Steven Dhondt

TNO | tno · Expertise Group for Sustainable Productivity and Employability

The introductory chapter explains that disruptive transitions as societal upheavals require organisations and enterprises to continuously adapt to change or proactively anticipate change, like new digital technology. The concept of workplace innovation is helpful in this regard. The introduction sets out the central thesis, the main themes of the b...

This final chapter reviews the approach to workplace innovation in the book’s previous 13 chapters. The book shows there is much variety in the field. While this hampers convergence in research, it is at the same time a richness. The future requires a global conversation on workplace innovation among the stakeholders, instead of a detailed listing...

The scientific and non-scientific literature on workplace innovation is reviewed and categorised against the type of research and the level of analysis. A description is provided of how the term ‘workplace innovation’ is interpreted by authors who apply the term. For the distinguished categories of workplace innovation research, the prominent repre...

The organisational context mediates the relationship between technology and work impact. This reality is not recognised, nor acknowledged, in many studies. However, the European Company Survey 2019 has revealed this relationship in European companies. This mediating role of the organisational context has not yet been sufficiently explored. Thirty c...

This cutting-edge Research Agenda takes a hard look at workplace innovation practices that are vital for dealing with the global disruptive changes we currently face. It unpacks the ways in which organisations can become more sustainable, not only for value creation and profitability but also for sustainable employability and employee skill develop...

Document description: The BEYOND4.0 D8.1 report tackles changes, challenges, frontrunner companies and recommendations for inclusive company policies in the digital transformation. Based on thirty company case studies, it analyses the strategies of companies within entrepreneurial ecosystems. The report comprises four separate 'working papers' as c...

Workplace innovation (WPI) is a concept that appears in several scientific disciplines. The definitions are quite different, but what all the definitions have in common is that WPI is a driver for the ‘advancement of work’ and contributes to a ‘good jobs strategy’. Or put simply: better jobs. Recently, we ploughed through all publications we could...

The Finnish TEKES and later Business Finland invested in the Liideri programme. This programme supported firms to improve workplaces with the idea that better quality of work would enhance the performance of these firms. The programme was conducted in the period 2012-2018. After finalisation, an external evaluator looked at possible benefits. This...

Workplace innovation is an increasingly influential global movement. With strong European origins, it is increasingly recognised by policymakers and other stakeholders in countries across the world as a powerful tool in helping to achieve diverse economic and social policy goals, from inclusive growth and productivity to mental health and wellbeing...

Document description: This BEYOND4.0 D4.1 report covers three research activities: • firstly, it describes fourteen cases of entrepreneurial ecosystems in eight regions in six EU countries, based upon desk research into quantitative indicators, interviews and workshops with actors from the respective ecosystems. In the description, we provide infor...

The impact of technological change on the content of jobs and accompanying skills is a central topic across disciplines. To date, ample research has directly linked the technological change to shifts in skills use; however, organisational change is rarely considered as an influencing factor. Based on a panel survey, this paper uses a Luhmannian app...

The scientific and non-scientific literature of workplace innovation is reviewed and categorised against the type of research and the level of analysis. A description is provided how the term workplace innovation is interpreted by authors who apply the term. For the distinguished categories of workplace innovation research the prominent representat...

Citizens who want to be or become socially active acquire such an attitude not only in their youth or at school, but at least as much, if not more, in their working environment. In this chapter we argue two main ideas. First, that workplace democracy spills over onto society and is needed for social innovation to flourish. Secondly, workplace innov...

In Europe workplace innovation is considered not appropriate for hard/direct regulation. But the market failure is also visible in EU countries. Workplace innovation is still not widespread and the number of precarious and non-standard jobs has been increasing due to the economic crisis and new technologies. EU and national authorities have shown t...

Despite the emergence of head-worn displays at work around forty years ago, few studies have appeared about their impact on job content. To investigate this, a systematic literature review was conducted on these devices and job content, defined as job demands and controls. In total, 3481 studies were identified using five scientific databases. Afte...

More 'flexible' labour relations significantly reduce labour productivity growth in sectors that tend towards a 'routinised' (other than a 'garage business') innovation regime. We argue that structural reforms that make firing easier will diminish the loyalty and commitment of workers, making accumulation of (tacit) knowledge more difficult. It als...

Many innovations do not get implemented. This study examines the innovation adoption of employees as one of the factors responsible for unsuccessful implementation. The assumption is that mindful organising positively associates with innovation adoption. The study looks into the role of mindful organising of employees, which includes resilience, as...

The implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights could be enhanced by stimulating workplace innovation. There is a reciprocal relationship between job quality and innovation capacity as well as between job quality and labour productivity. Whether these relationships are positive (higher job quality, more innovation capacity, higher produc...

This chapter explores how Blockchain might be used in support of both elevated patient engagement in the co-production of care and improved coordination among actors in the care ecosystem. Blockchain is a relatively new technology for sharing information much more widely and securely than in the past. Integrated Care Ecosystems, require both unique...

This guidance paper provides a common intellectual understanding for the BEYOND4.0 research project. It explains what is to be analysed, why and how. As part of this task, it explains the key developments, issues and concepts that drive the project. It provides a common starting point for the aim of BEYOND4.0 to support the delivery of an inclusive...

The manufacturing industry is increasingly regarded as an essential ingredient of an ecosystem of production of goods and services. Key enabling technologies are considered to be the motors behind the ongoing digital transformation of industry. Given that there are still a number of open questions that need to be addressed in order to develop succe...

Social innovation within the workplace is called workplace innovation. Without workplace innovation, organisations cannot reap the benefits of digitalisation. Technology does not dictate work organisation and labour relations; there is ‘organisational choice’. Yet, there are a number of pitfalls.

In this study we examine individual behavioural and organisational predictors of innovation adoption amongemployees in the transport and logistics sector in the Netherlands. The framework of the study is based on theories of planned behaviour and workplace innovation. Based on a survey of 224 respondents, we see that employees who are expressing in...

This special issue of the International Journal Technology Transfer and Commercialisation contains five contributions. Prior to developing this special issue, a symposium on WPI was held during EURAM18, the yearly international conference of the European Academy of Management, in Reykjavik, Iceland (June 2018), where a number of the articles where...

To remain economically viable organisations need to innovate. This survey study examined the role of employee perception of innovation (visibility of results, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and subjective norm), as well as organisational (workplace innovation), and individual characteristics factors (innovative behaviour, risk taking...

Presentation to the #technequality workshop in Amsterdam. Showing the starting points of the @beyond4-0 project. Organisation trumps technology when looking at employment impacts.

The innovation journey is a process model distinguishing between the initiation, developmental and implementation/termination period of innovations; it looks at drivers and barriers, like innovation managers, investors, setbacks, adaptation, infrastructure. We operationalize this model to apply it to the process of social innovation. Eighty-two cas...

The aim of this report (D2) is to identify skill gaps in the railway sector connected to the investment in innovation projects (IPs) by S2R. To deal with these skill gaps, six measures will be explored in connection to this report in the next report D3. To identify skill gaps, an analysis of the skill requirements is made for the IPs. This analysis...

This report is a summary of several separate research tasks that have been conducted over the past year that offer insights into these two questions. This report is not so much a new research activity, but rather an overview on the basis of the past research about what the best conditions are for the sector to prepare for this future. The report ho...

This report D3a includes the recommendations for strategies and trainings to bridge the skills gap in the railway sector and ensuring increased flexibility of railway staff. The resulting recommendations are meant for S2R and the railway sector. Best practices from other sectors, transfer of knowledge and transfer of workforce, have been studied fo...

Introduction: Due to fast technological changes organisations need to adjust by innovations to remain economically viable. However, as innovations do not always pass the implementation phase, this study examines innovation adoption of employees. The assumption is that workplace innovation positively associates with innovation adoption. The study lo...

This paper describes a new approach to investigating, unraveling and explaining the implications of digital technologies for skills. To do so, the paper develops an approach to assess technology in companies in a more precise way, building on three main arguments. Firstly, current approaches to the subject treat all (new and emerging) technologies...

Die niederländische Logistikbranche hat auf internationaler Ebene eine Vorreiterrolle inne. Sie gilt als extrem produktiv (Van de Ven 2013) und innovativ (World Logistics Performance Index 2018. Dennoch steht der traditionelle, "ergrauende" Sektor vor einigen großen Heraus-forderungen. Die niederländische Regierung und die Logistikbranche investier...

Blockchain has become popular because of Bitcoin. This Information and Communication Technology offers several opportunities as backbone IT-infrastructure for organisations. To understand the impact of blockchains on organising, a theoretical framework on information and communication costs has been used. The immutable ledger, smart contracts and d...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether insights into high reliability organizations (HROs) are useful for innovation management teams. HRO teams can keep failure to a minimum level due to high alertness and resilience. Project teams working on innovation management could benefit from HRO principles and thus reduce their chance...

The goal of the report is to assess the current skills for different categories of railway staff, from workers to engineers, railway managers and researchers (task 1). The study on socioeconomic aspects of human capital starts with assessing the state of play regarding present employment situation considering work already done on forecasts for huma...

The main aim of this new report Deliverable 1b (D1b) is to provide an analysis of the viewpoints offered by 27 participants during the foresight workshop on employment and skills situation in the European railway sector. The workshop was aimed to discuss the results from the analysis of employment and skills situation in the European railway sector...

Hoe kan sociale innovatie de adoptie van nieuwe technologieën door medewerkers stimule-ren? Dat was de centrale vraag van het NWO-project ‘Innovatie-adoptie door sociale innovatie in logistiek’. Innovatie-adoptie wil zeggen dat medewerkers openstaan voor vernieuwing, ac-tief bijdragen aan vernieuwing en de innovaties ook daadwerkelijk gebruiken. So...

Human and financial resources as well as organisational capabilities are needed to overcome the manifold constraints social innovators are facing. To unlock the potential of social innovation for the whole society new (social) innovation friendly environments and new governance structures (ecosystems) have to be set-up to foster social innovations...

Networks and cooperation are vital for social innovation (SI). Policy which stimulates the development of SI ecosystems is likely to encourage the sustainability of social innovations. This chapter focuses on Western Europe, detailing how networks, individuals and groups are the main drivers in social innovation and providing examples of such netwo...

Social innovations in Employment are scattered. If social innovations want to achieve sustainable, social changes, they require integration to create more coherent ‘social innovation of employment’.

The project SI-DRIVE “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change” includes a specific practice field within the policy domain of Employment, namely Workplace Innovation. Workplace Innovation can be positioned at the level of organisations and companies, where it has a significant effect on the participation of employees, the quality of their...

Die niederländische Logistikbranche hat auf internationaler Ebene eine Vorreiterrolle inne. Sie gilt als extrem produktiv (Van de Ven 2013) und innovativ (World Logistics Performance Index 2018. Dennoch steht der traditionelle, "ergrauende" Sektor vor einigen großen Heraus-forderungen. Die niederländische Regierung und die Logistikbranche investier...

Project teams carrying out innovation projects are investigated during critical incidents. Earlier, a Team Innovation Resilience Behavior (IRB)-scale was successfully applied to quantitative survey data (Oeij, 2017). Team IRB is the team’s capacity to effectively deal with possible incidents and ensure the project’s continuation. This study uses qu...

Background For some time now, integrated care has been put forward to create a more demand-driven, patient-centred and cost-effective care system. Various conceptual frameworks have been developed to shed light on the complex concept. However, they lack insight into the mechanisms driving integrated care in practice. The aim of this paper is to gai...

Workplace innovation (WPI) enables companies to fully appreciate and empower their employees. While it fosters company’s innovation capacities, it also helps to adapt to the changes and challenges that the new digital era brings along. This guide , using examples from the European Workplace Innovation Network, EUWIN , and its Knowledge Bank, provid...

This chapter gives an overview of evidence on the association between Workplace Innovation (WPI), company performance and quality of working life . We identify which research approaches are the most promising for WPI, and aim to understand why not all companies invest in WPI. The analysis consists of a literature review of current research evidence...

The theoretical underpinning of Workplace Innovation (WPI) is badly needed. Currently, there are scattered theoretical approaches that focus on human relations, systems and work organisation, change processes, and strategic business choices or a combination of these. We propose a working definition of WPI and subsequently relate approaches and supp...

Workplace innovation is gaining profile as an emerging European policy, creating organisational performance and quality jobs. Workplace innovation is part of a broader EU economic and social policy to support organisational change in companies. How can this emergence of interest in workplace innovation, this new élan, be understood? This chapter de...

This chapter discusses the implementation of workplace innovation (WPI) in European companies. Based on a 51-case study research in 10 EU Member States this chapter addresses four questions: (1) Why do companies apply workplace innovation; (2) What are different motives for management, employees and employee representatives to implement WPI; (3) Wh...

The Fifth Element is a framework for the co-creation by researchers and practitioners of shared understanding, and the stimulation and resourcing of innovative workplace practices that achieve high performance through employee empowerment and engagement. The Fifth Element brings together research evidence and practical experience through a combinat...

Workplace innovation is gaining profile as an emerging European policy, creating organisational performance and quality jobs. Workplace innovation is first of all a policy concept. How can this emergence of interest in workplace innovation, this new élan, be understood? This chapter describes the development of European policies regarding work orga...

The purpose of this conceptual article is to demonstrate that Donald Schön's Reflective Practitioner actually outlines an explicit model of the steps that project leaders in practice apply largely unaware. This reflective research model furthermore can be meaningfully combined with Argyris and Schön's model of organizational learning. The combined...

This article discusses the implementation of workplace innovation (WPI) in European companies. Based on a 51-case study research in 10 EU Member States this article addresses four questions: 1] Why do companies apply workplace innovation; 2] What are different motives for management, employees and employee representatives to implement WPI; 3] What...

This chapter discusses the implementation of workplace innovation (WPI) in European companies. Based on a 51-case study research in 10 EU Member States this chapter addresses four questions: (1) Why do companies apply workplace innovation; (2) What are different motives for management, employees and employee representatives to implement WPI; (3) Wh...

For various reasons many organisations are currently introducing the new ways of working (NWW). By now, this occurs on such a large scale, that it becomes relevant to investigate whether the new way of working leads to the best way of working: are the measurements taken by NWW really resulting in pursued outcomes? NWW claims to make working more ef...

This paper discusses the implementation of workplace innovation (WPI) in European companies. Based on a 51-case study research in 10 EU Member States this article addresses four questions: 1] Why do companies apply workplace innovation; 2] What are different motives for management, employees and employee representatives to implement WPI; 3] What ar...

Based on a 51-case study research in 10 EU Member States this article demonstrates the implementation of workplace innovation (WPI). Why do companies apply workplace innovation and what different strategies can be discerned? How do these companies implement workplace innovation interventions and who are involved in that process? Finally, what types...

This study examines and theorizes the effects of task challenge on skill utilization, affective wellbeing and intrapreneurial behaviour among civil servants through a real-life challenging assignment, which was part of a unique Dutch and Flemish bottom-up organized event called ‘Train Your Colleague’. Results of a short-term longitudinal study indi...