Leading well and staying psychologically healthy: the role of resources and constraints for managers in the healthcare sector

Abstract

PurposeMaintaining a healthy and productive workforce is a challenge for most organizations. This is even truer for health organization, facing staff shortages and work overload. The aim of this study is to identify the resources and constraints that influence managers' mental health and better understand how they are affected by them.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was chosen to document the resources, the constraints as well as their consequences on managers in their day-to-day realities. The sample included executive-, intermediate- and first-level managers from a Canadian healthcare facility. A total of 62 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The coding process was based on the IGLOO model of Nielsen et al. (2018) to which an employee-related level was added (IGELOO).FindingsResults highlight the importance of considering both resources as well as constraints in examining managers' mental health. Overarching context, organizational constraints and the management of difficult employees played important roles in the stress experienced by managers.Practical implicationsThe results offer a better understanding of the importance of intervening at different levels to promote better organizational health. Results also highlight the importance of setting up organizational resources and act on the various constraints to reduce them. Different individual strategies used by managers to deal with the various constraints and maintain their mental health also emerge from those results.Originality/valueIn addition to addressing the reality of healthcare managers, this study supplements a theoretical model and suggests avenues for interventions promoting more sustainable organizational health.

One down, fifty to go: managers’ perceptions of their workload and how they cope with it to maintain their psychological health

“…The social job resource dimension has been identified as a key factor, particularly in terms of addressing isolation, which often leads to higher levels of psychological distress. Although some strategies (e.g., skipping breaks) may lead to isolation, this dimension appears particularly relevant for our managers standing to benefit from increasing their social resources (e.g., support of their own manager), as emphasized by Gilbert et al (2023) . The third dimension—increasing challenging job demands—does not seem suitable for the context of our managers, where responsibilities were frequently added to their workload, and at a certain point, managers lost work meaning.…”

“…At the leader level, managers themselves need the support of their superiors. Leaders (manager’s immediate superiors) are one resource to counter the negative effects of workload ( Gilbert et al, 2023 ). Even though they are in a more competitive culture, managers consider their immediate superior to be a valuable ally and important resource for reducing their stress ( Gilbert et al, 2023 ).…”

“…The attitudes and behaviors of employees can positively or negatively influence the workload of managers. For example, managing less autonomous employees with attitude problems could increase managers’ workload and stress ( Gilbert et al, 2023 ). Helping employees who struggle emotional problems could also lead to role overload for managers ( Bolino et al, 2015 ) and have detrimental consequences for them, such as citizenship fatigue and work–family conflict ( Toegel et al, 2013 ; Lanaj and Jennings, 2020 ).…”

“…Moreover, recent studies have indicated that the health and working conditions of healthcare managers have deteriorated, generating increased workloads, stress, and stressful working conditions ( Wilmar et al, 2017 ; Corbière et al, 2020 ). These changing conditions affecting healthcare managers are associated with task fragmentation, growing uncertainties, conflicts of values, high-performance work pressures, hectic pace of work, long working hours, and turnover (e.g., Wilmar et al, 2017 ; Corbière et al, 2020 ; Gilbert et al, 2023 ). Managers find themselves overloaded, which has led to role ambiguity and decision-making challenges ( Udod et al, 2017 ).…”

“…However, the manager’s work has remained relatively absent from these studies ( Fortin, 2014 ). Moreover, recent studies on the manager’s psychological health highlighted worrying issues and major constraints at work ( Biron et al, 2018 ; Gilbert et al, 2019 , 2023 ). Facing these constraints at work, individuals are known to use strategies to cope with deteriorated situations ( Hobfoll, 1989 ).…”