Report: Command & Control Negative Approach Hinders Productivity

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Training Zone

Negative Management Styles
Most Common in UK Organisations

The 'command and control' approach to work is hindering UK productivity, according to research. Performance levels in workplaces are suffering as overbearing and dogmatic management practices top the list of management styles.

The report into the quality of working life, which questioned 1,511 managers, also found a high rate of sickness and absence levels in organisations exhibiting ‘negative’ management styles.

The research, published by the Chartered Management Institute and Simplyhealth, assessed the impact of differing managerial styles on motivation, health and productivity. Key findings include:

• Tight reins: 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

• Index linked: the research shows empowering managerial styles are most associated with growing businesses. More than 1 in 3 (37 per cent) of organisations performing well are cited as having 'accessible' management teams, whereas 56 per cent of declining companies exhibit bureaucracy and 25 per cent create a 'secretive' environment

• Sicknote culture: 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'.

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