The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Innovation

The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview to workplace innovation research and to rationalise the book’s focus. Growth trajectories and key knowledge clusters were uncovered by a citation network generated from 144 workplace innovation publications sourced from a systematic literature search executed in the Scopus database. The analysis identified the presence of six main knowledge clusters residing in leadership and organisational culture; forms of work organisation and quality of work; employee participation; occupational stress; occupational safety including health innovation and innovation in the social aspects of organisation. Future research areas were suggested in terms of level of analysis in research designs, organisational behaviour and practice, research contexts and research design methods. These provided the rationalisation of the book’s focus which is organised under the following six areas: workplace innovation in contexts, determinants, processes, outcomes, transformations and ecosystems.

The innovation literature is rich and diverse spanning across numerous disciplines to generate multiple diverse findings. This integrative study summarizes the literature to create a novel macro-model comprised of the six elements of climate, culture, structure, leadership, management and environment. The model has utility for academics and practitioners when developing an assessment of an organization’s innovation process and understanding the vital elements impacting on this process.

Developing organisational performance and job quality simultaneously has been an issue in European countries since the introduction of ‘scientific management’ more than 100 years ago. How to prevent ‘deskilling’ and ‘intensification’? After the Second World War policies have been developed to improve both productivity and job quality by, amongst other things, stimulating management—worker cooperation. However, these endeavours had to be reinforced regularly because the market mechanism does not provide a good jobs economy by itself. From the 1990s, the European Union developed a series of policies on ‘work organisation’, later ‘workplace innovation’. The newest challenge is to complement technological innovation with workplace innovation.

Workplace innovation is defined both by process and outcomes. It describes a participatory process of innovation leading to empowering workplace practices which, in turn, sustain continuing experimentation, learning, reflection and change. Workplace innovation is an inherently social process, building skills and competence through creative collaboration. It provides global concepts and practices as generative resources which organisational actors contextualise as ‘local theories’ to fit local circumstances. This chapter draws on UK experiences to demonstrate the nature of workplace innovation as a journey of learning and experimentation, one which can be stimulated and resourced by targeted support from policymakers. Lessons from these experiences relating to the design and implementation of future interventions are of wider relevance to enterprises, policymakers and other stakeholders internationally.

This chapter addresses the relationship between organizational culture and workplace innovation in a public sector organization. The study identifies how organizational culture impacts on a public sector organization’s ability to innovate. The research was conducted within the context of a large public sector organisation in Victoria, Australia.. A case study approach was utilized using an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach based on a survey of 479 employees. Triangulation with qualitative data sourced from the survey and internal documents corroborated the findings. Public sector culture was identified as a significant antecedent of workplace innovation predicting 24.6% of variation and identifying significant variation in individual innovation, organizational innovation, team innovation and workplace innovation climate, which impacted an employee’s capacity to innovate. Group-level culture was particularly influential.

Innovativeness is recognized as a central property of corporate entrepreneurship (CE), yet past findings were inconsistent when identifying this relationship. Drawing on a sample of 1415 Australian organizations, the study investigates the assumption that management support for CE, rewards/reinforcement, work discretion, organizational boundaries and time availability comprise the CE climate. A second assumption addresses how CE climate (CEC) contributes to innovativeness. The findings confirm the existence of an overarching (second-order) CEC construct and a statistically significant positive relationship with innovativeness. The two factors of management support for CE and rewards/reinforcement are strongly associated with innovativeness, thus supporting a distinction between CE climate factors.

This case study takes place in the Cambodia country office of an international NGO (nongovernmental organization). During a 3-month culture study in this Southeast Asian country, employees and senior leaders sought to better understand their current organizational culture in light of a forthcoming global strategic planning process. Through interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), the current and aspired culture is diagnosed and priority gaps are identified. The implications for workplace innovation are discussed and recommendations for practice are offered.

Over the years, team creativity and exploratory innovation capabilities have experienced a decline in the Nigerian manufacturing industry. Therefore, we attempt to bolster the foundations of team creativity by examining and integrating the concept of “creativity willingness” into team creativity dimensions. To advance insights into how team creativity could engender exploratory innovation, we also investigate the predictive powers of creative ideation and leader openness. We find that creativity willingness predicts creative ideation, and creative ideation predicts exploratory innovation. Our findings indicate that while creative ideation mediates the positive predictions of creativity skills and task motivation, it largely complements the predictions of expertise and creativity willingness.

This chapter presents a Nordic-based research approach, aimed at encouraging dialogical processes and broad participation at work, in order to support workplace innovation. The approach has been implemented in Norway and Sweden. The chapter (a) presents the theoretical underpinning related to the dialogical approach to workplace innovation; (b) presents findings from three large successive workplace innovation programmes based on this foundation in Norway; (c) connects (a) and (b) by presenting the programme designs, evaluations and research output and finally (d) reflects upon learning points from this programme history. The overall thesis is that the dialogical approach to workplace innovation has taken a large step forward through the Norwegian programmes. There is potential to further develop both the theoretical foundation for this approach and the methodology of dialogical change.

The diversity of interpretations of public sector innovation leads to a plethora of management strategies. These tendencies are evident in the literature. In this chapter, the author argues that barriers to innovation, leadership characteristics and organisational climate are activities that influence innovation processes. These determinants are not independent of each other but instead support and reinforce or offset one another. The in-depth analysis revealed that (a) barriers such as rules and regulations and funds and budget; (b) leadership characteristics such as strategic leadership, national leadership and inclusive leadership and (c) organisational climate issues such as workplace planning, measurement tools, initiatives, embracing diversity and collaboration and networking are critical factors that stimulate or hinder innovation in the public sector.

Presenting a study in ten EU Member States, this chapter discusses the implementation of workplace innovation (WPI) by European companies. Central questions are: (1) Why do companies apply WPI and are there different strategies that they use? (2) How do these companies implement WPI interventions and provide employees a role in that process? (3) What types of WPI interventions are being implemented, and what are the (expected) effects of such interventions? The chapter concludes that successful WPI is a subtle interplay of management-driven business goals and employee-driven quality of work life goals. The main take away message is that constructive cooperation between management and employees is key for innovation, competitiveness and good quality jobs.

Innovation as a source of competitive advantage helps the organization gain superior returns from the market. Until recently, innovation activities were generally restricted inside organizations and in some cases to select partners. The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of practices where private enterprises open all or select innovation activities for anyone with interest to participate. Referred to as “open innovation” approach to innovation development, organizations have shown different patterns of openness in their innovation efforts with regard to stages and levels of openness, identified as innovation trajectory in this study. In one of the first studies to explore openness at innovation process level, we explore the factors that determine the choice of innovation trajectory, i.e. pattern of openness, in the organization’s innovation process.

The recent evolution of digital technologies is changing service industries. Although digitalization has been expected to create more productive workplaces in service sectors, it is necessary to investigate how digital technologies could be integrated with work practices and innovative activities at workplaces. Studies on this issue are still scarce, especially from the aspect of technology development and integration. In this chapter, we introduce the service engineering research project in Japan. The feature of this project held from 2009 to 2012 was the utilization of digital technologies and collected data in an employee-driven manner at workplaces. We introduce two illustrative case studies and six principles for successful development and implementation of digital technologies toward innovative workplaces.

Innovation is the buzzword today in organizations, with resources, time and effort being invested to innovate in order to gain competitive advantage. However, innovation, like other processes in organizational settings, takes place in a structured and planned way. This results in “organized innovation,” wherein the interplay of two opposing forces, namely, disrupting and organizing work at the same time, results in poor quality of innovation. On the other hand, consistent high-quality innovation is being done by individual innovators. We apply the transactional analysis framework to compare the process of innovation as adopted by the organizations vis-a-vis individual innovator using case research methodology. The chapter elucidates the individual and organizational processes by drawing similarities and differences between the two.

The chapter presents the options and criteria of a human-, resp. skill-oriented design of digitized industrial work. To this end, in the chapter, the following theses will be outlined: First, there are no clear prospects for the development of digital work; rather, very different development perspectives can be assumed. Second, the development of digitization has therefore to be regarded as a design project. A useful conceptual base for this is the approach of the socio-technical system. Third, based on this approach, basic criteria for the design and implementation of human-oriented forms of digitized work can be systematically developed. Methodologically, the contribution draws on research findings that deal with the diffusion of digital technologies and the development of work in industrial sectors of Germany.

The emergence of open innovation practices has caused the university’s role to be rethought, especially in the form of its engagement with industry and society. More and more entrepreneurial behavior is expected from the university. However, in some locations, such as Brazil, where universities have developed based on technology import models, collaboration with industry, and therefore technology transfer, is still challenging. Thus, in this chapter, we present the case of Unisinos, which created a hub, a locus for open innovation, enhancing companies’ engagement in the technology transfer process. This hub has a specific physical structure to enhance companies’ engagement with the university. Besides, it uses a set of expert-brokered interface processes capable of ensuring quality, improving project management, and making the best choice of partners for the company project. This approach has offered entrepreneurial behavior for research and broadens the insertion of the university in its surroundings.

The propensity for public sector organisations to innovate has drastically increased over the last two decades. Public sector innovation in this chapter refers to major changes in processes in the Australian public sector. This chapter can serve as an indication of the extent to which the Australian government is providing the infrastructure to support or encourage innovation. In addition, this chapter might help public servants/decision-makers to identify the most favourable behaviours and characteristics that foster a culture of innovation. The findings revealed specific barriers that hinder a culture of innovation and leadership characteristics and organisational climate issues that stimulate a culture of innovation in the government sector. The findings on innovation and leadership are predominantly aggregated in the literature, and this chapter for the first time identifies disaggregated data across eight states of Australia.

The chapter proposes that only innovative companies can deliver sustainable performance over time. How to ensure a robust pipeline of innovative projects to build a sustainable innovative company is a very relevant question. The authors claim that innovation processes which constantly deliver innovation-powered projects can be prototyped. So far prototyping was developed and explored as a stage in innovation process linking idea with refined solution. We use prototyping as a method of getting innovation processes done. In an attempt to find some insights, the authors examine a particular example of prototyping an innovation process step by step, materialize it in a software that enables to automatize and stabilize the process, and fine-tune it with employees in an inclusive approach in a medium-sized construction business. The case study discusses key factors in determining a sustainable innovation process based on a true understanding of the external environment and contextual business requirements. Although rooted in construction specifics, the presented approach can gain broader application.

Since the prevailing norm adopted by many successful businesses is that creativity is no longer an optional but a necessary feature of leadership, the present study develops and tests a model of the mechanisms linking different stages of the innovation process (delivered by different actors) and work role proficiency. Specifically, by examining a sample of 177 leader-member dyads from four public sector organizations based in a European Union member state, we showed that (1) leader creativity is positively related to employee organizational citizenship behavior (a direct effect) and (2) employee innovativeness mediates the positive relationship between leader creativity and employees’ work role proficiency dimensions (an indirect effect). Thus, we provided new evidence on the importance of leaders’ creative role modelling for achieving higher levels of followers’ task performance and organizational citizenship behavior.

This study employed mixed methods to explore the comparison between Malaysia and Singapore in terms of the contribution of leadership qualities and impacts towards innovation endeavours. Besides that, it also examined the significant relationship between leadership qualities and innovation endeavours in both countries. Findings revealed that operational focus and quality measurement qualities make the strongest unique contribution to explaining the variance, emphasising the importance of innovation. Findings also showed that innovation endeavours have promising impacts on Malaysia and Singapore university students towards enhancing, inspiring and motivating their learning, besides providing them a sense of self-improvement, self-motivation, self-satisfaction, self-efficiency and a sense of achievement. This study implies that innovation endeavours have helped university lecturers unleash their self-potential in the world of innovation, encourage their quest for continuous professional improvement and provide them the avenue to feel accomplished upon the recognition of their innovation.

Frugal innovation is associated with social, economic, and environmental benefits. The process by which this innovation is embedded in organisational DNA, and the mechanisms by which its related beneficial outcomes eventuate however, remain unclear, as these have not been clarified in the literature. Using the concept of workplace innovation, and by means of conceptual research methodology, this chapter explores the process by which a frugal workplace innovation environment is created and develops a conceptual framework to depict relationships between various frugal workplace innovation predictors and related outcomes. The resultant conceptual framework identifies two independent variables, one mediating variable, and one outcome variable. This chapter extends the field of innovation management by the contribution of a framework for conceptualising not only frugal workplace innovation, but workplace innovation in general, and also for predicting workplace innovation-related outcomes. It lays the groundwork for the development of a testable workplace innovation theory.

The dairy industry is a mature industry that tends to take a traditional approach toward innovation. In recent years, however, firms in this industry have pursued more constant innovation by recognizing the value of their innovation mistakes. This chapter presents the case study of Alpura, the second-largest dairy company in Mexico, a country with a complex, competitive mix of more than 26 large domestic and international dairy companies. This case study describes the events related to the unsuccessful innovations that eventually drove an urgent change in the innovation strategy in Alpura, which was a leader in its market for several decades. Alpura’s case portrays the importance of organizations recognizing the value of their unsuccessful innovations and other innovation missteps to focus on better future innovation efforts.

The interactions between innovation and Quality of the Work Life Management are multiple and continuous. The foundations of these relationships considering biological, psychological, social and organizational approaches. Studies on happiness among executives, characteristics of the app 7waves motivations for life objectives and a description of Doctors of Joy. The contributions of these approaches refer to innovations both in terms of organizational behaviour management models and the development of innovative skills in companies. The methodology Teaching Case used was the analysis of real cases from the perspective of added values to the management and practice of quality of life and changes in the organizational culture. The cases studied show new frontiers of perception by the directors, in relation to workshops that promote the expression of emotions.

Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the impact of innovation and finding ways to cultivate innovation for performance improvement. Based on the resource-based view theory, this study aims to identify the relationship between workplace innovation and organisational performance in entrepreneurial ventures across Australia and Pakistan. Cross-sectional quantitative method was used to collect the data from top executives working in entrepreneurial ventures in both countries through an online and hardcopy survey. The results demonstrated that workplace innovation has a positive impact on organisational performance in a developed country, yet this relationship is non-significant in a developing country, showing a significant difference in both countries. The findings of this study extend the literature of workplace innovation and empirically justify that there is a need to practically implement workplace innovation as a business growth strategy in ventures across developing countries.

This chapter is positioned from a practitioner point of view which is supported by research conducted by the primary author, the presented case studies and theoretical considerations. The research proposed that in order to engage in more divergent thinking (which is a key element of innovation) we need to shift the focus away from tangible outputs and towards the outcomes of workforce engagement and collaboration. Taking this approach can reverse the common mindset of being submerged in a tactical mindset of rigid and functional states that focus purely on cost, time, scope and quality. The examples in this chapter show that our modern Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world offers opportunities to be explored, rather than a problem upon which to focus. To create such proactive workplace innovation, requires a mind-shift that is more creative, agile and open. It benefits from stronger inclusion of intangible human elements, such as relationships, trust, engagement and collaboration. Optimal workplace innovation motivates the people involved through engagement which generates sustained higher performance outcomes.

This chapter used secondary sources to examine the role of cognitive diversity among top management teams in a global sample of 38 innovative firms (19 headquartered in the United States and 19 headquartered in other countries). Top management team demographics—generation, firm tenure, gender, and race—were collected, and firms were classified into four business life cycles. Firms in the Maturity phase had less generational and geographic dispersion, but more gender and racial diversity, so that cognitive diversity might facilitate continuous innovation aimed at marketplace relevancy. Innovative Start-ups were geographically dispersed but more cohort, gender, and racially concentrated. Perhaps this lack of cognitive diversity was necessary to maintain focus on the new business for survival in the early years. Limitations and future research directions were presented.

Workplace innovation and its relevance to health, well-being and prosperity continues to be a positive response to the challenging features of our time. Following a brief review of existing research on the application of design thinking, we focus on its contributions to workplace innovation. This chapter proposes that design thinking or human-centred design and its focus on creating more desirable futures captures the imagination, energy and human ingenuity to stimulate, nurture and shape new ways of thinking and working, delivering collaborative new improved solutions across multiple organisational contexts and enabling workplace innovation.

The ethical dimension of innovation, a hitherto neglected research area, has started attracting scholarly interest. This is of particular relevance considering the increasing rate of ethical infractions that characterise the innovation and technology landscape. Though the need for ethical and responsible innovation is being highlighted in the extant literature, there appears to be a lack of research focus on related unethical practices. In this chapter we draw attention to the concept of unethical innovation process and highlight practices that characterise such a process. Using Theranos, a medical technology firm as our case study, and content analysis as our methodological approach, we explored the characteristics and facilitating factors of the unethical innovation process. The findings highlight eight major related characteristics and eleven major facilitating factors. This chapter makes three significant contributions to the field of innovation management by doing the following: it introduces the concept of unethical innovation process; highlights the major related characteristics; and identifies the major related facilitating factors.

The role of innovation and creativity in the contemporary tourism industry is significant in sustaining competitive advantage. Of all factors related to employees’ behaviour, leadership has been found to be one of the most influential in supporting and encouraging subordinates’ creativity and innovation. The key purpose of this study is to examine the influence of perceived innovation-enhancing leadership behaviours on employees’ creativity and innovation. A quantitative survey of 292 hotels and resorts in Australia was conducted. The empirical findings indicate that the innovation-enhancing leadership behaviours relate positively and significantly to employees’ creativity and innovation. The findings of this study will enable industry practitioners to develop innovative and sustainable organisational strategies in the competitive tourism industry, as well as useful directions for leadership coaching programs.

This chapter reviews the innovation endeavors of the second biggest dairy company in Mexico, from a resource-based point of view, to catch up with the market dynamics in the mature business of dairy products in an emerging economy. First, we address the strategic decisions of the top management team, headed by a new CEO with a transformational profile, to lay the foundations of a long-term competitive strategy that respond to the poundings of well-positioned and new aggressive competitors. Then we turn next to take a close look at the efforts to developing innovation capabilities and the reconfiguration of the capabilities structure for the implementation of the innovation strategy that guarantees a bright, innovative future for this iconic company in Mexico.

Brazil is the ninth largest economy in the world and has been driving substantial efforts to develop new paths for socioeconomic development. The creation and consolidation of innovation ecosystems is one path. Unlocking barriers to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation remains a primary challenge. This chapter contributes to an understanding of the cultural factors that might inhibit these developments. Selected innovative ecosystems in Brazil are subjected to context-based analysis in light of detailed constructs established in studies of America’s Silicon Valley. Our main conclusion is that Brazil has the basic cultural conditions to foster innovation, but the necessary cultural factors are not yet fully developed or structured in an integrated way.

An ecosystem perspective on workplace innovation may support better understanding of emerging healthcare challenges and better workplace innovation strategies. A practical method for collaboratively designing ecosystem workplace innovation is required. Using the Dutch/Belgian socio-technical systems theory, we developed a prototype for designing workplace innovation within a care ecosystem context. Three cases of ecosystem workplace innovation in health and social care were analyzed, supplemented by a series of iterative design dialogues. The findings of this exploratory work show the potential of workplace innovation at the ecosystem level. Future research is needed to further develop and validate the prototype.

Educational technology startups, commonly referred to as EdTech, combine education and innovative technology to transform school environments and improve student learning outcomes. Set against the backdrop of primary and secondary schools, this exploratory study uncovers the most important factors affecting the growth of EdTech startups in Bengaluru, India. Drawing on Isenberg’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Model (2010, 2011) this exploratory, qualitative study concludes that “lack of conducive culture, infrastructure support, and finance as well as inadequacies in entrepreneurial approach and value addition” affect the growth of startups in EdTech Entrepreneurial landscape.

This chapter explores the implications of frugal innovation for socio-economic development. Two case studies, eRanger motorcycle ambulance and Tata Swach water purifier, are examined using the qualitative content analysis methodology. The findings suggest that frugal innovation’s developmental effect is nuanced; while it may enhance living conditions at the micro level and serve as a useful stop gap measure for managing developmental challenges, it might not be adequate for addressing the underlying factors of socio-economic underdevelopment. Related theoretical and practical implications highlight the need to recognise the developmental capabilities and limitations of frugal innovation in order to ensure its appropriate use for purposes of development.