Workplace Innovation Practices Research Articles

무엇이 일터혁신의 산업안전 효과를 조절하는가?: 인적자원관리와 기술혁신을 중심으로

This study conducts an empirical study on whether HRM and automated technology
 moderate the impact of workplace innovation on occupational injury and illness, using the
 manufacturing sample of the 6th-8th rounds of Workplace Panel Survey(2015-2019)
 collected by Korea Labor Institute. Conjecturing that the inconsistent safety effects of
 workplace innovation in the previous studies are due to the varying characteristics of
 workplace innovation practices, we draw the following hypotheses: HRM and automation
 rate moderates negatively the effect of workplace innovation on occupational injury and
 illness. Besides, we explore the effects of workplace innovation, HRM, and automated
 technology on occupational injury and illness. We estimate panel-data fixed effects models.
 Their dependent variables are simple and recognized occupational injury and illness rate,
 and their main independent variables are workplace innovation, HRM, automation rate, and
 their interaction terms. The results of this study indicate the following: HRM moderates
 positively the reducing effect of workplace innovation on occupational injury and illness,
 and automation rate partially moderates it positively. Workplace innovation does not have
 a significant reducing effect on occupational injury and illness, while HRM and automation
 rate partially have significantly negative and positive ones respectively. Finally the results
 are summarized and interpreted, and their implications are discussed.

Wellbeing in line managers during mandatory working from home: How work and personal factors combine.

The pandemic, particularly the aspect of forced working from home, has had a major impact on the workforce. Previous studies show that line managers have also experienced severe mental strain during this period. Since it is expected that hybrid working will be more the new normal than the exception in future, this study further examined line managers' work-related wellbeing in terms of engagement and exhaustion. Following the job characteristics model (JCM), we explore the mediating role of meaningful work between workplace innovation before the pandemic and line managers' work-related wellbeing during forced working from home. The underlying idea is that organizations that already adopted workplace innovation practices before the pandemic, give teams and employees more control, thus allowing a more meaningful role for line managers, which positively impacts line managers' work-related wellbeing during the pandemic. In addition, building upon Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory and the role of personal resources therein, we explore digital leadership skills and work-life segmentation preference as moderators between meaningful work and work-related wellbeing. Our findings show that workplace innovation is positively associated with engagement via its effect on meaningful work, but not associated with exhaustion. Second, we found that work-life segmentation preference amplifies the relation between meaningful work and engagement (positive link) as well as exhaustion (negative link). This indicates that line managers with a high work-life segmentation preference who have a low score on meaningful work, experience less engagement and more exhaustion than line managers with a high score on meaningful work when working from home. No support was found for the moderation of digital leadership skills in the relationship between meaningful work, engagement, and exhaustion. Based on these results, we discuss implications for research and we provide practice recommendations.

A policy response to workplace innovation for the rail sector.

The rail sector is a sector with a significant impact on European industry and it is therefore important that it follows the current innovative trends. We live in an increasingly digitised society but, until now, digitisation has not been a priority issue for the sector as the rules that apply to the entire value chain have hindered the digitisation process. Even so, technologies are not enough, and innovation must be implemented in companies at the organisational and employee level. The RailActivation project has experimented with workplace innovation to foster innovation capabilities in the railway sector, providing elements for companies to remain as innovative and competitive as possible, as well as to have additional tools to adapt to these challenges. In order to help in this process, this article proposes a series of recommendations based on the lessons learnt during the implementation of the project. These recommendations establish a link between policy and workplace innovation practices and could be a reference framework for further research and policy. The suggested policy recommendations are focused on companies and policy makers and are based on the results obtained from the different consultations with the stakeholders involved in this research.

A policy response to workplace innovation for the rail sector

The rail sector is a sector with a significant impact on European industry and it is therefore important that it follows the current innovative trends. We live in an increasingly digitised society but, until now, digitisation has not been a priority issue for the sector as the rules that apply to the entire value chain have hindered the digitisation process. Even so, technologies are not enough, and innovation must be implemented in companies at the organisational and employee level. The RailActivation project has experimented with workplace innovation to foster innovation capabilities in the railway sector, providing elements for companies to remain as innovative and competitive as possible, as well as to have additional tools to adapt to these challenges. In order to help in this process, this article proposes a series of recommendations based on the lessons learnt during the implementation of the project. These recommendations establish a link between policy and workplace innovation practices and could be a reference framework for further research and policy. The suggested policy recommendations are focused on companies and policy makers and are based on the results obtained from the different consultations with the stakeholders involved in this research.

A New Measure of Workplace Innovation

Despite the popularity of Workplace Innovation (WI) and its demonstrable utility for supporting both organizational productivity and employee well-being, there is at present no reliable and valid measure of WI practices for use in research and workplace settings. The aim of this paper is to present the development of a measure of WI climate.The study involved 855 individuals across all levels of three organizations, and a survey of WI practices that was based on four underlying elements: jobs and teams; organizational structures, management and procedures; employee-driven improvement and innovation; and co-created leadership and employee voice.The original list of items was developed in consultation with employers and practitioners. WI was assessed as climate perceptions. A series of analyses were undertaken on the measure, demonstrating good psychometric properties, including consistency of the factor structure, internal reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity. Support for reliability and validity of the new 19-item measure with four elements is presented. Employees who experienced the four elements of WI climate more positively also enjoyed greater work engagement and job satisfaction, outlining criterion validity of the new measure. The availability of a rigorous and reliable measure of WI climate offers a tool for practitioners and researchers tasked with communicating and promoting WI in diverse workplace settings and with diverse groups of stakeholders. We hope that this new measure of WI will stimulate further research on the role of WI in promoting healthy and productive workplaces.Keywords: workplace innovation; measurement validation; work engagement; job satisfaction

Creating the bottom-up organization from the top: Leaders as enablers of workplace innovation

Workplace innovation enhances economic performance and quality of working life simultaneously. Yet successive surveys show that its adoption rate is slow. In many European countries, there is little infrastructure to support the adoption of workplace innovation, often despite a long history of poor productivity and skills utilisation. Enterprise leadership therefore plays a critical role in determining whether or not workplace innovation practices are adopted. Three selected case studies illustrate journeys towards workplace innovation from different starting points. They demonstrate how a consistent approach to shared and distributed leadership can stimulate employee empowerment and initiative from the bottom up, as well as the cumulative impact of small incremental changes.

The role of work and organizational psychology for workplace innovation practice: From short-sightedness to eagle view

This paper is premised on the observation that the potential of Work and Organizational (WO) Psychologists to successfully implement workplace innovation (WPI) practices and, in turn, improve the quality of work and organizational performance is greatly underused. One reason for this is that WPI practice often adopts a more specialised approach and single discipline focus rather than an integrated perspective. An integrated approach would imply understanding WPI from the strategy, structure, and culture perspectives. We outline ways in which WPI practice can appreciate and use the potential of WO psychology as well as how WO Psychologists can broaden their focus and strengthen their contribution to WPI practice.

Case studies can support definitions of workplace innovation in practice

Many practitioners find it problematic to understand and describe workplace innovation (WPI). Whereas there are well-known definitions of WPI, these remain highly abstract. We argue that, for practitioners, case examples of WPI best practices can be a valuable addition to these definitions. In this respect, based on our practical experience with WPI and the cases that resulted from the Eurofound study (Eurofound, 2015), we propose the following criteria for a case to be a good example for practical purposes. First, the company that serves as a case should have implemented good workplace innovation practices that have resulted in or theoretically promise to result in positive outcomes for the organization and for the quality of work. Second, the case description has to provide actionable information about the WPI practices. Third, the narrative of the case has to be inspiring and provide possibilities for stakeholders to identify with it. We present a number of the Eurofound cases that are informative and inspiring for practitioners while also presenting actionable information.

Reviewing psychological facets of workplace innovation

In this article, we present a review of recent studies on workplace innovation (WPI) from a work and organizational psychology (WOP) perspective, with the aim of showing the potential advantages of taking a WOP perspective on WPI. We first outline a few different conceptualisations of WPI and of its main outcomes, that is, quality of working life and organizational performance. Next, we examine the intersections between research in WOP and WPI, specifically focusing on how an understanding of organizational and work-related dynamics can influence the effectiveness of WPI practices. Third, in an attempt to facilitate the integration of research on WOP and WPI and to disentangle the mechanisms underlying the effective implementation of WPI policies, we present evidence on three critical concepts in WOP and their relationship to WPI: job autonomy, job flexibility and participation in organizational life. Finally, we discuss some practical implications for Work and Organizational Psychologists interested in WPI implementation.

CONTEXTUAL DRIVERS OF WORKPLACE INNOVATION PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: RESPONDING TO ORGANIZATIONAL EXISTING AND EMERGING CHALLENGES

Purpose: The study sought to determine the contextual drivers of workplace innovation practices and organizational performance: responding to organizational existing and emerging challengesMethodology: This paper identifies areas in which improvements to workplace innovation need to be made, from both operation management and production management in both theoretical and practical standpoint, and discusses recent findings by researchers to make such improvements. It therefore uses desk top study research design.Results: It is argued that the reinvention of old ways of doing business will involve the consideration of workplace innovation practices that have a wider set of increased participation, more job autonomy, decentralization of responsibility, higher levels of both internal and external control capacity, together with more opportunities for continuous improvement in terms of learning whereby organizational and individual are able to assimilate and connect well with what is happening in terms of new knowledge about their works and expertise; effectiveness, organizational capability, quality and top management commitmentUnique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends that contextual drives including organization characteristics or organisation model whereby organisations can choose a model that is directed at better organizational performance (an economic target), better quality of work (a social target) or a combination of both.

Patterns of workplace innovation in the Basque Country: Challenges and lessons from Gipuzkoa

The importance of Workplace Innovation to improve competitiveness and employability strategies in the Basque Country has been a key ingredient of policy discussions in this region. This paper is focused on the analysis of the context and current state of workplace innovation and productivity skills in the province of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country-Spain).The action-research study was conducted in 2015 (different economic sectors and organizations of the area) with the funding and support of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa (Department for Economic Promotion) and the European Social Fund co-financing. The project was included as a specific case study of the workforce and workplace conditions of territorial organisations through the identification of the drivers and barriers of workplace innovation practices in 496 SME’s.The aim of this investigation is to build a new model of economic and social development that looks to understand the diverse and complex workplace environment of an important part of the Basque Country’s work organisations and companies.The evaluation of their practical learning activities, management as intervention, work organization, and worker participation, and their influence in the employment skills of their workers, is a crucial part of this research.This article takes a close look to these organizations, through a detailed analysis of their main changing processes in their workforce skills, their organizational knowledge and their economic and competitive performance.

Social Innovations In Companies And In Social Economy Enterprises

This paper compares the way of perceiving and implementing social innovations in companies and social enterprises in Poland with those in Europe. Special attention is paid to internal social innovations, so-called workplace innovations (WPI), and the reasons and outcomes of their introduction in companies, both in Poland and in other European countries. Moreover, the paper investigates the relationship between the need for internal social innovations and positive employment relations in analyzed entities. The research findings prove that introducing innovations, including social innovations, is mainly driven by the need to improve a company’s performance. Among social innovations which both companies and social enterprises value is investment into improving employees’ work conditions. Moreover, for more than half of Polish companies and social enterprises the need for innovations is related to creating development opportunities, higher work flexibility, better social and life conditions of employees, as well as supporting employee’s reconciliation between work and family life. These reasons for introducing social innovations were also noted by both managers and employees in other European companies. The paper also shows the links between issues of internal social innovations and positive employment relationships. The presented research findings prove that positive relationships among employees are significantly and positively correlated with a broad approach to the need for introducing social innovations. Moreover, the paper points out that positive employment relations are perceived as an important outcome of workplace innovation practices in European companies.

Dealing with economic and demographic challenges: Workplace innovation practices as a timely and effective response to older workers' needs

Abstract There is substantial evidence that workplace practices can support employee health and well-being. In the present paper we explore the role of a specific type of practices, workplace innovation (WI) practices, for older workers’ health and well-being. We start by arguing for a more comprehensive and less fragmented approach to workplace practices and for practices that can create the conditions to support both quality of working life and organisational performance. We then suggest that WI practices offer such an approach and present the evidence that links the effects of four types of WI practices (work organisation, structure and systems, learning and reflection, and workplace partnership) to a range of health and well-being outcomes (health, well-being, work engagement, performance, and decisions to delay retirement). Even though there is currently no direct empirical evidence that links WI practices to the health and well-being of older workers, the available research offers indirect support for a number of propositions for research and practice. These propositions can help and contribute to the development of a fruitful line of research on the impact of WI on older workers’ health and well-being. Keywords: Older workers, workplace innovation practices, human resource management, health, well-being, work engagement, performance, retirement

Closing the Gap: The Fifth Element and Workplace Innovation

Growing evidence shows that workplace innovation practices which empower employees tomake day-to-day-decisions, challenge established practices, contribute ideas, and be heardat the most senior levels, lead to better business results, as well as enhanced workforcehealth and engagement. Most businesses are either unaware of this evidence, or are unableor unwilling to act on it. Surveys demonstrate a gap between “what works” and commonworkplace practice.We lack an easily communicable way of sharing actionable knowledge, generated by diversebodies of research and experience, with enterprise-level decision-makers, publicpolicymakers and other actors. We need a “joint intelligence” shared by all stakeholders inthe workplace, and at the wider economic and social level. This task has been taken up byUK WON and its partners in the European Workplace Innovation Network (EUWIN).The literature emphasises the importance of internally consistent policies and practices inachieving superior outcomes for organisations and their employees, greater than the sumof individual measures. The Fifth Element captures this essential quality, providing aframework for the creation of sense-making narratives that build bridges betweenresearchers and practitioners.