̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Jennifer Howard-Grenville

Moving our bodies - and mindsets

skbf2 — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 12:44:51 +0000

Moving your body and mind can help promote mental wellbeing in the workplace, say Cambridge researchers.

KPMG and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge unveil new partnership to reimagine the world of work, starting with mental wellbeing

skbf2 — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 08:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and KPMG have today unveiled a new partnership to understand how the world of work is changing, starting with what really works when it comes to supporting employees’ mental wellbeing.

̽��ֱ��partnership is a global first and sees the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge bring together researchers from different disciplines to better understand the factors that affect mental wellbeing at work. It will show how different kinds of supports can boost individual mental wellbeing, enhance productivity and promote a healthy workforce for the future.

KPMG will open its doors to Cambridge researchers, who will assess the effectiveness of the mental wellbeing initiatives the firm currently offers to its circa 16,000 UK employees. This will develop an evidence base of what works, and how new support measures can be developed and evaluated to meet employees’ future needs. ̽��ֱ��firm will use these insights to invest in and evolve its package of mental wellbeing support.

̽��ֱ��firm will also share its research with the wider business community, to help them support their own workforce and reduce attrition and wellbeing related absence. It also aims to provide empirical evidence clearly demonstrating the link between employee mental wellbeing and improved productivity.

Jon Holt, Chief Executive of KPMG UK, said: “Mental wellbeing is a global issue and a leading concern on the minds of the business leaders I speak to. Businesses need research and data to help them invest in the right areas to support their staff through a huge period of change, as we emerge from the pandemic and introduce new ways of working.

“But mental wellbeing at work is an under researched area and it is hard to access empirical data evidencing clear links between mental wellbeing policies and better employee health.

“This partnership with the very best academics in their field seeks to address this and provide real answers on what works. It aims to help leaders support their people to thrive at work, which in turn will lift productivity and deliver wider benefits to the economy.”

Professor Gordon Harold, who is leading the mental wellbeing programme for the partnership, said: "Mental health is the bedrock of a healthy, productive and positive society. By 2030 depression will be a leading cause of mortality and morbidity globally, with significant implications for individuals, society and the future of work. Promoting positive mental health and supporting those who experience or are at risk of mental ill health is now a national and global priority.”

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “Work – what we do, how and where we do it and what it means for individuals, organisations and wider society – is changing. This ambitious partnership will bring together Cambridge researchers from a wide range of disciplines to reimagine the world of work and to co-create with KPMG effective strategies and interventions that will benefit both its workforce and those of organisations worldwide.

“Finding the best ways to support mental wellbeing at work is an urgent and important task, and the starting point for this partnership which will explore more broadly how can we enable meaningful work that addresses society’s needs.”

̽��ֱ��announcement is part of KPMG’s £300m three-year strategy to transform and grow its business, as it invests in new insight and services to support its clients and its people.

It also forms part of a wider partnership between KPMG and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which aims to examine the big issues affecting work and society, such as the impact of digital technologies, the global distribution of work and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), and to provide evidence-based, actionable insights. In September last year, the firm unveiled a training programme with Cambridge Judge Business School, which will deliver ESG training to KPMG’s 227,000 global workforce.

New five-year partnership on the ‘Future of Work’ will examine the big issues affecting the modern workforce and offer practical, research-backed solutions to employers

Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Good work?

skbf2 — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 07:05:59 +0000

What do we want from work - and how can we get it? Jennifer Howard-Grenville introduces the ̽��ֱ��'s new partnership with KPMG on the future of work, which will start by addressing mental wellbeing in the workplace.

Academy of Social Sciences confers Fellowships on three Cambridge academics

cg605 — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 13:47:05 +0000

̽��ֱ��Academy of Social Sciences is composed of individual Fellows, Learned Societies, and a number of affiliates who together form a community of around 90,000 social scientists. ̽��ֱ��Academy seeks to promote the social sciences in the United Kingdom for public benefit.

Jennifer Howard-Grenville is the Diageo Professor in Organisation Studies at the Cambridge Judge Business School and a Fellow of Trinity Hall. She currently serves as Deputy Editor for one of the management field’s top journals, Academy of Management Journal.

In an effort to understand how businesses can adapt their actions and strategies to effectively meet the challenges of sustainability, Howard-Grenville’s research focuses on how people generate and navigate change within and beyond their organisations. She is a leading voice, through her writing and editorial work, in encouraging management and business scholarship that considers societal grand challenges, including sustainability. Reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary understanding to drive change in these areas, Howard-Grenville is involved in the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, Cambridge Zero, and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Howard-Grenville said: “I am delighted and honoured to be elected to the Fellowship. I am particularly grateful to the community of scholars in organisation studies and more widely in the social sciences who are working to contribute our collective knowledge to tackling some of the most urgent issues facing business and society. As someone with training across disciplines, it is especially heartening to see the increasing engagement of researchers across career stages with others outside their disciplinary boundaries, and to see the increasing importance of social science insights in decision making about global challenges.

Elisabete A Silva is Professor of Spatial Planning at the Department of Land Economy, Director of the Lab of Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis (LISA), ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Senior Member of Robinson College and a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). She also lectures and is the course coordinator of ‘Urban and Environmental Planning I’ and ‘Spatial Analysis and Modelling.’

Silva’s research focuses on the application of new technologies to spatial planning, in particular city and metropolitan dynamic modelling through time. ̽��ֱ��LISA lab which she directs, is a Geographic Information Lab that brings together data, software and expertise for spatial analysis in Land Economy's related subjects.

At present Silva is engaged in a €5 million EU-funded Horizon project called eMOTIONAL Cities. ̽��ֱ��project seeks to characterise urban health challenges and inequalities through investigating the interactions between people and urban spaces, with a view to enhancing citizens' health. In particular, the project assesses our neurobiological signals which control our emotions and decision making, while we are interacting with urban environments. ̽��ֱ��research will lead to innovative eMOTIONAL city mapping that will be produced from spatial analysis on social and health data and neuroscience experiments. To do this, the project will draw on urban planning and design, neuroscience, data science and technology.

Silva said: “I am delighted that my work has been recognised by the Academy and feel that I would like to pay tribute to those that helped me during the past 30 years, including my PhD students, colleagues in research projects, former PhD supervisors, colleagues that mentored me and my family for all their support and love. I will use this recognition to promote the use of spatial analysis, modelling and planning in the social sciences.”

Bhaskar Vira is Head of the Department of Geography, Professor of Political Economy and a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. He was Founding Director of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute. He is closely involved with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the Global Food Security Interdisciplinary Research Centre. He also works with the Centre for Science and Policy, Cambridge Zero and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and has contributed to multiple international science-policy panels.

Vira’s research crosses disciplinary boundaries, and spans the fields of political economy, development studies and environmental studies. His work examines the social, political and economic dimensions of natural resource management, and the relationship between natural ecosystems and human well-being.

Vira is currently leading a programme of research on agrarian change and rural transformations in India, as part of the GCRF TIGR2ESS project “Transforming India's Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable Food Supplies” and is also convening a programme on Decent Work and Youth Livelihoods, which is hosted at the Department of Geography.

“I am truly honoured to receive this recognition by my peers and by the Academy of Social Sciences,” said Vira. “I am particularly grateful to generations of colleagues and students at the Department of Geography and at Fitzwilliam College, who have provided such a welcoming and nurturing environment, as well as to colleagues across the wider ̽��ֱ��, especially in the social sciences.

“It has been a privilege to work with research collaborators around the world, and their thinking and work has been a source of inspiration, for which I am very grateful. For someone who has been slightly disrespectful of disciplinary boundaries, this is also a recognition of the importance of the social sciences, and the role that they play in responding to contemporary global challenges.”

̽��ֱ��Academy of Social Sciences has conferred Fellowships on Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Professor Elisabete A Silva and Professor Bhaskar Vira, in recognition of their contribution to social science.

Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Elisabete A Silva and Bhaskar Vira.

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