“Healthy organisations” is a much talked about ideal and much is written on the topic. Lowe's book aims to provide a fresh perspective on how to go about creating healthy organisations, even in today's climate of austerity. The book tries to address three key issues: what are the building blocks of a healthy organisation, how can we make our own organisations healthier and how can progress down that route be measured and sustained?
Over nine chapters, the author attempts to draw out answers to these core challenges. Chapter 1 starts by outlining a healthy organization model which combines elements from workplace health promotion, human resources, organisational performance and corporate social responsibility. This model consists of four elements, or building blocks; vibrant workplaces, inspired employees, positive culture and inclusive leadership, and the chapter explores each of these elements in depth. Chapter 2 explores how healthy organisations can start being created in ways that go beyond traditional workplace health promotion practices such as reducing employee health risks and lowering absenteeism; these on‐going practices can be used as a springboard for more in‐depth health promotion policies. This includes examination of underlying causes of absenteeism – and also of presenteeism.
Chapter 3 starts to address the question of what a healthy organisation looks and feels like and takes the novel view that organisations should be as concerned about the “employee experience” as they are with the customer experience. Vibrant workplaces, says Lowe, inspire their workforce to go over and beyond expectations. This leads into chapter 4 which deals with the difference between positive, healthy cultures and unhealthy ones. Part of this exploration involves a discussion of values and how to strengthen them.
Leadership is the focus of chapter 5 and this chapter describes six elements of leadership that fosters healthy organisations; these are being inspirational, caring and connected, trustworthy and trusting, action‐oriented, empowering and self‐aware. Chapter 6 goes on to discuss how to implement healthy change in your organisation using five underlying principles such as “aligning structure and culture” and “making time for learning and innovation”.
Chapters 7 and 8 are concerned with sustaining and measuring the success of a healthy change programme and includes wide‐ranging issues such as corporate social responsibility, workforce strategies and the value of qualitative consultations. The book ends with a chapter on “designing a healthy organization strategy” which is an action‐oriented summary of the key strategies explored throughout the rest of the book; in reality, this means a question and answer chapter which forms a summary of the book's message.
Overall, I found this book a bit of a struggle to wade through; it is not the sort of book to dip in and out of, yet is not engaging enough to keep the interest needed to read it from cover to cover (unless you have a long train journey to fill). I found the ideas interesting and some were refreshing, and I did like the multitude of real‐life examples throughout. If you can stick with it, it is a worthwhile read and you may come away inspired to make healthy change to your own organisation.
