Judgement From A Manger Hurts More Than From A Patient

Date: Oct-03-2012When experiencing discrimination from their managers, mental health workers are much more likely to feel depressed or anxious than when criticism comes from a patient.

Discrimination from visitors of the patient were also seen to cause more emotional stress than the patient, according to a new study conducted by the University of Leicester's School of Management and published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Professor Stephen Wood and his research team investigated the effects of prejudice, such as race, sex, and age discrimination of varying groups of people on mental health workers.

The study examined the experiences of 1,733 mental health workers in the UK, such as nurses, doctors, psychiatrists, and support staff. Questionnaires were given out to all workers in 100 wards as well as 36 outpatient teams. The surveys measured emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, depression, and anxiety. Additionally, it looked at whether workers had experienced discrimination in the last year and general questions like how fair they regard their employer to be.

Advanced statistical analysis was used to examine whether workers who underwent discrimination from four different groups: visitors, patients, managers, and co-workers, were more or less likely to have derogatory feelings.

Discrimination from managers was seen to have the biggest impact on feelings of depression, emotional exhaustion, anxiety, and job dissatisfaction in the mental health worker. Surprisingly, discrimination from patients' visitors had a greater influence on depression and emotional exhaustion than discrimination from the patients themselves. Lastly, discrimination from co-workers had the least amount of impact on all negative feelings.

Professor Wood explains:

"The finding that managers can distress workers the most can be explained by managers' large power over staff's working lives, including their chances of keeping a job and winning promotion. Moreover, workers feel distressed if they feel the organization employing them is not treating them fairly, and the behavior of managers is key to this sense of fairness. Aggression from relatives and other visitors is, like aggression from managers, viewed as reflecting badly on the procedures and fairness of the organization. However, aggression from patients is not readily attributed to failings in the organization."

Some authors suggest a stricter policy on visitors may be desirable because of its potential to increase the idea that the organization is concerned about their staff and is taking action to protect them.

Written by Kelly Fitzgerald

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