Abstract
Many practitioners find it problematic to understand and describe workplace innovation (WPI). Whereas there are well-known definitions of WPI, these remain highly abstract. We argue that, for practitioners, case examples of WPI best practices can be a valuable addition to these definitions. In this respect, based on our practical experience with WPI and the cases that resulted from the Eurofound study (Eurofound 2015), we propose the following criteria for a case to be a good example for practical purposes. First, the company that serves as a case should have implemented good workplace innovation practices that have resulted in or theoretically promise to result in positive outcomes for the organisation and for the quality of work. Second, the case description has to provide actionable information about the WPI practices. Third, the narrative of the case has to be inspiring and provide possibilities for stakeholders to identify with it. We present a number of the Eurofound cases that are informative and inspiring for practitioners while also presenting actionable information.
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- 1.
There are two knowledge banks where many WPI-cases can be found: www.workplaceinnovation.org and EUWIN’s knowledge bank: http://portal.ukwon.eu/euwin-knowledge-bank-menu-new.
- 2.
The Eurofound website presents all the 51 mini cases: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/2013/european-company-survey-2013-00.
- 3.
Also see the website: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/surveys/2013/european-company-survey-2013-00.
- 4.
The three experts discussed their individual ratings and the final score was reached via consensus.
- 5.
The indicators S and L stand for Small = 50–250 and Large ≥ 250 employees.
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Acknowledgements
The authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge the following permission to use the material in this book: Fietje Vaas, Rita Žiauberytė-Jakštienė & Peter Oeij, Case studies can support definitions of workplace innovation in practice. In: European Work and Organizational Psychology in Practice. Special issue on Workplace Innovation, 2017, Volume 1, 61–72.
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Vaas, F., Žiauberytė-Jakštienė, R. (2017). Case Studies Can Support Definitions of Workplace Innovation in Practice. In: Oeij, P., Rus, D., Pot, F. (eds) Workplace Innovation. Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56333-6_21
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