【中英雙語】為什么中層管理者更容易抑郁？
Why Managers Are More Likely to Be Depressed
你已經(jīng)從一線執(zhí)行者躍升為職業(yè)經(jīng)理人了，感覺怎么樣？驕傲嗎？興奮嗎？
You’ve taken the leap from front-line individual contributor to professional manager. How do you feel? Proud? Excited?
還是——抑郁？
How about depressed?
最后一種情緒可能會讓你覺得奇怪，但也不是不可能。根據(jù)一項新的研究，中層管理者是組織中最有可能患抑郁癥的人。
The last emotion might strike you as odd, but it’s not unlikely. According to a new study, middle managers are the most likely people in an organization to suffer from depression.
這項研究由哥倫比亞大學梅爾曼公共衛(wèi)生學院的博士生塞思·普林斯領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，最近發(fā)表在《健康與疾病社會學》的網(wǎng)站上。研究人員調(diào)查了超過2萬名不同崗位的全職員工；他們從2001-2002年全國酒精及相關(guān)疾病流行病學調(diào)查(NESRAC)中抽取了研究樣本，將其縮小到21859名全職員工，隨后將這些人分為四類:企業(yè)主、經(jīng)理、主管和普通員工。
The study, led by Seth Prins, a doctoral student at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, was recently published online in?Sociology of Health & Illness. The researchers examined more than?20,000 full-time workers across a variety of roles. For their sample, they utilized 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESRAC), and narrowed that down to a set of 21,859 full-time employees. The researchers then segmented those individuals into four categories: owners, managers, supervisors, and workers.
企業(yè)主被定義為收入超過71500美元(超過90%人群的收入)的個體經(jīng)營者。經(jīng)理的定義是中高層管理人員，并擁有4年以上的學士學位。主管同樣被認定為管理人員，但沒有學士學位。(“學士學位”被選定為技能水平的代表，用以區(qū)分高級經(jīng)理職位與低層主管職位)。最后，普通員工被定義為NESRAC樣本中任何與上述種類不同的崗位。
Owners were defined as self-employed individuals who earned more than $71,500 (the 90th?income percentile). Managers were respondents who identified as an executive, administrative, or managerial role and possessed more than a 4-year bachelor’s degree. Supervisors likewise identified as executive, administrative, or managerial but did not possess a bachelor degree. (The bachelor’s degree was chosen as a proxy for skills in an attempt to separate higher-level management roles from lower-level supervisor positions). Lastly, workers were defined by various occupations in the NESRAC not equated with the above categories.
基于這樣的人群劃分，研究人員估算了焦慮或抑郁在他們一生中任何時候或者過去12個月內(nèi)出現(xiàn)的普遍程度，然后計算了每一組人群會感到焦慮或抑郁的可能性。
With their groups defined, the researchers then estimated the prevalence of any lifetime or previous 12-month anxiety or depression and then calculated the odds of each category experiencing anxiety or depression.
在控制了各種因素后，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)主管和經(jīng)理患抑郁癥的可能性最高，分別為19%和16%。企業(yè)主和普通員工的抑郁率要低得多，分別只有11%和12%。至于焦慮，情況類似，企業(yè)主和普通員工的焦慮率分別為2%和5%，而主管和經(jīng)理的焦慮率分別為11%和近7%。
After controlling for a variety of factors, the researchers found that supervisors and managers had the highest likelihood of depression, with 19% and 16% rate of depression respectively. Owners and workers had much lower rates of depression, just 11% and 12% respectively. As for anxiety, the story was similar, with owners and workers at rates of 2% and 5% while supervisors and managers were at elevated rates of 11% and nearly 7%.
普林斯和他同事們給出的一個解釋是，中層管理者沒有像企業(yè)主那樣的決策權(quán)或自主權(quán)，但仍然要面臨很多外部壓力。普林斯說:“中層管理者面對的可能是高要求的完美組合，但是沒有足夠決策權(quán)來執(zhí)行這些要求?！?/p>
One explanation Prins and his colleagues offer is that middle managers don’t have much authority or autonomy to make decisions like owners do, but still face a lot of external pressure to perform. “Middle managers probably get that perfect mix of having high demands, but not a ton of decision-making authority in order to enforce those demands,” Prins?said.
另一個可能的解釋是，中層管理者沒有機會在一線與顧客互動，因此看不到他們工作的影響；但另一方面，他們也沒有機會參與影響組織整體的重大決策。
Another possible explanation is that middle managers don’t get to interact with customers on the front-lines and hence see the impact of their work, but they also don’t get a chance to be a part of the big picture decisions that shape the organization.
普林斯的研究是一系列研究中最新的一項，表明管理者更容易出現(xiàn)抑郁癥狀。當杰克·曾格和約瑟夫·?？怂孤鼘?2萬名員工進行調(diào)查，找出工作投入度和敬業(yè)度得分最低的員工時，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)中層管理者在得分最低的5%中所占比例過高?！爱斘覀冄芯窟@些員工的人口統(tǒng)計特征時，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)……’被困在一切的中間’是對他們最好的描述，”他們寫道。“在很大程度上，這些不開心的人是穩(wěn)定的、表現(xiàn)良好的人，他們已經(jīng)在公司待了一段時間了，但似乎在業(yè)務(wù)變化中迷失了方向?！?/strong>
The Prins study is the newest in a line of research suggesting that managers are more likely to suffer depressive symptoms. When Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman looked across 320,000 employees and identified the employees with the lowest engagement and commitment scores, they found that middle managers were disproportionally represented in the bottom 5%. “When we examined the demographic characteristics of these employees, we found … that they could best be described as those ‘stuck in the middle of everything,’” they?wrote. “For the most part, these unhappy people were steady, good performers who’d been in the organization for some time but appeared to have gotten lost in the shuffle.”
但是抑郁不一定會自然地出現(xiàn)在私人辦公室里(假設(shè)你的公司有私人辦公室，缺少私人辦公室也可能會導(dǎo)致抑郁)。雖然管理工作的性質(zhì)可能會引發(fā)抑郁癥狀，但晉升并不直接預(yù)示著未來的焦慮。研究人員沒有為抑郁的中層管理者提供具體的建議，但是這項研究本身提供了一些改善情緒的思路。
But depression doesn’t have to come automatically with a private office (assuming your organization has private offices, a?lack of which might also be contributing to your depression). While the nature of management work might be triggering depressive symptoms, your promotion is not a prediction of future anxiety. The researchers didn’t offer specific recommendations for morose middle managers, but the research itself offers some clues for improving affect.
首先，保持和一線工作的緊密聯(lián)系，即使你的晉升安排會使你會遠離它。研究建議，意義感——尤其是看到你工作的影響而產(chǎn)生的意義感——是一種強大的動力。如果和客戶互動，或者至少看到你為更大世界帶來的影響，能夠激勵你，那么就不要讓你自己被新崗位的需求“鎖”在辦公室里。
The first is to stay connected to the front-line, even if your promotion means you’re removed from it. Research suggests that purpose,?specifically purpose derived from getting to see the impact of your work, is a potent motivator. If interacting with customers, or at least getting to see that impact on the larger world, keeps you motivated, then don’t let the demands of your new office keep you locked inside of it.
第二，要盡早清楚地了解你的新角色擁有多大的決策權(quán)。雖然這項研究表明，缺乏權(quán)力可能是抑郁癥狀的一個誘因；但是毫無疑問，當你在試圖滿足業(yè)務(wù)需求的過程中，出乎意料地發(fā)現(xiàn)自己缺少必要權(quán)力或權(quán)限時，抑郁感會進一步加劇。所以，要清楚自己能改變什么、不能改變什么，然后專注在那些你控制范圍內(nèi)的事情。
The second is to get a clear picture early on about how much decision-making authority your new role comes with. While the study suggests that a lack of authority may be one trigger of depressive symptoms, that effect is no doubt compounded when that lack of authority comes as a surprise while trying to meet the demands of the new role. Get clear on what you can and cannot change, and keep your focus on things inside your span of control.
最后，該研究對那些更高層級的管理人員——能夠改變整個組織的所有者——來說，也有重要的意義。一個很好的提醒是，讓管理者的權(quán)力匹配他們擁有的資源很重要；以及，將工作需求與對客戶的真正影響聯(lián)系起來也是一種有效的激勵。
Lastly, there are important implications here for those higher up – the “owners” (or senior executives) who can change their organizations. This is a good reminder that bestowing resources and authority in equal measure matters, and that connecting job demands with the real impact on customers is always a motivator.
新晉管理者們也許能夠從這項研究中找到些冰冷的心理安慰：如果你在新崗位中感到困難……是因為它的確如此。
And new managers might even find some cold comfort in this research. If your new job feels hard … that’s because it is.
關(guān)鍵詞：領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力??自管理
大衛(wèi)·伯庫斯是三本書的暢銷書作者，包括《Friend of a Friend》，以及奧羅羅伯特大學領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力與創(chuàng)新副教授。
孟小白|譯? ? ?周強|校
