Research conducted by the Kenexa® Research Institute evaluated workers’ views of their immediate managers.

According to the latest research, an immediate manager has more influence on their employees beyond their role as delegator, evaluator and motivator. The results suggest that an employee’s view of their immediate manager has a significant impact on their engagement level and overall views of the company.

For those employed in the United Kingdom, good managers positively affect an employee’s job satisfaction. Managers who contribute to job satisfaction do an overall good job of managing people and projects, treat people fairly and provide useful feedback. Managers such as these have a significant, favorable impact on how these workers rate their pride in their organization, willingness to recommend it as a place to work and their overall satisfaction. Additionally, those employees who rate their manager highly intend to stay with the organization versus those who are dissatisfied with their manager.

However, not all organizations have a pool of such talented managers. Favorability regarding an employee’s immediate manager varies notably among industries. Employees in the banking and accounting industries are the most favorable, whereas those workers in the light manufacturing and the transportation industries have the least favorable opinions.

Similarly, people in different jobs rate their managers differently. Those in managerial and executive positions as well as clerical and technical workers have notably more favorable opinions of their immediate managers than do workers who are operators or in the crafts and skilled trades.

Those who are newer to an organization have significantly more favorable opinions of their immediate manager than do those who have been with the organization longer. In terms of age, the youngest workers are the most favorable with their immediate manager.

“Effective managers do a better job of retaining talented employees because they manage the workload, treat employees fairly and provide useful feedback,” said Vernon Bryce, European Operations Director, Kenexa.

Database Overview
The Kenexa WorkTrends™ database is a comprehensive normative database of employee survey results with comparisons on topics including leadership, employee engagement and customer orientation from workers in Brazil, China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Study Details
The WorkTrends survey question was designed specifically to evaluate how workers view their immediate manager. The question asked was: Overall, how good a job do you feel is being done by your manager?

Employee Engagement
The WorkTrends survey questions were designed to evaluate employee engagement. The questions asked were:

• I rarely think about looking for a new job with another company.
• I would gladly refer a good friend or family member to my company for employment.
• Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my company as a place to work.
• I am proud to tell people I work for my company.

Opinion items were rated using a 5-point Likert-like scale. The percent favorable is the percentage of people who chose either of the two most positive answers (typically “strongly agree” or “agree”).

Employee engagement is calculated by averaging the percentage of favorable responses across these four items. This results in a single score that reflects the overall employee engagement (see Figure 1).

Key Drivers Across Countries
KRI asked a representative sample of over 1,000 workers from Brazil, China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States to rate the overall effectiveness of their immediate manager. We then identified the key “drivers” of managerial effectiveness.

The universal results for the six countries indicate that subordinate employees rate their managers favorably if the manager treats employees fairly, does a good job at managing the work, provides useful feedback and is a “people manager.”

In addition to the cross cultural drivers of managerial effectiveness, there are unique differences among the six countries.

1. German workers feel that an immediate manager is influential over an employee’s job satisfaction.
2. Indian workers associate an employee’s willingness to do their very best and an employee’s sense of job security with having an effective manager.
3. Brazilian workers rate ethics as a driver of managerial effectiveness.