised and complex, greater technical skill and knowledge is required. Customer Success departments (CS-departments) have been introduced in Business-to-Business (B2B) companies to address complexity by providing solutions for client-related issues. Staff working in CS-departments do not always receive sufficient technical or psychological support to deal with the stress associated with client demands or satisfaction levels. The aim of the project is to explore the organisational landscape of B2B companies, the stress CS department staff experience and develop initiatives to build mental wellbeing and resilience. Recommendations designed to reduce work-related stress, increase individual and organisational health and mental wellbeing will be developed, including psychosocial and personal health (World Health Organisation, 2010). The project will be guided by Action Research methodology (McNiff, 1988), whereby 1) an action or intervention to reduce stress, build resilience and wellbeing will be identified through consensus building workshops, 2) the intervention will be tested over time, 3) the intervention will be evaluated, 4) decisions will be co-productively made to adopt, modify, or reject the intervention. Action Research will enable a co-productive process between researchers (UCC and Ruhr-University), and CS-department staff and management within Motion Minors and Cendas GmbH to identify the scale of staff stress, to co-design and implement possible solutions.

The mental health teams diverse research presentations were underpinned by methodologies such as auto-ethnography, interpretive phenomenological analysis, qualitative descriptive research and systematic reviews. Their presentation topics included; the challenges in employing Experts by Experience in Mental Health nursing education, staff experiences of behaviours that challenge in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services, feelings of safety within self-practice among CBT therapists, and experiences of transgender and gender diverse youth within healthcare. As Chair of the Scientific Committee, Professor Happell opened the conference, iterating how mentally healthy professionals are more effective in their contribution to quality mental health services and as such they need to engage in self-care and use their therapeutic skills in their interactions with colleagues. Lead and Team Members: Dr Aine O Donovan, Senior Lecturer School of Nursing & Midwifery Dr James O Mahony, College Lecturer School of Nursing & Midwifery Dr Maria O Malley, College Lecturer School of Nursing & Midwifery Mx. Ryan Goulding, College Lecturer School of Nursing & Midwifery Professor Brenda Happell, Adjunct Professor School of Nursing & Midwifery

Dr Áine O’ Donovan and Dr Maria O’ Malley travelled to Ruhr, Germany in November 2023 to lead the consensus building workshop, the 1st stage of the project.

Lead and Team Members: Dr Áine O’Donovan & Dr Maria O’Malley

References: Hilton, B., Hajihashemi, B., Henderson, C. M., & Palmatier, R. W. (2020). Customer Success Management: The next evolution in customer management practice? Industrial marketing management, 90, 360-369. McNiff, J. (1988) Action Research: Principles and Practice, Basingstoke, Macmillan Russell, H., Maitre, B., Watson, D. & Fahey, E. (2018). Job stress and working conditions: Ireland in comparative perspective – an analysis of the European Working Conditions survey. Dublin, Economic and Social Research Institute DOI: https://doi.org/10.26504/rs84 Susskind, L., McKearnan, S. & Thomas-Larmer, J. (1999). The consensus building handbook: A comprehensive guide to reaching agreement. London, Sage Publications. Tillyer, R., Shubak Tillyer, M., McCluskey J., Cancino J., Todaro J. & McKinnon, L. (2014). Researcher–practitioner partnerships and crime analysis: a case study in action research. Police Practice and Research, 15, 5, 404– 418, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2013.829321 World Health Organisation (2010) Healthy workplaces: a model for action for employers, workers, policy-makers and practitioners. ISBN: 978 92 4 159931 3. Available at: https://www.who.int/ publications/i/item/healthy-workplaces-a-model-for-action