Manager's Role and Responsibilities in Preventing Psychosocial Risks
13 February 2013
Read by 2371 persons
You hear more and more about psychosocial risks (PSR) without knowing exactly what they are? As a manager, you have a role in preventing these risks.
Do you know your responsibilities? Is your management style a source of stress for your employees? What are the warning signs to recognize a vulnerable employee and what to do?
What is meant by "Psychosocial Risks (PSR)"? How do they concretely translate in a company?
Psychosocial Risks are usually described by the following manifestations:
1) Stress, which is usually defined by the gap between what one thinks one should do and the resources one thinks one has to accomplish it.
Stress is also described as "the gap between what people think should be done and what they are required to accomplish".
2) "Harassment" is part of Psychosocial Risks, as well as verbal or physical violence, whether it takes place in the company or during contact with the outside.
3) Discomfort, a vague notion, is also sometimes mentioned. It sometimes covers the lack of adequacy between the aspirations and/or skills of an individual and the position he occupies. This discomfort can also cover the notion of isolation or lack of integration into a group, as well as the interactions between personal and professional problems.
4) Consumption of risky products (alcohol, drugs, medication) are sometimes associated with work situations and therefore refer to the notion of "psychosocial risk".
How are managers involved in the prevention of these risks?
Managers, especially "intermediate" managers, are first of all concerned because their job is stressful! Often, they have more and more responsibilities and less and less power, which is almost the description of a stressful situation. Intermediate managers have few opportunities to talk about their own stressful situations.
They are also concerned because they know that efficiency comes from the well-being of employees. As such, they must know the tools to achieve this well-being, while avoiding taking on the role of a "psychologist".
Finally, their responsibility can now be questioned, particularly legally: they must therefore know their rights and duties as managers.
More broadly, what actions should prevention involve?
It is important for companies to conduct reflection mobilizing four levels: Work, Management, Individual, Collective:
1) Work: Psychosocial Risks are often linked to disagreements on the definition of "working well". This definition must be the subject of a debate between managers, intermediate management and experts. Without this, employees will always be torn between what they think "should be done" and what they are "required to accomplish".
2) Intermediate management must be supported. This support cannot be reduced to training, but must also include time for exchanges between managers on management practices and work. Committed support from top management is also necessary.
3) Individuals and the collective: it is a matter of identifying the stress factors perceived by each person, the resources used to cope in order to share and enhance them. It is also a matter of identifying persistent difficulties and ensuring that everyone knows the alert systems: hierarchy, HR, staff delegates, occupational health service... As with managers, practice exchange groups between employees and training in taking a step back allow both individual distancing, but also the restoration of a supportive collective.
If you had three simple actions to recommend to managers to fight against PSR...
1) Take care of your own stress
The manager is not immune to stress, quite the contrary! Being exemplary is not showing that nothing can affect us, but on the contrary showing to his collaborators that the manager too must face stress and manage it, like his collaborators. Stress should not remain a taboo subject for managers.
On a practical level, it is necessary to learn to always make the difference between what is "uncontrollable" on which it is necessary to learn to give up, and the "controllable" on which it is necessary to build action plans. For example, rather than asking oneself the question of the potential consequences of the mistake one could make (difficult to control), it is better to ask oneself the question of the action plans to avoid this mistake.
2) Seek the best balance between performance and well-being
It is always necessary to ask oneself the question: can our way of being efficient work in the medium term, or is it only viable in the short term? This is a matter of getting out of the "firefighter mode" well known to managers, accustomed to extinguishing "fires". To do this, it is often necessary to negotiate with one's hierarchy the means of this long term.
3) Exchange with colleagues to take a step back and share best practices
There is no miracle cure for stress, but solitude in the face of difficult situations only makes the problem worse. Often managers have to deal with difficult cases that go beyond them because they have not been able to talk about them early enough.
Bruno Lefebvre.
Well-being-at-work.fr
Posted online February 13, 2013.
Do you know your responsibilities? Is your management style a source of stress for your employees? What are the warning signs to recognize a vulnerable employee and what to do?
What is meant by "Psychosocial Risks (PSR)"? How do they concretely translate in a company?
Psychosocial Risks are usually described by the following manifestations:
1) Stress, which is usually defined by the gap between what one thinks one should do and the resources one thinks one has to accomplish it.
Stress is also described as "the gap between what people think should be done and what they are required to accomplish".
2) "Harassment" is part of Psychosocial Risks, as well as verbal or physical violence, whether it takes place in the company or during contact with the outside.
3) Discomfort, a vague notion, is also sometimes mentioned. It sometimes covers the lack of adequacy between the aspirations and/or skills of an individual and the position he occupies. This discomfort can also cover the notion of isolation or lack of integration into a group, as well as the interactions between personal and professional problems.
4) Consumption of risky products (alcohol, drugs, medication) are sometimes associated with work situations and therefore refer to the notion of "psychosocial risk".
How are managers involved in the prevention of these risks?
Managers, especially "intermediate" managers, are first of all concerned because their job is stressful! Often, they have more and more responsibilities and less and less power, which is almost the description of a stressful situation. Intermediate managers have few opportunities to talk about their own stressful situations.
They are also concerned because they know that efficiency comes from the well-being of employees. As such, they must know the tools to achieve this well-being, while avoiding taking on the role of a "psychologist".
Finally, their responsibility can now be questioned, particularly legally: they must therefore know their rights and duties as managers.
More broadly, what actions should prevention involve?
It is important for companies to conduct reflection mobilizing four levels: Work, Management, Individual, Collective:
1) Work: Psychosocial Risks are often linked to disagreements on the definition of "working well". This definition must be the subject of a debate between managers, intermediate management and experts. Without this, employees will always be torn between what they think "should be done" and what they are "required to accomplish".
2) Intermediate management must be supported. This support cannot be reduced to training, but must also include time for exchanges between managers on management practices and work. Committed support from top management is also necessary.
3) Individuals and the collective: it is a matter of identifying the stress factors perceived by each person, the resources used to cope in order to share and enhance them. It is also a matter of identifying persistent difficulties and ensuring that everyone knows the alert systems: hierarchy, HR, staff delegates, occupational health service... As with managers, practice exchange groups between employees and training in taking a step back allow both individual distancing, but also the restoration of a supportive collective.
If you had three simple actions to recommend to managers to fight against PSR...
1) Take care of your own stress
The manager is not immune to stress, quite the contrary! Being exemplary is not showing that nothing can affect us, but on the contrary showing to his collaborators that the manager too must face stress and manage it, like his collaborators. Stress should not remain a taboo subject for managers.
On a practical level, it is necessary to learn to always make the difference between what is "uncontrollable" on which it is necessary to learn to give up, and the "controllable" on which it is necessary to build action plans. For example, rather than asking oneself the question of the potential consequences of the mistake one could make (difficult to control), it is better to ask oneself the question of the action plans to avoid this mistake.
2) Seek the best balance between performance and well-being
It is always necessary to ask oneself the question: can our way of being efficient work in the medium term, or is it only viable in the short term? This is a matter of getting out of the "firefighter mode" well known to managers, accustomed to extinguishing "fires". To do this, it is often necessary to negotiate with one's hierarchy the means of this long term.
3) Exchange with colleagues to take a step back and share best practices
There is no miracle cure for stress, but solitude in the face of difficult situations only makes the problem worse. Often managers have to deal with difficult cases that go beyond them because they have not been able to talk about them early enough.
Bruno Lefebvre.
Well-being-at-work.fr
Posted online February 13, 2013.
