Relationship between Managerial Skills and Employees Job Stress in Health Centers

Background: Job stress is one of the important issues in the health sector and its high effect on workers' productivity. Managerial skills can help organizations to improve employees' effectiveness and reduce job stress. The present study investigated the relationship between employees' job stress and managers' professional skills. Methods: This cross-sectional and correlation study was conducted in 2010. We selected 90 health workers of 13 Health and Treatment Centers in Razan Health Center, western Iran. All data were gathered using self-administered questionnaires. Employees' job stress levels were measured using the Eliot Stress Questionnaire and managers' professional skills were assessed using the standard Questionnaire with 40-items in Likert format. Data were analyzed u SPSS software and Pearson correlation coefficient and Kendall correlation tests. Results: 87.7% of employees had mid- level of job stress. The professional skills level was high in 36.7% of health managers; moderate in 56.6%, and low in 6.7%. In addition the human skill was highest level among all managers' professional skills. A significant and negative correlation was found between job stress and managers' human, conceptual and design skills (P < 0.005). Conclusion: The level of managers' professional skills was significantly related with employees' job stress, thus training and developing managerial skills especially human, conceptual and design skills in supervisors and managers of health centers can reduce job stress and enhance effective performance.