Managing Stress Through Effective Line Management

The CIPD and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have recently launched a major research project to investigate the link between line management behaviour and stress at work.

The 18 month project will explore effective and ineffective stress management behaviours from the perspective of employees, line managers and HR in a range of case study organisations across the financial services, health, education, and local and central government sectors.

The research team will use a combination of one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions to identify the specific management behaviours that are associated with the effective management of stress at work.  This will include behaviours associated with each of the HSE’s six management standards:  demand, control, support, roles, relationships and change.  The project, as well as identifying the role that managers need to pay in identifying and preventing stress, will also highlight the vital importance of people management skills to effective line management and healthy and productive workplaces.

The CIPD survey report Absence Management 2005 identified management behaviour as one of the main causes of stress in the workplace.  The survey also highlighted excessive workload, organisational change and relationships at work as major causes of stress at work – issues that line managers can help to address if they have the right skills.

Many line managers create stress for themselves and cause stress to their teams because they’re not managing their people properly.   As a result, their teams don’t perform.  The research will explore how line managers can manage in ways that prevent or reduce stress.

For example, do they delegate appropriately, provide autonomy, coach and develop their teams, communicate clearly and consult with staff while encouraging new ideas and setting clear objectives.

The project is designed to have extremely practical outcomes including competency frameworks for distribution to HR professionals and managers, an advice leaflet for managers that outlines example behaviours across the management standards, and general guidance on the translation of stress management competencies into organisational frameworks to be targeted at HR professionals. There will also be a report collating experiences of the HSE management standards implementation from employee, managerial and HR perspectives.

The research project is led by Dr Joanna Pryce of Goldsmiths College, University of London and Emma Donaldson-Feilder, independent expert, and is supported by two research associates, Rachel Lewis and Paul Flaxman.
Source: Impact – quarterly update on CIPD policy and research – Feb 2006