Section: Work and Equal Opportunities

Workplace innovation (WI) is a broad concept that overlaps with other forms of innovation, in particular organisational and process innovation. It comprises a wide range of different practices assigned to areas such as human resource management or organisational development. Elaborating a consistent concept and definition of WI is therefore challenging.

The ZSI was commissioned to write an exploratory report that comprised the following four steps:

1) compiling and comparing definitions of WI for elaborating a working definition and a comprehensive WI concept;

2) gathering information on European surveys that measure WI dimensions;

3) compiling applied indicators and assigning them to different layers defined in the proposed WI concept; and

4) assessing the usefulness of existing indicators for measuring WI and pointing to existing measurement gaps regarding WI and options to improve measurement.

These four steps were implemented in a reflexive workflow, reconsidering conceptual considerations in view of existing theories and surveys as well as indicators. The research team identified the main aspects of workplace innovation which lead into the direction of a clear-cut and consistent concept. The publication "Workplace Innovation. Concepts and indicators" propose an understanding of WI which encompasses many aspects mentioned in existing definitions but which links them in a new way. The report introduces an input-process-output-outcome scheme to better differentiate different layers of WI.

Please find the report here:  http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/8250/attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/native

Authors: Blasy, C., Kesselring, A., Scoppetta, A.

Result of this Event: EUWIN Regional Workshop: Implementing Workplace Innovation

Related Articles:

• Project: EUWIN - European Network for Workplace Innovation
• Event: EUWIN Regional Workshop: Implementing Workplace Innovation
• News: EUWIN – the European Workplace Innovation Network
• Publication: Social Innovation: From idea to impact – the 4-i-process
• Event: Soziale Innovationen in der Arbeitswelt: Das ZSI bei der Personal Austria 2015

Tags: social innovation, workplace innovation