High‐involvement innovation practices at Finnish workplaces

Abstract

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine the dissemination of high‐involvement innovation practices at Finnish workplaces and to consider how their adoption can be promoted by means of a publicly‐funded R&D programme.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical material is based on a survey by the Finnish Workplace Development Programme TYKES. (TYKES is a governmental R&D programme for promoting simultaneous improvements in productivity and the quality of working life by granting funding to development projects at Finnish workplaces.)FindingsThe interim results of the survey provide a strong evidence‐based argument in favour of the supportive role of the programme.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests areas where governments might introduce support programmes to foster the spread of innovative activity.Originality/valueThe paper provides insights into support policy issues in Finland and will be of interest to those involved in that field.

Skills Demand and Utilisation

“…For example, data from the High-Involvement Innovation Practice survey carried out by the Finnish Workplace Development Programme support the view that the projects have improved the development of team work and increased the level of support management provides to employees (Alasoini et al, 2008). However, Payne (2006) argues there are difficulties in measuring the impact of such programmes through self report surveys alone.…”

“…The monitor samples a representative group of the labour market and contains measures based on four indicators: levels of stress at work, wellbeing at work, learning opportunities and work family balance. Underlying these indicators are the characteristics of work seen as risk factors: workload; emotional load; skill task variety; job autonomy; social support and physical working conditions (Alasoini et al, 2008).…”

“…In 2006, in support of the strategic goals of the Pact of Vilvoorde, the Flemish Government in partnership with the European Social Fund introduced a regionally based workplace innovation programme in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders (Alasoini et al, 2008). The programme was developed around the concept that workplace innovation can be a means to improve the wellbeing of employees as well as improve the performance of the company.…”

“…Over two rounds of the project, just under thirty enterprise based projects have been supported. The key activities of the enterprise level projects include promoting new forms of work organisation, improving client-orientation in the company structure and organisation, increasing autonomy for workers, introducing self-steering teams and promoting competence development and employee participation in the enterprise (Alasoini, 2008).…”

Quality of working life and organizational performance – two sides of the same coin?

“…One evaluation looked at a selected group of 71 projects in the private and the public sector, for which measurements before ("entry") and after ("exit") the project were available (34). In workplaces where teams existed, employees reported improvements in (i) being directly responsible for the quality of their work, (ii) performing several tasks, (iii) having direct connections with other teams in the organization and parties outside the workplace, (v) the continuous development of operations, (vi) product/service development, and (vii) the ability to choose their own leaders.…”