Managing Health and Wellbeing in the Public Sector: A Guide to Best Practice

As governments throughout the world experience increasing fiscal challenges, the pressures on public sectors to streamline services and harness technological advances is unprecedented. Many have undergone huge budgetary cuts as a result, but what are the effects of this intense organisational change on such a large and varied workforce? And how can managers within the public sector meet the challenge of delivering services whilst maintaining the health and wellbeing of staff tasked with carrying out the work?

Managing Health and WellBeing in the Public Sector: A Guide to Best Practice is the ideal companion to any manager in these challenging times. Exploring the realities of working in the public sector, and those factors which can add meaning and purpose to working life, the book provides managers with a practical toolkit for creating the best working environment, as well as nurturing resilience and motivation within their staff.

Written by two authors with a lifetime of experience in the field, the book also examines why promoting occupational health and wellbeing is beneficial to organizations, drawing on a wealth of international research to support this argument. It concludes with a series of case studies in which an international range of public sector managers discuss initiatives they have implemented, and how successful they have been.

This is the ideal companion for any manager working in the public sector. It will also be instructive reading for students or researchers of occupational or organizational psychology, as well as HRM.

Dr Ian Hesketh is a serving police officer, currently working at the College of Policing in the UK. Ian has a PhD and an MBA from Lancaster University Management School, and he is a Chartered Manager, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and and a Member of the Society for Education and Training.

Professor Sir Cary Cooper, CBE is the 50th Anniversary Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at the ALLIANCE Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, President of the CIPD, President of the British Academy of Management, President of RELATE, and President of the Institute of Welfare. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and one of only a few UK Fellows of the (American) Academy of Management.