How can the Korean workplace become conducive to workplace innovation? Learning from a case study of a manufacturing firm

Abstract

This study defined workplace innovation as an innovative process that encourages employees to take responsibility for continuously changing and improving the quality of their working life and increasing productivity. There is some discrepancy between the ideal of the Korean workplace innovation model and how workplace innovation is actually practised. In the ideal model, work organisation, on the one hand, and human resources development and management, on the other, are undergirded by employee participation. The integration of these components increases firm productivity and improves the quality of working life. However, in many Korean companies, the actual implementation of workplace innovation is not well integrated with other aspects of the firm. This study used Frontec, a mid-sized Korean autoparts manufacturing company that produces nuts and tools for automobiles, as an explorative case study of how SMEs can apply a more desirable workplace innovation model. With a couple of trials and some help from outside workplace innovation experts, it finally achieved satisfactory outputs. It introduced the smart factory systembut faced some difficulties while introducing these various technologies. As a result of this workplace innovation, it improved working environments by increasing job quality and decreasing workloads Finally, in Korean manufacturing firms, introducing workplace innovation and smart manufacturing technologies improve the working environment. In addition, we found employee participation based on workplace innovation is important in this process for making good economic performance and a good working environment, beneficial to both management and employees.