News on 2 February 2001
Most UK managers work overtime and many feel their companies have low morale. This insight into managerial working life comes from a survey, published by the Institute of Management and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).
Almost all (91%) of the 1,516 managers participating in the survey work
over their contracted hours with 77% working more than 40 hours a week
to deal with their workload. Over 60% said long hours were "part
of their organisation's culture" and more than half said it was
expected of them by their employer. Not surprisingly, less than half
of managers look forward to going to work.
The number who rated home as more important than work increased by 7%
over three years, a trend which was especially pronounced lower down
the hierarchy with 45% of junior managers and 42% of middle managers
thinking work is less important than home.
Although eight out of ten managers get on well with their colleagues
and seven out of ten with their bosses, the survey found there was less
company loyalty with 79% of managers regarding their career development
as "down to me" and 44% feeling the need to change jobs to
pursue their careers.
One of the authors of the report, Professor Les Worrall, senior research
fellow at UMIST and professor of strategic analysis at Wolverhampton
Business School, said: "While change is necessary, the real trick
is to implement organisational change without undermining the quality
of managers' working lives and destroying the values on which many organisations
are built."
Mary Chapman, director general of the Institute of Management, said:
"It is clear from this research that British managers are reassessing
their relationship both with work and home in an attempt to find a better
balance between the two. They are also increasingly seeing themselves
as the masters of their own destiny, with old loyalties being replaced
by a new spirit of independence in an increasingly competitive commercial
world."
