 |
|
|
|
|
|
What is
the benefit from having your work force participate in sporting activities in terms
of improving the company's performance? Also, I would like to know if there are
any books or web sites that discuss this matter.
Hello Sport:
Do employee sport activities benefit performance? I believe the answer is yes. Those individuals who participate in corporate challenges identify more strongly with their workplaces than do non-participants. They cheer for co-workers. They wear their company's logos. They integrate their social and work lives. They feel their company is interested in their lives as a whole rather than in only what they can produce. I don't know of any academic study which looks at this phenomena, but I will do a literature search on this soon.
I have read the book on the mindset of what various sports bring to corporate activity--the baseball and football analogies differ whereas the soccer and basketball analogies have much in common. My and Dan West's recent study of the team showcase competition for the Ohio Governor's Quality Improvement Award supports the notion that team competition improves productivity and corporate loyalty. Also you may find my books listed on the Workplace Doctors' home page of interest. In particular see the first six and last six chapters in THE TEAM TRAINER: WINNING TOOLS AND TACTICS FOR SUCCESSFUL WORKOUTS, Irwin Professional Publishing. Available through major bookstores. These chapters provide a current and history of workgroup experiments to improve performance.
Of course sports alone, absent the other factors important to quality of working life and systemic quality improvement efforts and rewards, will not produce long term high performance.
Wego is basic to good sports on the playing field and shop floor,
Doc Gorden, The Workplace Doctors
SOON THEREAFTER, A FOLLOW-UP AS PROMISED. . .
Hello Sport Again:
My recent reply to your inquiry stated that I would research your question more thoroughly. That I have done. There appears to be little solid evidence that links a work force's participation in sporting activities to improving a company's performance, if by performance one means cutting costs on production and increasing profits. However, if morale, mood, lower health costs, and absenteeism are factored in, there is credible research that supports the linkage of fitness and wellness activities to physical health, mood, and lower absenteeism.
One such study reported in The Journal of Occupational Health & Organizational Psychology (1996, vol. 69, pages 121-134) compared employees who were members of the company's health and fitness club with employees who were on a waiting list to join. Workers who were members were physically healthier, had better moods and were absent less. By the early 80s, 1000 companies reportedly spent $2 billion on fitness programs annually and the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports stated that the pay-back for these programs was greater productivity, less absenteeism, fewer accidents, and better morale. Also take a look at a speech in Vital Speeches (Volume 52, July 1, 1986, pages 567-569). This piece reports that there are 3,500 members of The Association for Fitness in Business, an organization founded in 1974.
The $400+ billion national health-care bill is partly paid by business; companies paid over $300 billion annually in health insurance in the 1980s. A top executive who has a heart attack can cost a company half a million a year. I have seen the great care given to top executives. They have luncheon menus with guidance regarding calories and fat. They are also given comprehensive medical examinations annually. Also see a "Report on Worksite Fitness Programs Suggests Criteria To Be Considered" in Occupational Health & Safety (1991, volume 60) which asserts that employees who are physically fit tend to produce better and suggests that any company which enters into a fitness program should review its insurance program.
Unhealthy lifestyles waste corporate money. Fitness programs cut costs. Sports should be seen as an integral part of company fitness programs. Perhaps, US companies can learn from the Japanese in this. Corporate Challenges generate interest in fitness and are for the most part positive. The only negative of such inter-company competition that I have heard about comes from undue pressure to participate, when management orders or coerces participation rather than calls for volunteers. Workers don't need more stress from management.
So please conduct your own measures of performance before and after employee participation in company sponsored sports activities, but consider more than simply whether those workers work faster. Performance has many indicators as are mentioned above. And let us hear from you again.
WEGO means both working and playing together.
--Bill Gorden