A description of a healthy organisation

1. Organisation Health – a brief guide
©Derek Mowbray
November 2009
www.derekmowbray.co.uk
Introduction
Organisation health is taken to mean a company or service with a workplace culture and
environment where employees thrive and work at a performance level which is beyond
expectations, over the long term.
This is reflected in low rates of staff turnover, absenteeism and falling claims of harassment,
bullying, and discrimination and high levels of quality, performance and motivation.
Features of Organisation Health
The following features create and sustain Organisation Health:
Purpose: a clearly understood purpose – understood by employees and
customers/clients/patients, combined with clearly understood goals and criteria for success.
Cultural foundations and values – a clearly established and formulated intention to manage
the organisation with cultural foundations of virtuous intent that promotes wellbeing and
performance
Structure: a structure that is designed to enable decision makers to include staff in the decision
making process. This is normally translated as a flat structure. For larger organisations the
implication is to establish sub-structures that are as flat as possible, where communication flows
both ways easily and accurately.
Policies and processes: policies and processes that are easily understood by employees and
consistently applied in practice.
Policies and processes that are designed to generate trust and commitment between the
organisation and its managers and employees.
Policies and processes that are designed to promote wellbeing and performance.
Recruitment - processes of recruiting that are open to scrutiny, thorough and consistent in their
application. Processes that overtly match the specification of positions with the skills, knowledge
and experience of applicants. Processes that overtly test the skills, knowledge and experience of
applicants. Processes that match personality and behaviour to the expectations of the role.
Processes that encourage every applicant to become interested in joining the organisation, and
for those whose application fails, to encourage those with appropriate potential to seek to join
the organisation at some time in the future. Processes that feedback to applicants their ‘showing’

2. on the recruitment day with advice on areas to develop and improve for future applications.
Processes that identify the personal characteristics and attributes required of applicants seeking
to join the organisation and matching these to the applicants.
Training and Development – programmes that are designed to increase awareness, skills,
knowledge and experience, the results of which are purposefully applied into practice with
follow-up, learning sets, reviews and audit. Programmes that train employees and managers in
the behaviours that produce trust and commitment in the organisation. Programmes that meet
the identified needs of individual employees and managers as part of individual development
plans. Individual coaching and support programmes for specific personal development needs.
Opportunities for secondments and experiences that enhance the personal development of
individual employees and managers.
Pay – a pay structure that is transparent and based on fairness taking account of the
expectations of the roles and degrees of responsibility towards achieving greater than expected
performance. Pay arrangements that influence achievement in wellbeing and performance of all
employees. Pay arrangements that financially reward excellence that is transparently achieved
and recognisable.
Challenging jobs – jobs that contain periods that stretch managers and employees with tasks and
actions that are just beyond their current levels of skills, knowledge and experience. Jobs that
apply degrees of pressure for short periods, where managers and employees are expected to
concentrate harder than normal to complete the tasks and actions.
Team working – encouraging team working where teams are no larger than 8 people, where the
skills, knowledge and experience of members are complementary achieving ‘the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts’. Teams where critical appraisal of each other’s work is positively
encouraged and observations received with genuine interest and intention to action. Teams
where personal concerns are raised and mutual support received.
Communication – abandoning broadcasting and substituting communication based on the
intention to receive responses. Communication mainly based on personal interaction. Email
policies based on ‘need to know.’ Newsletters based on news and opportunities to contribute
and comment.
Involvement – processes that involve managers and employees in the decision making of the
organisation. Processes that encourage innovation and ideas about the development of the
organisation. Processes that recognise that managers and employees are the organisation, and
their involvement in it is crucial for its success.
Performance appraisal – a transparent and regular appraisal of performance based on a
combination of wellbeing and performance review. A process that becomes the bloodstream of
the organisation, and sought by managers and employees in an atmosphere of encouragement
and personal development. A process of reciprocal appraisal where managers are appraised by
employees, and employees appraised by managers within a team context.
Career opportunities – opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge and experience of
managers and employees by providing new experiences within the organisation or on

3. secondment elsewhere. A process that is transparent and demonstrates the interest of the
organisation in the personal development of all managers and employees.
Job security – the processes that enable managers and employees to complete tasks without
diversion or cancellation.
Management encouragement – a transparent and consistent process of encouraging employees
in their work; praising individuals for excellence and showcasing the exceptional contributions
that managers and employees make to the organisation. A process that encourages wellbeing
and performance of managers and employees.
Work life balance – a process that responds positively to domestic crisis.
Openness – processes that are transparent and consistent in involving managers and employees
in decisions about themselves. Processes that enable all staff to offer unsolicited contributions to
the development of the organisation and its people.
Behaviours of leaders and managers that build and sustain commitment, trust and
engagement of the workforce in the purposes, values and culture of the organisation.
Attentiveness - the ability to demonstrate genuine attentiveness to the contents of an
interaction by demonstrating listening, responsiveness and reaction.
Politeness - the ability to be polite in any interaction
Courtesy - the ability to place the other person (people) at the forefront of an interaction
Personal communication - the ability to communicate personally wherever possible;
understanding the limitations of electronic communication.
Body language - the ability to use body movements and expressions to show attentiveness.
Addressing needs - the ability to respond positively to individual needs, even in circumstances
when the needs cannot be met, given all the circumstances.
Empathetic - the ability to demonstrate an understanding of the other person’s issues, ideas,
thoughts and experiences
Intellectual flexibility - the ability to think on ones feet and respond with credible choices,
alternatives and ideas
Emotional intelligence - the ability to be self aware, self regulate, motivate, show empathy and
be socially adept
Negotiation - the ability to negotiate a successful outcome in an interaction.
Sharing - the ability to share with others one’s own thoughts and ideas
Reliability - the ability to do what one says

4. Honesty - the ability to be open in an interaction
Clarity - the ability to be clearly understood in an interaction
Fairness - the ability to be fair to anyone in an interaction, taking account of all the
circumstances, and to explain clearly the position that is taken and the reasons
Humility - the ability to acknowledge mistakes, misunderstandings, errors and faults, and to
apologise where necessary.
Conflict resolution - the ability to confront a conflict at the time of conflict and to try and
resolve any dispute at the time of the dispute.
Encourage contribution - the ability to motivate and encourage others to make a
contribution in interactions.
The profile of a leader and manager includes:
The ability of the ethical person to shine through to leadership
The ability to demonstrate the skills, knowledge and experience to undertake
the tasks expected from him/her, both in terms of the job that is required to be
completed, but with respect to his/her contribution the wider organisation.
The adoption of a leadership style that lends itself to ethical considerations, for example
transformational and adaptive styles – both of which engage followers in the
decision making processes.
The motivation to prevent harm to anyone.
The motivation to ensure a safe place of work for staff and patients.
The respect for the law and regulations
The motivation to maintain and develop skills, knowledge and experience in oneself
and others
The motivation to be objective, fair and reasonable
Taking responsibility for own as well as others actions
The motivation to act with conviction
The motivation to provide a clear direction
The motivation to communicate effectively
The discharge of a Duty of Care to customers, clients and staff.
derek.mowbray@psychologistsdirect.org
Derek Mowbray is director of Organisation Health Psychologists Limited (OrganisationHealth), Derek Mowbray Consulting, the
Management Advisory Service, The Stress Clinic and The Stress Advisory Service. He is a visiting Professor of Psychology at
Northumbria University, an Expert Witness in Stress Management and an Independent Technical Expert for the European
Commission. He has been a chief executive of 3 public sector organisations, a charitable trust, director of several private sector
companies, and a senior manager of an academic department. He combines his academic knowledge with practical experience in
promoting Positive Work Cultures based on wellbeing and performance as an approach to the prevention of psychological distress at
work.