The ISA World Congress of Sociology, Research Committee on Sociology of Work (RC 30), will host a session on ‘Workplace Innovation – Social Innovation Shaping Work Organisation and Working Life’. Best papers will be considered for publication in the international journal ‘World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development’ (WREMSD). The session hosts (prof. Jürgen Howaldt, Peter Oeij MSc, and prof. Ben Fruytier) will prepare as guest-editors a Special Issue of this journal based on the mentioned topic.
We would like to invite you to submit a paper on this topic to this journal before July 14, 2014.
For the ISA session the call for papers is closed and the papers for presentation have already been selected. We have now extended the call for papers of the journal to scholars possibly interested to also submit a paper on the same topic.
- The authors of papers for both ‘oral presentation’ AND ‘distributed papers’ are (again) invited to submit their paper to the journal. (the authors have received information through ISA that their paper was selected for oral presentation or as distributed papers).
- Other academics, researchers, practitioners and professionals are ALSO invited to submit a paper. (It is not required to register to the ISA Conference, but of course we hope you will).
Information about the topic can be found right here.
Information about submitting your article online according to author’s guidelines of ‘World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development’ (WREMSD) are following beneath. Please, be reminded that the journal’s procedure is to apply a double blind review process in order to get good quality papers. Read the instructions how to submit carefully.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014: 08:30 AM – 10:20 AM
Workplace Innovation – Social Innovation Shaping Work Organisation and Working Life
Session Organizers Juergen HOWALDT, Social Research Center Dortmund, Germany, howaldt@sfs-dortmund.de Peter OEIJ, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Netherlands, peter.oeij@tno.nl Ben FRUYTIER, Research Centre for Social Innovation, Netherlands, ben.fruytier@hu.nl Session in English (papers also!!) Workplace Innovation is a social, participatory process which shapes work organisation and working life, combining their human, organisational and technological dimensions. This participatory process simultaneously results in improved organisational performance and enhanced quality of working life. Workplace innovation is an important element of strategies for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the economies (EU2020 Strategy) through higher productivity, a better quality of working life and more innovation capability. Workplace Innovation or ‘social Innovation in the workplace’ facilitates the impact of technological and economic innovations, delivering a productivity and innovation leap for private and public enterprises. A lack of investment in Workplace Innovation results in idle capacities and a lagging development of the knowledge economy, a gap intensified by the emergence of new working patterns and new types of organisation. At the same time, data of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS; Eurofound, 2012) demonstrate that workplace Innovation results in active work situations: workplaces and jobs in which workers have greater autonomy in controlling their work demands, coupled with higher discretionary capacity for learning and problem-solving. Little is known about how Workplace Innovation drives and adapts to recent and emerging social developments in the world of work: growing numbers of self-employed individuals, the emergence of the network economy and multi-located working sites, the notion of the mobile and boundless ‘workplace’, the concept of distributed leadership and management, the changing institutional roles of unions and occupational groupings, the ageing work force, complex patterns of self-organising linkages connecting organisations and individuals, the application of ICTs and the use of social media. These highly unpredictable, yet irrefutably emerging patterns demand social intelligence and innovative capacity which transcends restricted technical or economic perspectives. The paper contributions should discuss opportunities and challenges of workplace Innovation and its potential for wellbeing and organizational performance and explore how Workplace Innovation can contribute to sustainable economic, ecological and social change by fostering the innovative capacity of organisations and individuals. Developing and deploying human talent and fostering a willingness to cooperate are indispensable components of a versatile network economy, relying heavily on participation, dialogue and self-organisation of engaged individuals working in and between organisations. Examples should help to understand how different countries address the topic. The contributions of this session (and the special issue of the journal) should discuss (one or more of) the following questions:
- What does for workplace innovation look like in practice?
- How does workplace innovation incorporate technical and social aspects of change?
- How do organisations, managers and workers deal with tensions related to innovation?
- What is the role of social media and new ICTs in workplace innovation today?
- In what way differ Western societies from Non-Western societies in workplace innovation?
Information about the journal can be found here.
Authors can register with the online submission system at http://www.inderscience.com/ospeers/authorregister.php; they can then submit papers through the system. Once you actually submit your paper, the issue may be found under ISA 2014: Special Issue on: “Workplace Innovation – Social Innovation Shaping Work Organisation and Working Life” on the pulldown menu.
The special issue becomes an option after WREMSD has been selected during the submissions process. If you cannot find the issue on the menu, please enter the names of the guest editors and the title of the special issue in the “Notes” box (Part D) in step 1 of the submission process. If you have any queries about the online submissions system and adding referees, please contact Joane Esmejarda, the Submissions Manager, at submissions@inderscience.com
With very best wishes!
Jürgen HOWALDT, Social Research Center Dortmund, Germany, howaldt@sfs-dortmund.de Peter OEIJ, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Netherlands, peter.oeij@tno.nl Ben FRUYTIER, Research Centre for Social Innovation, Netherlands, ben.fruytier@hu.nl