Chapter 2
Literature Review
This chapter tries to shed some light on the existing body of knowledge and work related to Organizational health and our research objectives. In this section, we review the general concepts and the related theories behind those ideas and how those concepts have been contextualized in different fields. The tools to measure organizational health and the relevant studies using those tools are also discussed here. Finally, we focus on Nakhon Phanom University, its profile, its unique disposition and conceptualize a framework to measure the organizational health of the university.
1.1 Concept of Organizational Health
Organizational Health is one of the perspectives to analyze the nature of the workplace. Organizational health means different things to different people, but in general they all fall under two broad schools of thought on the concept of organizational health.
The first ideology puts its emphasis on employee well being. This concept relates the health of the organization to the health of its individual members. This stream of thinking arises from fields of occupational health, workplace health promotion and traditional organizational psychology and sociology, where the health of the organization has been measured in terms of individual-level factors such as absenteeism, productivity, and employee satisfaction, along with some cultural, interpersonal and emotional factors (Cotton & Hart 2003). Much of the research in this field has focused on individual health as the ultimate goal, which is rather a static concept of health.
On the other hand, the second ideology is systemic and treats the organization whole as an individual. This dynamic prescriptive makes an analogy that the organization is like an individual on its own. “Organizations are living systems with their own needs and life cycles” (Bruhn 2001). The health of the organization cannot be simply deduced to be the health of the members who make it up. The whole may be greater than the sum of its parts. This concept can be found in the work of Argyris (1958) and it has been revived in the recent years by theoretical paradigms drawing on the ‘new sciences’ of complexity and the study of nonlinear dynamic systems, as well as by post-structuralist and Buddhist thought (van Uden 2001; Goldman Schuyler 2004).
Healthy people have a happy and productive life and respond to various challenges with energy and resilience. They demonstrate vitality, vigor, robustness and drive. Similarly, healthy organizations are also capable to tackle problems, sustain themselves and thrive. Organizational health does not mean having no problems, but creating an environment in the workplace that can best function and propel the organization forward in harmony with its internal and external milieu.
The fundamental concept of systemic organizational health theories is the future potential of the organization. In practical terms, the health of an organization can be characterized by a combination of how healthy it is today and its risk factors, or prognosis for the future.
However, the two perspectives are closely interlinked though. Quick et al. (2007) argued that the two are fundamentally synergistic. In order for the organization to make the members healthy, the organization must itself be a healthy one in the systemic sense.
1.2 Definition of Organizational health
Many researchers have tried to define organizational health in many different ways. The health metaphor was initially used by Matthew Miles (1965) to examine the properties of schools. According to him, a healthy organization is one that not only survives in its environment, but continues to grow and prosper over the long term.
Keeping in trend with the systemic thinking, De Smet et al. (2006) defined organizational health as “the prevalent qualities and practices of an organization today that help sustain performance tomorrow”. This means that a healthy organization should be able to deliver not only at the present but also in the future.
The systemic thinking is also present in Clark’s definition of organizational health. He defined it as “A healthy organization is one in which the individuals and groups which comprise it reach homeostasis or equilibrium in their capacity for growth” (Clark 1969, cited in Bruhn & Chesney 1994). This means that both the organization and the members of the organization have to be aligned, in sync and balanced to be able to perform at the present and grow in the future.
Quick et al. (2007) tried to combine the two ideologies and defined healthy organization as one which is able to “emphasize, facilitate and support the various categories of health for its members, the organization being made up of individuals that must function together through effective communication to accomplish a shared goal.”
Newer researchers combine employee well being and organization performance to define organizational health. Dive (2004) described a healthy organization as one that meets its mission and simultaneously enables individuals to learn, grow, and develop. Britton (n.d.) viewed organizational health as the achievement of employee and organizational goals.
Alman (2010) summed up organizational health as the organization's ability to achieve its goals based on an environment that seeks to improve organizational performance and support employee well-being.
1.3 Context
1.3.1 Sociological Context
Many authors, in particular, Argyris (1958), Schein (1965, 2000), Frost (1999, 2001) and Bruhn (2001) have contributed to the understanding of organizational health from a sociological perspective.
According to Argyris (1958), a healthy organization is one that enables mature human functioning. He observed that the traditional, hierarchical design of most organizations had a negative psychological effect on the employees because the organization design necessitated the control of some specific behaviors of the employees. The employees then become passive, uninvolved, and submissive, simply so they may maintain their own psychological health.
Schein (1965) believed that healthy organizations were those who can deal with change and adapt successfully. He categorized five criteria for organizational health. In order to be considered healthy, an organization must be able to do all of the following:
1) Sense environmental change,
2) Get information to the right places,
3) Digest and utilize information,
4) Adjust and transform itself without destruction, and
5) Get feedback on consequences of transformations.
There has been a shift in this field with the focus changing from health as “goal” to “health as process”. Schein (2000:36) wrote that some level of toxicity in an organization is normal, like the human body produces toxins all the time. So toxicity should not be taken as abnormal. Maximizing the organization’s natural capacity to deal with endogenous and exogenous ‘toxins’ is likely to be a more effective way of improving its health than seeking to minimize exposure to such toxins. Health is not described as a goal but rather as a continuous process of filtering difficulties and metabolizing frustrations within organizations and individuals (Maslow 1962; Schein 2000; Frost & Robinson 1999).
Bruhn used the World Health Organization’s definition of health to further explain organizational health (Bruhn 2001). In terms of organizational health, the physical health or body referred to the structure, organizational design, uses of power, communication processes, and distribution of work. Mental health or mind referred to how underlying beliefs, goals, policies, and procedures were implemented, “how conflict is handled, how change is managed, how members are treated, and how the organization learns”. Social well being or spirit “is the core or heart of an organization, what makes it vibrant, and gives it vigor. It is measurable by observation.” (Bruhn 2001:147)
“Organizations will serve society best when they can adapt to changing demands while providing meaningful work in a context of vibrant relationships among people. This requires organization and role design that builds on what we know about mature human functioning and group effectiveness.” (Schuyler and Branagan 2003)
A key aspect of the idea of organizational health is that health is seen not as the absence of illness, but rather as a positive process of thriving (Quick et al. 2007). It incorporates the whole set of potentials across the organism, as defined, for example, by Maslow’s (1947) hierarchy of needs. Therefore organizational health is a “multidimensional dynamic process rather than a discrete end state” (Ryff & Singer 1998).
1.3.2 Management Context
In the management literature, organizational health is mainly an abstract idea of what constitutes a ‘good organization structure’ (Orvik and Aselson 2012; Drucker 1955). A high level of organizational health is seen among the organizations that have close relations to their environments, an internalization of vision and mission among the employees and a value-based management approach (Leggette 1997). Organizations with high organizational health have the ability to bring the best out of their employees while taking care of their well being and coping with both internal and external changes (Lindstrom et al. 2000).
Organizations like industries (including engineering, high technology, and biotechnology), have become more knowledge-oriented and rely on the deep and creative involvement of their employees in the development of products and services (Frost and Robinson 1999; Pascarella 1997; Sethia 1989). Furthermore, organizations have to show a high degree of adaptability due to the rapidly advancing technology and increasingly competitive markets (Denton 1998; Van Velsor & Leslie 1995).
Top level management often take it for granted that the employees will quickly and easily interpret and implement all decisio