Tackling malnutrition in a complex world:strategies, economic and organizational impacts, and implications

Malnutrition is the “state of being poorly nourished, and it is not merely a result of too little food, but of a combination of factors: insufficient protein, energy, and micronutrients, frequent infections or disease, poor care and feeding practices, inadequate health services and unsafe water and sanitation” (Nelson, 2006).

The double burden of malnutrition (DBM) is a concept that has been coined in 1992 during the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) that has been jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The DBM has been defined as the “coexistence of undernutrition and overnutrition in the same population across the life course” (Shrimpton & Rokx, 2012).
The cost of an unhealthy workforce can manifest through absenteeism, lower productivity, and reduced focus at work (Kunte, 2016). Workplace wellness interventions through diet and
nutrition programs may play a vital role in tackling malnutrition (Nelson, 2006) and improving worker motivation and capability (Gubler et al., 2018).
However, the academic literature regarding the corporate wellness programs lacks a specific focus on diet and nutrition as key elements from the Human Resource Management (HRM) perspective to tackle their employees’ malnutrition. Moreover, the literature lacks empirical studies linking diet and nutrition programs with HRM outcome such as motivation
and productivity (Gubler et al., 2018).

• Review of the articles on malnutrition divided by the identified targets.
• Review of the articles on economic impact of malnutrition (and focus on the impact of malnutrition on healthcare costs).
• Empirical investigation of diet and nutrition through an organizational perspective (interviews to Planeat founder and communication manager and to HR BeSharp, and survey administered to BeSharp’s employees – N= 40 employees).

Through our research project, we expect to publish a book including two main parts.
The first part starts with identifying and mapping the specific target groups with malnutrition, to then deepen some of the most relevant ones, i.e., poverty, developmental age, hospitalized patients, elderly people, and individuals affected by autism. We also offer some insights regarding the psychological aspects linked to malnutrition. Each target is developed separately as presents some unique characteristics and requires ad hoc policies and managerial and organizational strategies to be tackled. The second part deals with organizations and the impact that diet and nutrition have on employees’ welfare programs. The literature currently suffers from a paucity of studies linking diet and nutrition to individual and organizational performances. We aim to fill this research gap by presenting the state of research on nutrition and employees’ welfare, introducing some case studies, and illustrating the empirical study we conducted involving the firm Planeat and its client firm BeSharp. We finally discuss the advanced empirical model and our contribution to HRM studies.