Joyful Organization

The Healthy Organization Model is presented in the book ”The Joyful Organization – Health, Disease and Joy in the Life of Organizations” by Imre Lövey and Manohar S. Nadkarni (published by HVG Publisher, 2003). The extended version of the book has also been published in the U.S. under the title "How Healthy is Your Organization?" by Praeger Publishers in 2007.

Joy at Work? It’s all about Balance

The Joyful Organization: Understanding Organizational Health, Diseases and Joy
By Imre Lövey and Manohar S. Nadkarni, with Eszter Erdelyi
Response Books; 266 pages

It is often said that a healthy lifestyle involves balance.  Just like an individual, an organization is most healthy when it is properly balanced.  In “The Joyful Organization,” Imre Lövey and Manohar S. Nadkarni demonstrate that a healthy organization requires a proper balance of satisfying its customers’ needs, satisfying its employees’ needs, and its economic needs.  Organizations begin to experience problems when too much emphasis is placed on any one of these areas over the others.  Lövey and Nadkarni identify these problems as organizational diseases, that have different origins, systems, and remedies.  An organization may be successful at facilitating a set of objectives, but this does not necessarily mean that the organization is healthy.  For an organization to be in good health it must be a joyful organization.  Lövey and Nadkarni treat an organization like a living organism, which is vulnerable to diseases, but still able to improve its health.

This fascinating book makes use of over 75 small case studies to show that a truly strong organization is one whose employees experience joy in performing their tasks, which inspire them to give their utmost to add value and to realize organizational goals.  However, the book cautions that employees should not be pampered.  When organizations focus too much on the individual needs of its members, the organization risks draining energy and resources away from satisfying the customer and the financial needs of the organization; “healthy organizations nurture rather than pamper their employees.” 

Lövey and Nadkarni examine less traditional ways of identifying and keeping good employees.  A distinction is made between employees who work hard and employees who work well.  Traditionally the most valued employees are identified as those who work the hardest and show the most commitment to the organization.  However, Lövey and Nadkarni suggest “those who are likely to be of the greatest value to an organization are not the ones who show the most commitment, but those with independent minds.”  Such persons are more likely to put effort into the substance of their task, rather than the appearance, and are more likely to hold on to their values and sense of integrity than cut corners.   Another interesting concept that is quite essential for organizational health is “mattering”.  Here mattering is a sense of empowerment and satisfies one of the basic needs of individuals, which is a feeling of belongingness.  Mattering is important for the effectiveness of employees within an organization; “people invest themselves when they experience the sense of mattering, not when they experience a sense of being managed.”

The authors of  “The Joyful Organization” use their combined experience of over sixty years studying organizational development throughout the world to give a holistic analysis of what an organization should strive to achieve.  An organization needs to not only be economically efficient, but also flexible, effective, and joyful in the long run, for all its members.  To a certain extent, this book is a book of its time.  With the rounds of corporate scandals at WorldCom, Enron, Andersen, and elsewhere, “The Joyful Organization” blows fresh ideas into the philosophy and understanding behind organizations. 

David M. Woodside