Controlling Managers Hinder Productivity

New figures 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.

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.

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, 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.”