Getting that promotion can stress you out but not getting that promotion can give you a heart attack according to recent research.
As budgets were cut, services reduced and staff made redundant we learnt some able managers just didn’t want the hassle of senior management. As the demand for instant results and an obsession with league tables has grown chief executives have become as secure in their posts as football managers. Seeing the affect this has on their boss some people felt promotion came at too high price. Now there is new research that identifies managers whose health is suffering because the cuts to management posts have significantly reduced their promotion prospects.
Michael Anderson of University of California, Berkeley and Michael Marmot of University College London carried out research on 4,700 civil servants. They found that in departments where there were few opportunities for promotion heart disease was higher. They found that “Doubling the department’s promotion rate decreased the number of new heart disease cases by 20%.
All of which poses some serious challenges for HR specialists advising on succession planning. Expertise has been lost due to encouraging long serving managers to take early retirement. External recruitment has been frozen as organisations seek to dramatically reduce the management head count. Some very able first line and middle managers don’t want the hassle of senior management and those managers who do are frustrated by reduced promotion prospects. They can’t leave because it is a similar situation elsewhere and their boss is under 50 so new pension rules mean they will work to 67.
There have always been people who think they can do a better job than their boss. There have always been opportunities to prove it either within the organisation or by a move to another organisation. But what happens when you get a lot of able managers stuck? Clearly for some the frustration takes a toll on their health what do the other do with their frustration?
Blair McPherson is author of articles and books on management in the public sector www.blairmcpherson,co.uk
