Health is wealth ‐ Organisational Utopia or myopia?

Although the healthy organisation has attracted the attention of researchers over the last decade and beyond, the concept remains poorly defined. Nonetheless, there would appear to be an underlying acceptance that health is a desirable state, and is one which is likely to enable the organisation to cope effectively with the challenges presented by its environment. Using financial measures as one index of the economically healthy organisation, this paper explores organisational health within two financially healthy and two financially unhealthy clothing companies in Northern Ireland. Statistical analyses reveal that each of the organisations was unhealthy for different reasons and in different ways. Furthermore, the findings suggest that “wealth” does not necessarily mean “health”, and it may in fact be indicative of organisational myopia rather than Utopia.