She wants to see more good managers

Text: Cecilia Odlind, first published in Swedish in Medicinsk Vetenskap, No 3/2021.

When Irene Jensen became a manager in the 2000s, she was enthusiastic at first. But it took time to find her feet in the role.

“At first, I didn’t really have the courage to be a manager, I wanted to carry on being part of the group,” she says.

When that didn’t work, she switched to a more demanding goal-orientated leadership. But this wasn’t a long-term solution either.

“Admittedly, things got done. But there wasn’t a good atmosphere. It was stressful when I noticed that it wasn’t enough to just be myself,” she explains.

She is now a professor in occupational health practices at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institute. She has studied the working environment in many workplaces during her career. So, what makes a good workplace? There’s certainly plenty of research on the subject.

“To have control over your working situation is a factor that has repeatedly been shown to be very important. This should be balanced against the requirements of the manager and the business,” she says.

Leadership is also clearly something that has an impact. Thoughtful and trusting leadership has proved most effective. Caring about your colleagues and seeing them as resources rather than as robots that must produce things for you. But getting support from colleagues is just as important.

“Good employee relations are almost more important than support from the manager. You can put up with a “bad manager” for quite some time if there’s a good atmosphere among the co-workers.”

Finally, the physical working environment is important. In Sweden, this is generally very good. However, there are still problems with heavy lifting and stressful working postures in some industries, such as care, according to Irene Jensen. Her research has focused on how these factors affect health.

“When these factors are absent, they all contribute to the risk of employees going on sick leave. The less these factors are valued, the longer you risk being on sick leave,” explains Irene Jensen.

How to create a good working environment

Extensive research has therefore been conducted into what constitutes a good working environment looks. But what needs to be done in order to achieve it? A large study led by Irene Jensen carried out across several manufacturing industries in the 2000s taught her that you should not be afraid of asking employees how they’re doing even on a more personal level.

“Many people said that we couldn’t ask questions about issues such as mental health or alcohol consumption, as they believed this would be an invasion of privacy. But afterwards, the reaction among the employees was positive; they felt like someone finally cared about how they were really feeling. One condition is that you provide resources at the same time to give support to those who need it,” she explains.

Irene Jensen also studies how best to publicise research-based knowledge. In a study on increasing the use of evidence-based methods in occupational healthcare, her research group and users developed national evidence-based guidelines for occupational health. Today, these guidelines are administered by the Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise.

“It was truly going from research to practice. All of us who carried out the study are very proud of that,” says Irene Jensen.

Another way to influence a business is to introduce a clear leadership strategy, i.e. one which defines what kind of managers people want.

“This is implemented right from recruitment, so that new managers who are appointed correspond to the chosen manager type. Those who are appointed must also be trained. And you need to be willing to transfer managers who don’t practise the right leadership style,” explains Irene Jensen.

Research has shown that clear and well-anchored systematic work environment management not only creates companies with good working environments, but also leads to high productivity. But again – it’s important that the atmosphere also allows employees to take personal responsibility for their situations.

“You can’t place all the responsibility on managers; it’s a shared job that has to be done,” she says.

She points out that the research industry, which she herself works in, presents particular difficulties, as it’s extremely competitive. This challenges social relationships and increases the risk of bullying. Considerate and good leadership is even more important here.