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THE
Philippines remains No. 9 among countries with the most
stressed-out businessmen, but the good news is that the
ranking may change next year considering that this year,
it has the most number of such stressed executives who
chilled out.
This was
according to a survey of global accounting and advisory
firm Grant Thornton International, the results of which
were released here by its local partner Punongbayan &
Araullo.
In 2005,
terribly stressed local businessmen comprised 75 percent
of the national total, but in 2006, only 64 percent of
Filipino executives reported an increase in stress
levels.
The
12-percent reduction represents the greatest drop among
the 32 countries that participated in the business
report survey that covered 7,200 privately owned
businesses.
Despite
the huge drop in stressed-out executives, the
Philippines is still way above the global average of 56
percent. Among the countries surveyed were Sweden with
only 27 percent, Ireland (35 percent), the UK (37), the
Netherlands (37), France (37), Canada (39), Poland (40),
Spain (41), Australia (41) and the US (43).
The
countries with the highest tensed businessmen last year
were China (84), Taiwan (82), India (79), Russia (76),
Botswana (70), Singapore (69), Hong Kong (67), Malaysia
(64), the Philippines (64) and South Africa (64).
Alex
MacBeath, global leader of privately held business
services for Grant Thornton International, said the
stress levels appear to be a reflection of the pace of
economic growth, which is why emerging economies such as
mainland China, India and Russia are sitting on top of
the stress table.
“However, the Philippines seems to be setting the
example by recording the greatest reduction in stress
increases, yet still outperforming most countries in
recent IBR topics such as business optimism, women in
senior management, and the management of energy and
environmental issues,” said MacBeath.
Earlier
results showed the Philippines is the second most
optimistic country when it comes to economic prospects;
it emerged as the only country where women enjoy parity
with men in senior management roles, and its business
leaders have done the most to address energy and
environmental issues.
The
Philippines also made it to the list of the top 10
nations with the highest proportion of booming
businesses.
For this
year’s IBR, business leaders were also asked about the
average number of hours they work in a week. Filipino
business executives average 49 hours a week, landing
below the global average of 53 hours. |
