Can High-involvement Innovation Practices improve Productivity and the Quality of Working-life simultaneously? Management and Employee Views on Comparison

2014 – This paper by Elise Ramstad examines the association of high-involvement innovation practices (HIIPs) and simultaneous improvement of productivity and the quality of working life (QWL). HIIPs refer to work, managerial, and organizational practices that are intended for supporting continuous improvement and broad participation. Practices studied are: decentralized decision making, supervisor support, competence development, internal and external cooperation.

A second research question was what factors related to the development process are connected to simultaneous improvement.  

The data 

The data are based on the evaluation surveys carried out by the Finnish Workplace Development Programme TYKES (2004–2010). TYKES was a governmental programme for promoting simultaneous improvements in productivity and the QWL in workplaces through changes in work, managerial, and organizational practices. Information obtained via two different surveys has been combined for the purposes of this article: a survey on HIIPs within a work organization (HIIP) and a self-assessment survey of project outcomes (SA). The survey material comprises altogether 253 responses from 163 different workplaces.

Both employees and managers completed the questionnaires. 

Results

The analysis provides evidence in favor of a view that publicly funded workplace development projects constitute appropriate means to support productivity and the QWL simultaneously. The results provide evidence that HIIPs, including decentralized decision making, competence development, internal cooperation, and external cooperation, are of importance when trying to gain better results in both productivity and the QWL from both management and employees’ point of view. In addition, the development process itself, that is, active employee and management participation in planning and implementation and good skills in project management, is highlighted. Concerning the supervisor’s supportive role in employees’ innovation activities, the employees were more critical than the managers and there was no support for a positive relation with simultaneous improvement.  

Reference

Ramstad, E. (2014). ‘Can High-involvement Innovation Practices improve Productivity and the Quality of Working-life simultaneously? Management and Employee Views on Comparison’. In: Nordic journal of working life studies Volume 4, Number 4, December 2014, is attached. 

Themes: Dynamic management and leadership, Monitoring and evaluation

Sector:

Source: Article, research report