Board members see their organisation more favourably than those they direct
The closer to the top you are, the more highly you think of your organisation. This is the finding from executive education and research providers Roffey Park in their Management Agenda 2008 report. The research report highlights the disparate views held within organisations on the state of management and organisational life.
A total of 82 per cent of board directors reported that the overall quality of leadership in their organisations was effective compared with 62 per cent of other directors and senior managers and just 52 per cent of middle managers.
Looking ahead, leadership development was rated the most common strategy that organisations are embracing for the future, rated higher than more business-related activities such as outsourcing, e-business, globalisation or mergers and acquisitions.
Among those surveyed, 88 per cent of respondents say that corporate social responsibility is of personal importance to them. Given this strength of feeling, companies ignoring their social and environmental impact in favour of purely economic goals may find it increasingly difficult to recruit talent.
The research also shows that despite 81 per cent of respondents finding work contributes to their general happiness, there is no change in the reported levels of stress and little change in work-life balance. In 2007, over half (53 per cent) who experience stress attribute it to organisational politics.
Organisations continue to benefit from people working longer than their contracted hours (78 per cent). There appear to be links here with financial performance as 90 per cent of managers in organisations outperforming financial expectations report working longer hours compared with 67 per cent in under-performing organisations. Jo Hennessy, director of research at Roffey Park, says: “Those organisations outperforming financially may need to monitor the sustainability of this performance given how hard their staff need to work to deliver this for them.”
