News: Performance Management
Leadership skills lack affects workers' heart health, claim researchers
26 November 2008
Without adequate management and leadership skills training, senior executives could ultimately have an adverse effect on workers' health, new research suggests.
A team of scientists from University College London and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health released their study this week, centring on feedback they acquired from 3,000 employed men over a period of ten years.
Individuals found to be more likely to suffer a heart attack or other cardiac condition had cited significant lacks in their leaders' communication, managing capability and delegation skills.
Having had their heart health checked in the workplace between 1992 and 1995, the employees' occupational health records were matched with national registry data on hospital admissions and death from ischemic heart disease up to 2003.
Overall, individuals who rated their bosses' leadership skills poorly were said to be 60 per cent more likely to suffer from the aforementioned afflictions, while those who reported a "robust" experience of management were 40 per cent less likely to suffer heart emergencies.
Writing in the British Medical Journal's Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the researchers conclude: "One could speculate that a present and active manager, providing structure, information and support, counteracts destructive processes in work groups, thereby promoting regenerative rather than stress-related physiological processes in employees."
