Professional Documents
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Abstract
Purpose Work-related stress is a major concern for employers, and the UK Health and Safety
Executive has introduced Management Standards for employers to support them in managing stress in
the workplace. Managers have a key role to play in minimizing stress-related risks for their staff.
Management behavior has a direct impact on staff well-being managers can prevent or cause stress
in those they manage. Managers also act as gatekeepers to their employees exposure to stressful
working conditions and are vital to the identification and tackling of stress in the workplace. This means
that managers need to understand what behaviors they should show in order to manage their employees
in a way that minimizes work-related stress. New research has identified management
behavior/competencies that prevent and reduce stress at work and this paper aims to present this.
Emma Donaldson-Feilder is
Chartered Occupational
Psychologist, Affinity Health
at Work, New Barnet, UK.
Jo Yarker is Lecturer in
Occupational Psychology
and Rachel Lewis is
Research Associate, both
at the University of London,
London, UK.
The authors have recently been
awarded Practitioner of the Year
by the British Psychological
Society Division of Occupational
Psychology for their work on this
project.
The research findings so far are
the outcome of the first phase of a
continuing research program.
Further research is under way to
refine and validate the
competency framework and to
explore how it can best be used in
practice. For those interested in
learning more about the findings
of this research, the HSE and
CIPD are providing free
downloads as follows: short
guidance leaflets providing the
findings of the research can be
downloaded from the CIPD web
site: www.cipd.co.uk:80/
subjects/health/stress/
_lnmngtstrs.htm; and the full
research report can be
downloaded from the HSE web
site: www.hse.gov.uk/research/
rrhtm/rr553.htm
DOI 10.1108/14754390810853110
Design/methodology/approach The first phase of this research involved interviews with nearly 400
employees and managers, and focus groups with over 50 human resources (HR) professionals. They
were asked for their views on what manager behaviors are important, in terms of behaviors that are
effective and behaviors that are ineffective for managing stress in staff.
Findings The behaviors identified were grouped into themes to create a framework of 19
management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work.
Originality/value The resulting competency framework can be incorporated into managers
management approach, into HR practices such as training, selection and appraisal of managers and
into other stress management activities in order to manage stress at work more effectively.
Keywords Stress, Employees, Health and safety, Human resource management, Competences
Paper type Research paper
ork-related stress is now a major concern for employers. In the UK, Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) figures show that work-related stress, depression or
anxiety account for an estimated 12.8 million lost working days per year. Around
one in seven working individuals think their job is very or extremely stressful and 420,000
individuals in Britain believe that they are experiencing work-related stress at a level that is
making them ill[1]. This means that very few organizations are likely to escape the impact of
stress-related absence and employee stress. Where stress-related problems lead to an
employee being absent from work, an average of 29 working days are lost. In a recent
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey, 40 percent of the
responding organizations reported an increase in stress-related absence (CIPD, 2007).
In response to the problem presented by work-related stress, the HSE has established
Management Standards for stress at work that are designed to help employers tackle the
major sources of work-related stress risk. Published in 2004, these represent a set of
conditions that reflect high levels of health, well-being and organizational performance.
They cover six key areas, which, if not managed well, put employees at risk of stress-related
ill-health. They are demands, control, support, relationships, role and change[1].
VOL. 7 NO. 2 2008, pp. 11-16, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398
STRATEGIC HR REVIEW
PAGE 11
Managers can cause (or prevent) stress by the way they behave towards their
employees.
Managers can help ensure that stress is identified early if it occurs in their team.
If an individual suffers from stress, the manager needs to be involved in the solution.
Managers hold the key to the success of work development or change initiatives.
Managers are responsible for the uptake and rollout of risk assessments for work stress
within their team/department.
On the basis that managers are vital to managing stress in the workplace, it is important that
we understand exactly what a manager should (and should not) be doing to prevent and
reduce workplace stress. The research evidence to support managers in this area has, until
recently, been sparse. However, new research by psychologists from Goldsmiths, University
of London and Affinity Health at Work has started to clarify the key behaviors.
Research findings
Funded by the HSE and supported by the CIPD, the first phase of this research involved
interviews with nearly 400 employees and managers, and focus groups with over 50 HR
professionals. Participants were drawn from 30 organizations across five sectors
healthcare, finance, education, local government and central government. They were asked
for their views on what manager behaviors are important, both in terms of behaviors that are
effective and of behaviors that are ineffective for managing stress in staff. The behaviors
identified were grouped into themes to create a framework of 19 management
competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work. The competency framework,
with examples of positive and negative behavior relating to each competency, is shown in
Table I.
The data from the participants in different sectors were compared to see if the manager
behaviors required to prevent and reduce stress are different depending on the work setting.
Perhaps surprisingly, the findings showed no significant differences between the behaviors
identified by participants from different sectors. This suggests that the manager behaviors
that prevent and reduce stress at work are pretty much the same in all the sectors. There is,
perhaps, a set of management competencies that are universally applicable for preventing
and reducing stress at work.
Given that many organizations already have competency frameworks in place, the
researchers also explored whether the management competencies for preventing and
reducing stress at work were distinct from more general management
behaviors/competencies. They compared the framework that emerged from the research
to a selection of the most widely used people management and leadership frameworks.
They found that each of the competencies appeared in at least one of the comparison
Empowerment
Participative approach
Development
Accessible/visible
Feedback
Managing conflict
Table I
Competency
Friendly style
Communication
Taking responsibility
Knowledge of job
Empathy
Seeking advice
frameworks, suggesting that the framework can be integrated with existing management
responsibilities. However, no one framework included all 19 competencies. This means that
some behaviors relevant to managing the stress of others are not included in current
management competency frameworks, and are therefore not being assessed, trained or
developed at line manager level.
Training and development. Using the framework to guide training for managers and
ensure that they develop the skills, abilities and behaviors necessary to manage stress
effectively.
Selection and assessment. Using the framework to inform selection processes and
ensure that those who are recruited into the organization are good at managing stress, as
well as performance, in their employees.
As a mechanism for tackling specific hotspots such as departments, units and teams:
managers in the hotspot areas can be supported to develop behaviors/competencies
relevant for preventing and reducing work stress.
To tackle issues relating to specific working conditions (such as work demands or job
control): managers can be supported to develop the relevant behaviors/competencies
(e.g. for managing demands or increasing job control).
To help ensure, as highlighted in the HSEs Management Standards, that systems are in
place locally to respond to individual concerns: managers can be equipped with the
skills to be the local system and respond effectively to their employees individual
concerns.
Using the competency framework in these ways should result in healthier organizations and
help to reduce sickness absence. It should also enable employer organizations to meet their
duties to protect staff from suffering work-related stress.
Note
1. Available at: www.hse.gov.uk/stress
Reference
CIPD (2007), Annual survey report 2007. Absence management, CIPD, London, available at www.
cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/absence/absmagmt.htm
and well-being. Emma Donaldson-Feilder is the corresponding author and can be contacted
at: emma@affinityhealthatwork.com
Joanna Yarker (nee Pryce) is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist specializing in health
at work. She has worked with a range of public and private sector organizations, including
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Redbridge County Council, CancerBACUP, AstraZeneca, RCN,
Shell, Corrs Brewers, Ford, Royal Bank of Scotland and Royal Scottish Assurance. She holds
a PhD in Applied Psychology and lectures at the University of London in the areas of
selection, occupational health psychology and work design. Working within both the
academic and practitioner fields enables her to apply current research and innovative
approaches to her work, while maintaining awareness of the rapidly changing needs of
business. She also takes a keen interest in professional activities she is chair of the British
Psychological Societys Occupational Psychology Annual Conference and publishes her
work in practitioner and academic journals.
Rachel Lewis is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist who specializes in organisational
research and consultancy. Through her work in this field, she has been responsible for the
design, implementation and interpretation of many employee and customer research and
3608 feedback programs. She has worked in a wide range of public and private sector
organizations. She also has a keen interest in occupational well-being and is currently
working on a doctorate at Goldsmiths, University of London in the area of leadership and
well-being. She is a visiting lecturer at the University of London in the areas of selection,
training and development. She is a practitioner member of the Division of Occupational
Psychology and The Association of Business Psychologists.