Centre for Organizational Health & Well-Being

About the Centre

Within today's business environment, health and well-being is an increasingly important issue for HR directors and Occupational Health Support Services. Sickness absence, productivity, an ageing workforce, external lifestyle matters, pressure on costs and the rise of human capital accounting, represent only part of an increasingly complex strategic contribution employee health makes to business and organizational effectiveness. In addition, employers are increasingly recognizing that apart from having a healthly workforce, they also need employees who are positively engaged, socially responsible and aligned with organizational goals.

The Centre of Organizational Health and Well-Being (COHWB) at Lancaster University brings together world class academics to work with Chief Medical Officers, Occupational Health professionals and HR Directors to address cutting edge issues in the area of health and well-being which contribute to business performance. It has been established as a problem-based research group that will offer advice and solutions to support strategy formulation and the development, implantation and delivery of programmes and services. The Centre is based in the Faculty of Health & Medicine and represents an innovative partnership between the Faculty of Health and Medicine, the Lancaster University Management School, government and major public and private organizations.

The Centre is guided by the following aims:

• To enhance the profile of organizational health and psychological well-being in its widest sense.
• To generate research data and insights of specific relevance and utility to Occupational Health Professionals and HR directors.
• To disseminate such work though academic media and leading business, management, health media outlets, working in conjunction with Centre partners.
• To provide a forum for sharing and discussing best practice and the dissemination of research knowledge
• To facilitate and promote networking opportunities and develop a community of practice with the capability to influence policy at a national level.

The Centre marks a departure from traditional simple research contracts with business towards the development of a culture of deep engagement around the key health problems that organizations currently face, informed and linked to other distinctive research centres at Lancaster university. These centres include the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research within the Faculty's Division of Health Research, and the Centre for Performance-Led HR, and the Lancaster Leadership Centre in the Management School.

The annual activities of the Centre include:

• Four partner meetings (one each quarter) combining networking opportunities with input from leading authorities in the field of organizational health and well-being.
• A major research project commissioned each year by the Centre partners, managed by the Centre Director and undertaken by Lancaster Faculty on behalf of the partners.
• One small scale bespoke project for each Centre partner.
• There are plans for the Centre to host international conferences on health and well-being and to develop a seminar series.

Studying with the Centre

The Centre has recently launched a taught doctoral programme in Organizational Health and Well-Being. Further details of the programme are available at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/shm/study/doctoral_study/phd/.

Enquiries are also welcome from those wishing to study for a PhD by the traditional thesis (only) based route.

For further information about joining or working with the Centre please contact Professor Susan Cartwright (email: s.cartwright@lancaster.ac.uk )