David Bowles was born in London and educated in languages, Psychology and Management Sciences at several Universities in Europe, before moving to the US, where he has spent half his life; he is a management consultant, author and speaker and since 1988 has been Managing Director of Research & Consulting International in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Prior to late 1987, he was a Senior Vice President of international management consultant Hay Group in Los Angeles, where he directed Hay’s employee research and corporate culture consulting practice across the western and southwestern states. He is the co-author with Professor Cary Cooper of a book on morale, available worldwide and published by Palgrave-Macmillan, entitled “Employee Morale: Driving Performance in Challenging Times”. Please see the tab above (“See and Order the New Book”) for more information and click-through ordering. This is the first book devoted entirely to the crucial question of why leadership should focus…laser like…on worker morale and engagement. The reason is simple: performance (productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction and even worker health). With the book’s release, David is embarking on speaking engagements on the subjects covered in it. Late in 2010 David and Cary started on their second book for Macmillan, focusing on the Crash of 2008, why it happened and how we must change our cultures at work to make sure we don’t keep going through this. Release is planned for June 2012, under the title: “The High Engagement Work Culture: Balancing ME and WE”. Other plans for mid 2012 and beyond include:
–writing other books on workplace morale and engagement-related issues; these books will be driven by a philosophy that morale (sometimes called “well-being” in Europe and elsewhere) and its cousin engagement represent a powerful way forward, a real edge in an increasingly global and fiercely competitive economy
–speaking more on the customer satisfaction, employee health, financial and organization effectiveness benefits which high morale and engagement bring to the workplace
–focusing as a consultant on strategies for dealing with the less-than-optimal morale and engagement situations in which some organizations find themselves, and the people who create them.
David’s clients have included some of the world’s largest organizations down to small rural hospitals, with experience across all major industry groups such as Airlines; Financial Services; Electric (including Nuclear) and Gas Utilities; Extractive Industries (Oil, Copper and Gold); Health Care (100+ hospitals); Telecommunications; Technology and Manufacturing. The client base has been in both the US and Europe, with operations and consulting requirements worldwide.
David has a B.Sc. (Honors) in Psychology from the University of Southampton, a Ph.D. in Management Sciences (emphasis: Industrial Psychology) from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (now the Manchester Business School), U.K. and diplomas in French Civilization from the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and Italian from the University of Pisa, Italy. In addition to his native English, David speaks fluent French and German as well as good Italian. He can be reached at: db@moraleatwork.com, via Twitter (@engageatwork) or via the Contact form on this blog, and welcomes any and all comments and questions.
