Preventing Stress in Organizations (eBook)

Emma Donaldson-Feilder is a Director of Affinity Health at Work and a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. In addition to her roles as researcher and practitioner, working to improve employee well-being and engagement, she is the author of numerous publications, a regular conference presenter, and a media commentator on issues relating to health at work. Rachel Lewis is a Director of Affinity Health at Work, a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and a lecturer in Occupational Psychology at Kingston Business School. She combines her academic career with regular conference speaking, consultancy and training, focusing on the links between leadership, management and employee well-being. Joanna Yarker is a Director of Affinity Health at Work and a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. She has previously held posts at Goldsmiths, University of London and the University of Nottingham. She writes regularly for academic and trade journals, and offers guidance and training to public and private sector organizations focused on improving workplace health.

1 Introduction 1

What is Stress? 2

What Stress is Not: Common Misperceptions 3

Common Causes of Stress 4

Work-Related Stress and the Line Manager 5

Summary 9

References 9

2 Why managing stress is important: The business and legalreasons 11

The Business Case 11

The Costs of Work-Related Stress 12

Calculating the Cost of Stress to Your Business 19

What Should We Be Doing to Monitor these Costs? 23

The Legal Case 24

Legal Cases of Work-Related Stress 25

What Should We Be Doing to Comply with Legislation? 28

Summary 29

References 29

3 How to manage work-related stress 31

Prevention 32

Training and Development 35

Support 37

Organizational, Manager and Team, and Individual LevelInterventions 38

What Should Our Organization Be Doing? 41

Where Does the Line Manager Fit In? 42

Summary 44

Reference 44

4 Developing a framework to promote positive managerbehaviour 45

Rationale: The Need For a Stress Management Approach Focusing onPositive Manager Behaviour 46

Why We Took a Competency-Based Approach 49

The Research Underlying the Positive Manager Behaviour Frameworkand Approach 51

The Positive Manager Behaviour Framework 55

Evidence to Support a Positive Manager

Behaviour Approach 56

Useful Resources 64

References 65

5 Respectful and responsible: Managing emotions and havingintegrity (management competency 1) 67

Integrity 68

Managing Emotions 75

Considerate Approach 81

Summary 85

References 87

6 Managing and communicating existing and future work(management competency 2) 89

Proactive Work Management 90

Problem Solving 101

Participative/Empowering 106

Summary 119

References 121

7 Managing the individual within the team (managementcompetency 3) 123

Personally Accessible 124

Sociable 132

Empathetic Engagement 137

Summary 144

References 145

8 Reasoning/managing difficult situations (managementcompetency 4) 147

Managing Conflict 148

Use of Organizational Resources 157

Taking Responsibility for Resolving Issues 164

Summary 168

References 169

9 Overcoming barriers to positive manager behaviour171

Personal Level Barriers 172

Individual Work or Job Level Barriers 176

Team and Relationship Level Barriers 182

Organizational and Wider Level Barriers 186

Reference 189

10 Supporting managers to change their behaviour 191

Behaviour Change Is Possible 192

Theories of Behaviour Change 193

Implementing Behaviour Change Interventions 195

References 207

11 Is stress management just good management? 209

Comparing Positive Manager Behaviour with GeneralManagement/Leadership Competency Frameworks 211

Implications for Practice 214

How to Do Your Own Mapping 215

How to Identify Missing Positive Manager Behaviour Elements224

How to Integrate Missing Positive Manager Behaviour Elements225

Valuing People Management Skills 227

References 230

12 The way forward 231

Where are You Now? 231

Starting Out - Understanding Positive Manager Behaviourand How It Might Be Useful 233

Deciding How to Use Positive Manager Behaviour 234

Gaining Buy-In 240

Applying Positive Manager Behaviour 244

Sustainable Impact 250

References 253

Appendix 255

Index 261

"In its way, this is a groundbreaking book since it recognises
that, no matter what the policy says, tackling organisational
stress has to be implemented by normal, fallible people who happen
to be managers - and that they could do with all the help they can
get." (RoSPA Occupational Safety & Health Journal, 1 September
2011)



"The three authors - all chartered occupational
psychologists - have used their real-life experience and
coupled it with a good understanding of research and theory to
create an excellent "How to" book for line managers. I
would go so far as to say this is almost an essential read for
anybody with line-management responsibility and it also has an
important educative role for strategic managers who need to
understand exactly the psychological culture that will protect and
support their organisation." People Management (July 2011)

"This is a really important book because it looks at the role
of managers in creating or preventing stress in the
workplace. The UK Government's Foresight project on
Mental Capital and Wellbeing clearly highlights the fact that
managerial style is implicated in people's health and
wellbeing at work. A must-read for those trying to manage
stress in organizations."

--Professor Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of
Organizational Psychology and Health, Lancaster University
Management School

"The authors of this book know their stuff and have written a
very practical guide. This is much more than just another "how to"
book for managers; it draws on the authors' extensive research and
provides a solid evidence-based framework for positive
management."

--Professor Ivan Robertson, Director, Robertson Cooper
Ltd

"This is a comprehensive and practical review which is
helpful in documenting the key role of line managers in ensuring
health-promoting workplaces. The authors' experience is
supported by well-chosen case studies and helps to provide clear
advice. Preventing Stress in Organizations clarifies the
plethora of research in this complex field and provides pragmatic
solutions to the common and costly issue of organizational stress
management."

--Dr Steven Boorman, Chief Medical Adviser Royal Mail
Group, NHS Workforce Health & Well-being Lead Reviewer