Healing Together: The Labor-management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente (Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)

Healing Together is a story of organizational change . . . a fascinating case study of an unprecedented labor-management partnership forged at Kaiser Permanente . . . . The authors . . . provide a fast-paced, on-the-ground picture of the partnership story, offering nitty-gritty details and direct quotes from leaders and participants from both labor and management. - Kathleen Montgomery, Administrative Science Quarterly

Healing Together is refreshing because it provides an even-handed account of labor-management partnership over more than a 10-year period, and addresses head-on many of the thorniest challenges associated with social partnership for managers, trade unions and employees. . . . It provides an insightful and highly readable account of the accomplishments and drawbacks of labor-management partnership at Kaiser. It will be of interest to a wide range of employment relations and health sector analysts as the U.S. continues to grapple with the challenges of reforming healthcare provision. - Stephen Bach, British Journal of Industrial Relations

Healing Together tells the remarkable story of a decade-long labor-management partnership between Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's first-and still largest-integrated health care systems, and its many unions. It is a tale filled with drama, as memorable individuals and complex coalitions take action before a compelling backdrop of institutions, interests, and initiatives. The authors provide wise insights into the many forces that conspire to undermine the labor-management partnership. Healing Together's clear-eyed view of the ever-present perils and potential payoffs for all parties makes this the most comprehensive and valuable account of labor-management innovation in years-and just in time, as the nation turns to the twin challenges of reforming both labor relations and health care. -John Paul MacDuffie, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Health care provision is often seen as an insurance problem or a technology problem. In Healing Together, the authors show that a key ingredient to effective health care delivery is the climate of labor-management relations andthey provide an admirable road map for achieving a sustainable, cooperative climate. -Daniel J. B. Mitchell, UCLA

Scholars and practitioners of employment relations and health policy and administration are anxious to learn how the Kaiser Permanente partnership has performed and what it has accomplished since its inception. The authors of Healing Together provide an accurate, honest, thorough and compelling account of the partnership. Drawing on interviews with key players, surveys, and data collected by the KPP, the authors show how the partnership developed and functioned, where it succeeded and failed, and what can be learned from the experience. -Paul F. Clark, Pennsylvania State University