Workplace innovation: European policy and theoretical foundation

Workplace innovation is gaining profile as an emerging European policy, creating organisational performance and quality jobs. DG GROW and DG EMPL are leading. Policies regarding work organisation and workplace innovation in the EU over the last 20 years used to be rather fragmented, but more coherence is likely to develop in the near future. Besides social partners and government- and EU-officials a major role was played by European Networks of Applied Researchers. They provided the theories that are part of the foundation of such policies. The evidence for the positive effects of workplace innovation stimulated many entrepreneurs and managers to apply it. National programs appear to be helpful, in particular where coalitions of employers' associations, trade unions, governments and research institutes exist. However, this is still a minority. More research is needed into the obstacles and the mechanism to promote implementation.