Listen up managers - if you want to reduce your stress levels in work, you need to build a good relationship with your employees, according to new research.

While many studies have looked at the topic of work stress, few have focused specifically on managers. Norwegian researchers decided to look into this further by investigating a number of key stress factors, including time pressures, workload, emotional strain and the conflict between a person's role in work and their private life.

Almost 3,000 managers took part in the study.

It found that the biggest contributors to work stress were unpredictability in a company or a particular department, and the amount of changes that had taken place in the previous year.

Almost two in three managers said they experience heavy workloads or time pressures often or all of the time. Less than 5% said they rarely or never had time pressures while working.

However, the study also found that managers tended to feel much less stressed if they felt they had a good relationship with their staff.

"The best thing a manager can do to prevent work stress is to develop good relationships with the employees at work. When the employees are happy with what the manager does, understand his or her challenges and participate actively in solving the problems, the manager will have less stress," commented Prof Astrid Richardsen of the BI Norwegian Business School.

She said this is probably because if a manager has a good relationship with their staff, they are more likely to trust them and delegate more tasks to them. This will reduce the amount of pressure on the manager.

The researchers added that managers who suffer stress over a long period of time may become frustrated, angry, less self-confident and depressed. This can lead to lower concentration and motivation, less work satisfaction and a poorer work performance.

The manager may also feel less loyalty towards their company and look for work elsewhere.