As part of another exciting domain of our work, we would like to introduce you to the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM). We are honored to have been asked by the founders of the Institute to serve as co-chairpersons for the Center for Corporate Culture and Organizational Health. Our collaborative research in this role has been quite illuminating.

The Center for Corporate Culture and Productivity Management is coordinating an inquiry to identify the key qualities and characteristics necessary to develop and sustain a “healthy corporate culture.” We will search out best current examples, measures, and guiding principles, and make recommendations on such important topics as:

Life-work balance

Work stress reduction and self-optimization skills:

The costs and dangers of workplace violence

The role of quality work-life and relationships on employee morale, health, and productivity.

Developing Human Health Capital: the best management practices, organizational learning, values, norms, rewards and incentives.

The role of spirit, vitality, community, and social responsibility in corporate health.

THE PROCESS OF INQUIRY and the CORE TEAM

Our plan is evolving and will be shaped by the collective input of the Core Team which is currently being assembled. It is anticipated that the Center will be informed by the work of people within these groups.

Core Team (including chairpersons Joel Levey and Michelle Levey):
Sean Sullivan, the president of the Institute; Albert Hyde of the Brookings Institute from the IHPM Integration and Methodology Team, and key resource people. Industry representatives include John D. Adams (Sun Microsystems and Blue Shield of California), Janet C. Laing (Intel), William Maynard (The Effectiveness Institute), Keith McCandless (The Health Care Forum), Ron Sacchi (Intel), and Lorne Blackman (World Bank).

The Council of Advisors:
The Council is comprised of respected leaders in the field who will contribute their insights, and review and offer feedback on the work generated by the Core Team.

Angeles Arrien, author, "The Four Fold Way"; founder, Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research.

Lorne Blackman, Senior Management Consultant, Institutional Change Group, World Bank.

Rick Bellingham, author, "The Corporate Wellness Sourcebook", founder, Possibilities, Inc.

Charles Garfield, author, "Second to None"; professor at UCSF.

Daniel H. Kim, editor, System’s Thinker, Pegasus Communications.

Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier, author, "Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer"; Director, Corporate Health Promotion Program, Stanford University School of Medicine.

Bob Rosen, author, Healthy Companies, President, Healthy Companies, Inc.

Barbara Waugh, Worldwide Personnel Manager, WBIRL Program, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories.

Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership & the New Science; co-author, "A Simpler Way"; founder, The Berkana Institute

Center Contributors:
Leaders from various industries and disciplines who will offer insights through interviews, surveys, focus groups, or data collection.

THE CENTER's EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE REPORT

The Center's first deliverables are a report detailing the current best thinking in the area of corporate culture, organizational health, and employee health and productivity.

Our intent is that the Center's report — in synergy with the reports of the other centers of inquiry — will increase the awareness of corporate leaders regarding of the vital link between employee health and corporate success. We hope that this work will inspire a shift toward giving greater value and attention to investing in and stewarding the health of people in the corporate workplace. The reports are being compiled into a forth coming book set for publication later in 1999 which is expected to set a new and higher standard for corporate health as we enter the next millennium.

The spirit of the Center's report is captured in the following statement by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University:

“The implementation of high performance or high commitment work systems requires more than cosmetic changes. It requires a serious commitment to doing things differently, such as training employees in multiple skills, implementing more contingent compensation, organizing workers in teams, instituting suggestion systems, quality circles, or other mechanisms for soliciting employee ideas, and so forth. Each of these changes challenges existing ways of doing things — particularly if the existing way emphasizes a Tayloristic, control-oriented approach. It is almost impossible to successfully implement high performance or high commitment work practices in the absence of mutual trust and respect. But trust is missing in many employment relationships — and missing in many of the economic theory-based analyses of these relationships. Thus, beyond the specific practices, the atmosphere in the work place is crucial. All work place practices and changes should be evaluated by a simple criterion: Do they convey and create trust, or do they signify distrust and destroy trust and respect among people.”

– Jeffrey Pfeiffer, "The Human Equation: Building Profits By Putting People First," (1998)

What is THE INSTITUTE for HEALTH and PRODUCTIVITY MANAGEMENT?

The Institute for Health and Productivity Management is a non-profit educational organization linking the worlds of business and health promotion. Their purpose is to understand, articulate, and promote the relationship between health and corporate success. The vision inspiring the Institute’s work is to establish the value of employee health as a business investment in corporate success.

To realize this vision, the Institute has set four strategic goals for itself:

1. To become a global resource on health and productivity by assembling substantive evidence to support the value of investing in employee health.
2. To develop the tools, metrics, and methods to drive and measure enhanced corporate performance through investment in health.
3. To be the champion of investing in health capital as a strategy for corporate success.
4. To educate and equip purchasers, providers, and suppliers to generate the value from investing in employee health. For more information on the Center for Corporate Culture and Organizational Health, the report, or the Institute for Health and Productivity Management, please refer to the contacts below: