Colin Mackay

'Management Standards' and work-related stress in the UK: Practical development

Research commissioned for the UKs Health & Safety Executive (HSE) supports the view that a preventative, risk-assessment based approach would be more effective than case-based methods in achieving a nationwide reduction in work-related stress. The background to this approach is described and discussed in a companion paper in this issue (Mackay, Cousins, Kelly, Lee, & McCaig, 2004). The present paper describes the development of HSEs new stress Management Standards—which offer organizations continuous improvement through a three-phase stress preventative process—and the development of a supporting ‘Indicator Tool’ (a two-phase questionnaire to assess employee perceptions of working conditions). The Management Standards comprise a series of ‘states to be achieved’, which are statements of good practice in six key stressor areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and organizational change. For each stressor area there is also a ‘platform statement’ that outlines the main aims to be achieved by the organization. This statement may include a target percentage of employees finding that the organization meets the standard: this matter will be settled after the standards have been assessed in a public consultation campaign. To use the new process, an organizations state can first be assessed using the Indicator Tool; liaising with workers in focus groups enables a further exploration of issues raised; finally, there may be formulation of interventions and subsequent review. It is not intended that the standards will be legally enforceable. HSEs aim is that they and the associated methodology will enable organizations to effectively tackle work-related stress, and subsequently reduce both its incidence and prevalence.

‘Management Standards’ and work-related stress in the UK: policy background and science

In the late 1990s, the Health and Safety Commission, as the lead authority in the UK responsible for Health and Safety at Work, conducted an extensive consultation exercise to elicit views about how work-related stress should be tackled. The Commission subsequently decided that regulation was not justified and opted for an approach with four strands. One of these was to work with stakeholders to develop clear, agreed standards of good management practice. This paper describes and discusses the rationale behind a standards-based approach that is essentially based on a method of controlling hazards. The Management Standards approach uses a taxonomy of six stressors that has evolved out of extensive research carried out on behalf of the UKs Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and in conjunction with stakeholders, and a three-phase risk assessment methodology. Further developmental work on the standards (which are to be subjected to public consultation) and associated measurement tools is described in a companion paper in this issue of Work & Stress (Cousins, Mackay, Clarke, Kelly, Kelly, & McCaig, 2004). The emphasis is on prevention towards reducing stress in the UK working population. We review current thinking on models of work stress, consider evidence linking workplace psychosocial factors and various health and organizational outcomes, and examine the effectiveness of organizational interventions. We argue that the literature supports an approach that aims to move organizational states (represented by the current situation) to more desirable ones (represented by the six Management Standards), and that this is an effective ‘population’ based approach to tackling workplace stress and promoting individual and organizational health.

THE EFFECTS OF TOLUENE AND ALCOHOL ON PSYCHOMOTOR PERFORMANCE

Eight male subjects took part in four experimental sessions in an exposure chamber to assess the effects of toluene (80 p.p.m.) and alcohol (0.4 ml per kg body weight) individually and in combination on four measures of performance and also on mood. Alcohol caused a significant deterioration over the exposure session in performance on pursuit tracking and visual search tasks and also in mood. Toluene had no significant effect on any of the behavioural measures, but examination of mean scores for each treatment suggested a tendency for performance and mood to deteriorate more when alcohol and toluene were administered together than when alcohol was taken alone.

The alleged reproductive hazards of VDUs

Abstract This paper reviews the available evidence on the alleged reproductive hazards of VDUs. It concludes that it is unlikely that any threat is posed by irradiation. Poor design of the work station and job-related stress may pose a problem for some users. However, these reflect the way in which the VDU is used, and not the VDU per se. It is recognized that anxiety about VDU use needs to be taken into account. Current guidelines on VDUs are introduced and briefly discussed.

The “Management Standards” for stress in large organizations

Purpose – In Great Britain, the ‘”Management Standards” were launched in 2004 and formally published in 2007 by the Health and Safety Executive to help organizations manage work‐related stress. The purpose of this paper is to examine how these Standards are translated into organizational practice.Design/methodology/approach – The research uses case studies carried out in five large organizations drawn from the public and private sectors in Great Britain.Findings – Senior management commitment and worker participation are key to managing work‐related stress and are commonly reported across organizations, although to variable form and depth. The solution chosen to identify stress issues is a short assessment of all staff via annual staff surveys, coupled with in‐depth assessments of groups at risk. Common practice also includes combining individual and organizational interventions. One significant challenge emerges as the translation from identified stress issues to focussed interventions and their evaluati...

Occupational health of women at work: some human-factors considerations

Abstract Although still concentrated in a narrow range of activities (compared to men) women are increasing their share of the overall labour force and there is a growing trend towards employment in occupations previously dominated by males. The health of women at work may benefit from the self-esteem and sense of accomplishment which work can bring or may suffer from the stresses which work may impose. This paper discusses such effects on the physical and mental well-being of women at work from a number of perspectives. † The views are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Health and Safety Executive.

Policy Level Interventions for Organizational Health: Development and Evolution of the UK Management Standards

In 2000, the UK Health and Safety Commission (HSC), the body at the time responsible for health and safety matters in the UK, set targets for the overall reduction in the burden of occupational health (including that of the contribution from work-related stress). As a result, a 10-year priority programme was devised to meet these targets. A key part of the intervention programme was the development of the concept of a series of ‘Management Standards’ together with a suite of associated resources that would allow organizations to both gauge their performance and to facilitate continuous improvement in both individual and organizational key performance indicators. We recognize that health is a multidimensional concept, that the most effective strategy is to tackle health inequalities at a population level and that individual and organizational health is inextricably linked albeit sometimes in complex ways. The Management Standards themselves consist of both a desirable ‘state to be achieved’ for individual psychosocial work characteristics (‘what to do and what it should look like’) and a process by which organizations can assess and manage their exposure to such factors (‘how to do it’) and implement interventions. In the context of the current book such interventions are designed to help organizations move from a less ‘healthy’ state to a more ‘healthy’ one even though the rationale behind the targets was to lessen the likelihood of individual ill-health using a risk based paradigm. But this can equally well be seen within a salutogenic model for promoting health. Although there are weaknesses as well as strengths in the current approach (which we discuss) we think the Management Standards approach provides a useful model for the improvement of organizational health. We describe a series of developments that have been designed to improve usability of the methodology and widen the scope of the Management Standards.

Work‐related distress in the 1990s ‐ a real increase in ill health?

Over recent years there have been massive changes in working life and workplaces. Across the 1990s there has been a marked increase in reports of work‐related psychological distress in the UK. This paper uses the results of the most recent Occupational Health Decennial supplement (Office for National Statistics (ONS) & Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2007), based on nationally representative data sources on distress at work, working conditions, sickness absence and psychiatric morbidity to examine the reasons for the apparent increase in work‐related psychological distress.

Population Level Interventions to Control Psychosocial Risks: Problems and Prospects

We describe, thus far, the results of a population level intervention to decrease the exposure to psychosocial risks in the UK working population – and, by so doing, reduce the incidence and prevalence of common stress-related health conditions – these assessed against 10 year targets. We developed a series of Management Standards consisting of six factors that are known to impact on psychological health and wellbeing. It was intention that these would be rolled-out across the UK workforce by implementing them at an organizational level. Alongside the Management Standards was an Indicator Tool that gave scores on each of the six factors to measure current and future performance. Using this tool we did national level surveys on an annual basis from 2004 (when the Standards were introduced) until 2010 when the programme ended. The data indicate a mixed picture. Some measures showed significant improvement, some showed no change and one (control) significant worsening over the period. We discuss some possible reasons for this partial failure.