TY - JOUR
T1 - Work organisation, forms of employee learning and labour market structure
T2 - Accounting for international differences in workplace innovation
AU - Lorenz, Edward
PY - 2015/6
Y1 - 2015/6
N2 - Workplace innovation has attracted increasing attention within Europe both amongst researchers and policy makers. This paper begins by drawing on the results of the 5th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) to map different forms of work organisation for the EU-27 and Norway. It then examines at both the individual level and the group or national level the relationships between a measure of process innovation and the use of what are referred to as the ‘discretionary learning’ (DL) forms of work organisation, characterised by high levels of employee learning, problem-solving and discretion in work. The results point to a systemic relation at the level of national innovation systems between the frequency of process innovations and the frequency of the DL forms. This is explained in part by the way the DL forms provide employees with opportunities for the exploration of new knowledge that can result in new process innovations that diffuse beyond the firm’s boundaries. The paper then proceeds to address the issue of labour market policies for promoting the adoption of the DL forms. It presents evidence to show that the likelihood of the DL forms is higher in nations with more developed systems of ‘flexible security’ characterised by high levels of labour market mobility, unemployment protection and active labour market measures.
AB - Workplace innovation has attracted increasing attention within Europe both amongst researchers and policy makers. This paper begins by drawing on the results of the 5th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) to map different forms of work organisation for the EU-27 and Norway. It then examines at both the individual level and the group or national level the relationships between a measure of process innovation and the use of what are referred to as the ‘discretionary learning’ (DL) forms of work organisation, characterised by high levels of employee learning, problem-solving and discretion in work. The results point to a systemic relation at the level of national innovation systems between the frequency of process innovations and the frequency of the DL forms. This is explained in part by the way the DL forms provide employees with opportunities for the exploration of new knowledge that can result in new process innovations that diffuse beyond the firm’s boundaries. The paper then proceeds to address the issue of labour market policies for promoting the adoption of the DL forms. It presents evidence to show that the likelihood of the DL forms is higher in nations with more developed systems of ‘flexible security’ characterised by high levels of labour market mobility, unemployment protection and active labour market measures.
KW - Discretionary learning
KW - Labour markets
KW - Workplace innovation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943794279&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13132-014-0233-4
DO - 10.1007/s13132-014-0233-4
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84943794279
SN - 1868-7865
VL - 6
SP - 437
EP - 466
JO - Journal of the Knowledge Economy
JF - Journal of the Knowledge Economy
IS - 2
ER -