The revamping of British business has produced managers with lower morale, less company loyalty, and a reduced sense of job security, according to a survey published February 1, 2001, by the Institute of Management (IM) and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). The fourth Quality of Working Life reports research found that in many cases organizational change has not been well managed, and that some forms of change, notably redundancy and downsizing, are particularly damaging to organizations.
In the latest of these yearly projects, which began in l997, 1,516 managers in the UK were quizzed on a vast range of work/life issues. Although over 1/3 reported overall low morale in their organizations, 8 out of 10 managers reported getting along well with their colleagues, and 7 out of 10 with their bosses.
One consistent finding of the survey, from its start four years ago, has been the necessity for British managers to work long hours, with 77% currently working over 40 hours/week. 75% of them said burning the candle at both ends was the only way to deal with their workload. 64% said long hours was “part of their organization’s culture,” and 55% said it was expected of them by their employer. However, there are clear signs that managers are becoming increasingly resistant to working long hours to the detriment of their home lives: in 1997, 25% of managers saw home as more important than work, and this has steadily increased each year to 32% in 2000.
Fifty-four percent of managers say they’re suffering from “information overload,” an increase of 12% in the four years since the research began in 1997. The report concludes: “Information overload now looks like a fact of managerial life.” New technology is clearly viewed as a mixed blessing; 82% said their workload had not diminished as a result of e-mail, with a mere 12% saying it had.
The authors argue that organizational change could be managed more effectively if businesses took a number of steps, including:
- Avoiding wholesale and uncritical adoption of the latest managerial fads;
- Encouraging full participation in the processes of change; and
- Being aware of the effects of change and having an “up-front” strategy to manage the immediate post-change period
For a more complete report of the survey, visit the Institute of Management.
