This research examines managers’ and facilitators’ perceptions of effective facilitation. A review of the literature revealed that practitioners have written much of the existing information regarding the practice of facilitation. There has been little validation of findings by independent researchers and little empirical research. None of the claimed outcomes on facilitation effectiveness had been confirmed by managers. Further, where research had been conducted it had focused on immediate, rather than longer term issues and outcomes. This research seeks to rectify the lack of robust research into perceptions of effective facilitation by both the facilitators involved and the managers who seek to use facilitators. In this research 40 people were individually interviewed: 20 managers and 20 facilitators. Interviewees were asked to comment on both their positive and negative experiences of facilitation. The data was transcribed and QSR NVivo was used to assist with the analysis. Combinations of a priori and inductive codes were used to analyse the data. The a priori model (Brinkerhoff, 1986) had six stages, namely: Goal Setting and Needs Analysis; Program Design; Intervention; Immediate Outcomes; Intermediate or Usage Outcomes; and Impacts on the Organisation. It was found that only four of the six stages were helpful in explaining perceptions of effective facilitation; and additional themes emerged that did not fit within this predetermined model.

L’objectif de cette recherche est d’étudier les facteurs organisationnels et individuels qui affectent le stress des managers dans le secteur public. Les résultats révèlent d’abord le rôle de l’âge, du type d’organisation et du niveau hiérarchique dans la perception de leur stress. Ensuite, les résultats confirment d’une part, l’influence directe des tensions de rôles, du soutien social perçu des supérieurs puis des subordonnés et de l’engagement au travail sur le stress perçu. Ils montrent d’autre part, des inégalités de perception du stress en fonction des dimensions de ces variables. Enfin, ils révèlent que le rôle atténuateur du stress perçu escompté du soutien social perçu en période de tensions de rôles n’est effectif que chez des managers de proximité et dans des situations bien précises. Le rôle exacerbant du stress perçu attendu de la stratégie de coping centré sur l’émotion auto-accusatrice face aux tensions de rôles est vérifié chez certains managers. / The objective of this research is to study the organizational and individual factors who affect manager’s stress in the public sector. The results reveal the role of age, type of organization and hierarchical level in stress perception. Then, the result confirm, on the one hand, the direct influence of role tension, perceived social support from superiors and subordinate and work engagement on perceived stress. They show, on the other hand, inequality of stress perception depending on the size of these variables. Finally, they reveal that the role of perceived stress attenuator attributed to perceived social support under role tensions is not fully validated. It plays this role only for the local managers and in some specific situations. The exacerbation of the role of perceived stress assigned to the emotion-focused coping strategy of self accusation under role tensions is partially verified among public managers.