Mission Statement

Workplace Solutions promotes health and well-being on the job by fostering understanding of the sources of interpersonal conflict, individual breakdown and organizational distress. Applying expertise drawn from a wide range of disciplines, we enable stakeholders to collaborate effectively in fashioning policies and programs that address the root causes of conflict, stress and violence in their workplace.

Workplace Solutions began as project under the aegis of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Today it is an independent, nonprofit organization, operating with the aid of a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a private foundation incorporated in California in 1966. Consensus building, public participation and policymaking are main interests of the Foundation. Workplace Solutions is among a select group of organizations that the Foundation has designated for substantial support. The group also includes Harvard University Law School, the Administrative Conference of the United States, the American Arbitration Association and the Northwestern University School of Management. In its annual report for 1996, the Foundation states:

Recognizing that the origin of conflict can be traced to defects in methods of communication and participation in policymaking, the Foundation assists organizations that demonstrate means of improving the processes of decision making on issues of major public importance. The Foundation's interest is focused primarily on facilitating and convening organizations that explore new ways of approaching contentious public policy issues through collaborative action that addresses the legitimate interests of all involved parties.