Press releases

Figures published today show that performance levels in workplaces across the UK are suffering as overbearing and dogmatic management practices top the list of management styles.  The ‘Quality of Working Life’ report, which questioned 1,511 managers, also found a high rate of sickness and absence levels in organisations exhibiting ‘negative’ management styles.

The report, published by the Chartered Management Institute and Simplyhealth, assessed the impact of differing managerial styles on motivation, health and productivity.  Key findings include:

• Tight reins: the most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent).  Worryingly, all three have become increasingly common; the top two have increased by 6 per cent since 2004, with authoritarian leadership also rising 5 per cent

• Index linked: the research shows empowering managerial styles are most associated with growing businesses.  More than 1 in 3 (37 per cent) of organisations performing well are cited as having ‘accessible’ management teams, whereas 56 per cent of declining companies exhibit bureaucracy and 25 per cent create a ‘secretive’ environment

• Sicknote culture: only 1 in 10 respondents said absence increased in organisations with ‘innovative’ and ‘trusting’ cultures.  This was in contrast to 45 per cent suggesting sickness rates have gone up where employers were ‘suspicious’.

Jo Causon, director, marketing and corporate affairs, at the Chartered Management Institute, says: “The effect of management styles on performance can be marked and has a direct bearing on the levels of health, motivation and commitment linking employers and staff.  Of course, improving the sense of wellbeing, determination and productivity, is no easy task but one that cannot be ignored.  Left alone, it will only serve to reduce morale and lower the quality of working life.”

The findings show that the majority (69 per cent) are motivated by ‘a sense of achievement from reaching organisational goals’.  However, it is clear from the research that management style also has a dramatic impact on job satisfaction.  For example, the presence of an authoritarian approach depresses enjoyment of work by 27 points, from 71 to 44 per cent.  Confidence in senior management teams also declines from 60 to 27 per cent, where the dominant style is bureaucratic.

Des Benjamin, chief executive of Simplyhealth, says: “There is increasing pressure to improve competiveness and efficiency, but this doesn’t have to be about reducing costs.  At Simplyhealth we have focused on creating the right environment and the right management behaviours.  The result, compared to other organisations surveyed, is that our prevalent management styles are ranked as accessible, empowering and trusting and we’ve been able to cope with more change, with less detrimental effect on our health.  Hence you can improve competitiveness and enhance performance by creating a healthy environment rather than reacting to an unhealthy one”.

The report was developed by Professor Les Worrall (University of Wolverhampton Business School) and Professor Cary Cooper (Lancaster University Management School).  It is the sixth in a series of reports exploring the quality of working life in the UK.  Commenting on the findings, Professor Cooper says: “Against a backdrop of constant change, the relationship between good management practice and the reality of the workplace is intriguing.  In an environment dominated by the need to retain the best talent, it is also extremely disappointing to see negative styles prevail in the UK.” 

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Further information:
Mike Petrook /Julia Brook, Institute Press Office
Tel: 020 7497 0496; outside office hours: 07931 302 877
Email:press.office@managers.org.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS
Representing 73,000 individual managers and 450 corporate members, the Chartered Management Institute is the only chartered professional body dedicated to management and leadership. The Institute supports individual members with practical guidance on the issues that affect managers in their day-to-day working lives and, as the guardians of national standards for management and leadership, it is also in a unique position to work with employers to identify and develop the necessary management and leadership skills that drive performance in the UK and internationally.  Through its research and policy programme, the Institute also analyses and shapes the issues that matter to employers and individuals, using its knowledge in open communications with key policy makers and government departments responsible for skills development.  The Chartered Management Institute came into being on 1 April 2002, as a result of the Institute of Management being granted a Royal Charter.

Simplyhealth is the parent company for a community of healthcare businesses that have come together to help more people feel better.  BCWA, HealthSure, HSA and LHF form Simplyhealth Access, the financial services division of the Group whilst Simplyhealth Wellbeing incorporates the non-financial divisions within the Group, these being Adastral Health Limited, Your health screening and Totally Active.   The Group specialises in healthcare schemes and services for individuals, families and companies, which range from cash plans and private medical insurance, to health screening, occupational health and mobility aids.