Preventing Stress in Organizations – How to Develop Positive Managers

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. What is Stress? What Stress is Not: Common Misperceptions. Common Causes of Stress. Work-Related Stress and the Line Manager. Summary. References. 2 Why managing stress is important: The business and legal reasons. The Business Case. The Costs of Work-Related Stress. Calculating the Cost of Stress to Your Business. What Should We Be Doing to Monitor these Costs? The Legal Case. Legal Cases of Work-Related Stress. What Should We Be Doing to Comply with Legislation? Summary. References. 3 How to manage work-related stress. Prevention. Training and Development. Support. Organizational, Manager and Team, and Individual Level Interventions. What Should Our Organization Be Doing? Where Does the Line Manager Fit In? Summary. Reference. 4 Developing a framework to promote positive manager behaviour. Rationale: The Need For a Stress Management Approach Focusing on Positive Manager Behaviour. Why We Took a Competency-Based Approach. The Research Underlying the Positive Manager Behaviour Framework and Approach. The Positive Manager Behaviour Framework. Evidence to Support a Positive Manager Behaviour Approach. Useful Resources. References. 5 Respectful and responsible: Managing emotions and having integrity (management competency 1) . Integrity. Managing Emotions. Considerate Approach. Summary. References. 6 Managing and communicating existing and future work (management competency 2). Proactive Work Management. Problem Solving. Participative/Empowering. Summary. References. 7 Managing the individual within the team (management competency 3). Personally Accessible. Sociable. Empathetic Engagement. Summary. References. 8 Reasoning/managing difficult situations (management competency 4). Managing Conflict. Use of Organizational Resources. Taking Responsibility for Resolving Issues. Summary. References. 9 Overcoming barriers to positive manager behaviour. Personal Level Barriers. Individual Work or Job Level Barriers. Team and Relationship Level Barriers. Organizational and Wider Level Barriers. Reference. 10 Supporting managers to change their behaviour. Behaviour Change Is Possible. Theories of Behaviour Change. Implementing Behaviour Change Interventions. References. 11 Is stress management just good management? Comparing Positive Manager Behaviour with General Management/Leadership Competency Frameworks. Implications for Practice. How to Do Your Own Mapping. How to Identify Missing Positive Manager Behaviour Elements. How to Integrate Missing Positive Manager Behaviour Elements. Valuing People Management Skills. References. 12 The way forward. Where are You Now? Starting Out - Understanding Positive Manager Behaviour and How It Might Be Useful. Deciding How to Use Positive Manager Behaviour. Gaining Buy-In. Applying Positive Manager Behaviour. Sustainable Impact. References. Appendix. Index.