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Report finds 'negative' management styles most common in UK organisations

A new report suggests 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, published by the Chartered Management Institute and Simplyhealth, looked at the impact of differing managerial styles on motivation, health and productivity.

According to the report:

* The most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). 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

* 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 of marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, said: "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 report, which questioned 1,511 managers, found that the majority (69 per cent) are motivated by 'a sense of achievement from reaching organisational goals'. However, the research says 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, said: "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 Business 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 said: "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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