Charles Handy died in December 2024. He was a prominent author on organisational behaviour and business management and was recognised as a major thinker. It is fair to describe him as a pre-Internet influencer. His ideas never went away, but they faded under the neoliberal onslaught. With the decline of that ideology, Handy’s approach to organisational culture deserves a reread.
On LinkedIn, Werner Bosman provides several articles that interpet Handy’s ideas in the occupational health and safety (OHS) context. In one, he describes the application of Handy’s Shamrock Organisational Model, which focuses on the interaction of
- The Core Staff – the essential employees
- The Contractual Fringe – specialists, and
- The Flexible Workforce – adaptable workers.
Bosman writes that:
“….the adaptation of Handy’s model in the realm of health and safety opens doors to innovative management practices that prioritize the well-being of employees without compromising operational flexibility and efficiency”.
Handy also identified four types of organisational culture:
- Power
- Role
- Task
- Person
In a separate article, Bosman uses Power to support the Leadership role in OHS, but I think this is too simplistic. OHS leadership does not only trickle down through the organisational level. Like a river, it flows quicker in some ways than others. Sometimes, there are logjams, hidden depths, and opposite-flowing rivers. Also, any river is fed by tributaries. Anyhow, enough of the water metaphor and trickles.
Does Charles Handy write directly about workplace health and safety? Not really, but very few business and management thinkers do. The advantage of dipping into Handy’s writings is that executives also dip into his writings, often featured in management training courses and qualifications. Reading Handy allows OHS advisers to speak the correct language to those whose support we need in improving worker health and safety.