Chapter 4

Developing a Framework to Promote Positive Manager Behaviour

This chapter introduces the framework developed to promote Positive Manager Behaviour. This framework has been developed over five years of research, working with dozens of organizations, involving hundreds of managers and employees, across many different sectors. Throughout this research we have worked to balance the practical outputs with research rigour to ensure that the end result is both embedded in sound foundations and easy and meaningful to use in organizations.

In the pages that follow, we aim to do four things:

  • present the rationale and need for a stress management approach focusing on Positive Manager Behaviour;
  • explain why we took a competency-based approach;
  • introduce the research we conducted to develop the Positive Manager Behaviour framework and approach; and
  • provide evidence to support the Positive Manager Behaviour approach.

Rationale: The Need for a Stress Management Approach Focusing on Positive Manager Behaviour

As described in Chapter 1, line managers play a significant role in the management of stress at work. While their role in causing stress and their responsibilities to manage stress were recognized by many, little was known about how line managers caused stress or indeed how they could work to prevent and reduce work-related stress in their employees. Before embarking on research to develop the framework for Positive Manager Behaviour, we conducted a comprehensive review of the ...

Get Preventing Stress in Organizations: How to Develop Positive Managers now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.