Digital transformation and workplace innovation
Steven Dhondt – Coordinator H2020 Beyond4.0
Workplace Innovation in the Digital Age – EUWIN & Beyond4.0 Virtual
Conference: 27th November 2020, 15.00-17.00 CET / 14.00 – 16.00 GMT
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 8222293.
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020

Starting point: a puzzling result from the European Company Survey
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 8222293.
[1]

What comes first?
Technology or the Organisation?
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020

Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
Beyond current thinking
Technology
Rationalisation
Efficiency
Job saving
Unemployment
Investing into the workplace
Higher quality
Higher skills
More expensive workplaces
Rethink the way we are thinking about
technology, skills and organisation
Understand our prejudices and what trusting
relations between humans can bring
[2]
[3]

The future of work as a shifting
future: we need to make choices
Routine
Non-routine
Susceptible
Non-susceptible
Technology Skills
Expanding possibilities Shifting demands
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
[4] [2]

Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
Human off
Human off
Autonomous technology
as our enigma?
Supported
action
Hands off Eyes off Mind off
Information
collection
Information
analysis
Decision and
action
selection
Action
implement-
tation
[5]
[6]

21st century /T-shaped prejudices
Technical
Information management
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity
Critical thinking
Problem solving
Ethical awareness
Cultural awareness
Self-direction
Lifelong learning
Mind
over
matter
The individual
over
the team
Management
over
Employees
ContextCore
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
[7]
[8]

The reality is that the Future of Work
is determined by the organisational
contexts we work in
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020

ECS: the organisation as driving chances
High investment, high involvement
(HH)
Selective investment, moderate
involvement (SM)
Moderate investment, irregular
involvement (MI)
Low investment, low
involvement (LL)
EU-level (%
companies)
20% 33% 27% 21%
work
organisation
- collaboration with other
establishments
- complex work and autonomy
- collaboration and outsourcing
- selective complexity and
autonomy
- outsourcing
- ‘command and control’
- no collaboration or
outsourcing
- ‘command and control’
human resources
management
- fixed-term contracts are used
slightly less often than average
- high expectations staff perform
over and above their job
description, backed up with
monetary and non-monetary
incentives
- comprehensive training and
learning opportunities
- comprehensive variable pay
- more fixed-term contracts
- part-time contracts
- moderate expectations and
investment
- selective training and learning
opportunities
- selective variable pay
- fixed-term less used
- part-time less used
- moderate expectations and
investment + high
expectations, low
investment
- limited training and
learning opportunities
- comprehensive variable
pay
- fixed-term contracts
average
- part-time contracts
- low expectations and
investment + high
expectations, low
investment
- limited training and learning
opportunities
- no variable pay
employee voice - regular, high influence for direct
involvement
- official structure for employee
representation
- employer and the employees
are more likely to both be
organized
- irregular, moderate influence
type of direct participation
- meeting-oriented, limited
influence
- employer organisation without
having an employee
representation structure
- irregular, moderate
influence of employees
- official structure for
employee representation,
and employees are
organised
- few tools, little influence
- official structure for
employee representation
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
[1]

Understanding High investment, high
involvement as Workplace Innovation
21st Century skills?
0.5
0.5
-0.5
-0.5
Workplacewell-being
Establishment performance
High skills?  High skilling
(fig85: Workplace well-being and
establishment performance, by
establishment group (z-scores) –
ECS2019
[1]
Technical
Information
management
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity
Critical thinking
Problem solving
Ethical awareness
Cultural awareness
Self-direction
Lifelong learning

Understanding High investment, high
involvement as Workplace Innovation
Employee voice
0.5
0.5
-0.5
-0.5
Workplacewell-being
Establishment performance
Participation
… not as a result
… but as a precondition
(fig85: Workplace well-being and
establishment performance, by
establishment group (z-scores) –
ECS2019
[1]

The virtuous circles of WPI
High Skilling
Voice and participation
Technology mastery
Virtuous progress
Tackling the
shifting horizon
Transformation
Implementation
Perseverance
Information
collection
Information
analysis
Decision
and action
selection
Action
implementation
New
challenges
ImpactsDrivers
WORKPLACE INNOVATION
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
[9]
[10]

Future research agenda
• What can help the WPI-model spread even further?
• Perception, Inspiration, Motivation, Implementation [11]
• Policy support and programmatic support [12]
• Calculating the societal benefits
• What educational support for the WPI-model?
• The discussion on learning communities and skills ecosystems [13]
• Closing the inequality gaps
• Do we know if the WPI-model is causing new inequalities? [3]
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020

Thank you!
Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 8222293.

Digital and workplace innovation: emerging trends in research -
Beyond4.0/EUWIN workshop 2020
For further reading
[1] Eurofound and Cedefop (2020), European Company Survey 2019: Workplace practices unlocking employee potential, European Company Survey 2019 series,
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
[2] Frey, C.B., and Osborne, M.A. (2017). ”The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? Technological Forecasting and Social Change 114, issue
C, 254-280
[3] Osterman, P. (2018). In search of the high road: Meaning and evidence. ILR Review, 71(1), 3–34.[4] Autor, D., Dorn, D., 2013. The growth of low skill service jobs and the
polarization of the US labor market, Am. Econ. Rev. 103 (5). 1553–1597.
[5] SAE J3016™ Levels of Driving Automation. (SAE International Releases Updated Visual Chart for Its “Levels of Driving Automation” Standard for Self-Driving Vehicles)
[6] SESAR JU. (2020) European ATM Master Plan. Executive view. SESAR: Brussels.
[7] Van Laar, E., Van Deursen, A. J. A. M., Van Dijk, J. A. G. M., & De Haan, J. (2017). The relation between 21st-century skills and digital skills: A systematic literature review.
Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 577–588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.03.010.
[8] EMPIRICA/PwC/ISSIP (2020). Skills for Industry. Fostering New Services and Jobs Creation. Interim Report. European Commission: Brussels
[9] Putnik K., Oeij P., Dhondt S., Van der Torre W., & De Vroome E. (2019). “Innovation adoption of employees in logistics: Individual and organizational factors related to
the actual use of innovation”. International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 16(3), 251-267.
[10] Koopmans, L., Zoomer, T. (2020). 20 jaar Kroon op het Werk. Leiden: TNO.
[11] Gibbons R and Henderson R (2013) What do managers do? Exploring persistent performance differences among seemingly similar enterprises. In: Gibbons R and
Roberts J (eds) The handbook of organizational economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 680–731.
[12] Rodrik, D. & Sabel, C.F. (2019). Building a good jobs economy. Cambridge, MA/New York: Harvard Kennedy School/Columbia Law School.
https://drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu/files/dani-rodrik/files/building_a_good_jobs_economy_november_2019.pdf.
[13] Anderson, P., Warhurst, C. (2012). Lost in translation? Skill policy and the shift to skills ecosystems. In: Nash, D. & Dolphin, T. (eds.). Complex New World: Translating
New Economic Thinking into Public Policy . p109-120. (New Era Economics)