The Finnish workplace development programme

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Arnkil
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Competitive Edge ◽  
Dimensional Interaction ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Workplace Development

This article is based on the evaluation of the Finnish Workplace Development Programme, TYKE-FWPD, by a team led by the author. The programme ran as a national government programme from 1996 to 2003, and has been continued, with modifications, in 2004 through 2009. Until the early 1990s the main focus of working life development in Finland was technological. During the past decade a shift in the emphasis has occurred toward work organization and human resources development. As part of this process, TYKE-FWDP has played an important role. The programme aims at accelerating working life development be means of improvements in learning networks and methods as well as by encouraging cooperation between researchers and research institutes, workplace parties, social partners and governmental agencies and institutions at national and regional levels. The idea is that as change agencies, firms can influence their own future by engaging in a complex learning process, long-term multi-dimensional interaction and networking. Highly developed learning strategies will give companies a competitive edge, and thus directly or indirectly also secure or enhance positive employment development. The evaluation, carried out in 2002–2003, showed that the Programme has been successful on many counts: sustainable results have been achieved at the company and organisational level, learning networks have been enhanced between different institutions related to innovation and workplace development, and the programme enjoys a very high legitimacy among key stakeholders, including the social partners.

3. The Finnish National Workplace Development Program as a New Approach in Public Policy

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-142
Author(s):  
Tuomo Alasoini
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
The Government ◽  
Workplace Development

This paper presents the aims and main focus areas of the Finnish National Workplace Development Programme. The Government-initiated programme in which also the social partners are involved was launched in 1996, and it will continue until 2003. The author considers that, using wisely, the high legitimacy programme-based workplace development enjoys in Finland today may prove to be an important source of competitive advantage for the country.

Learning networks as a vehicle for improving the generative capacity of working-life development programmes

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomo Alasoini
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Generative Capacity ◽  
Complex Objects ◽  
Programme Theory ◽  
Learning Network ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Workplace Development

This paper studies a learning network-based approach as an alternative programme theory to a traditional approach in working-life development that uses demonstration projects. Learning network projects of the Finnish Workplace Development Programme TYKES (2004–2010) are used as an example of the alternative approach in practice. Based on an empirical analysis of five learning network projects, a framework for weighting strengths and weaknesses of three different modes of programme leadership for directing learning networks is presented. Finally, this paper elaborates the role of programme theories in cases of complex objects for intervention, suggesting that in action research-based efforts that require commitment of and cooperation between many actors programme theories should be judged more on the basis of their social value than their truth value.

scholarly journals Can High-involvement Innovation Practices improve Productivity and the Quality of Working-life simultaneously? Management and Employee Views on Comparison

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Ramstad
Keyword(s):  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Organizational Practices ◽  
Quality Of Working Life ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Decentralized Decision Making ◽  
Workplace Development ◽  
Innovation Practices

This paper examines the association of high-involvement innovation practices (HIIPs) and simultaneous improvement of productivity and the quality of working life (QWL). HIIPs refer to work, managerial, and organizational practices that are intended for supporting continuous improvement and broad participation. The data are based on the evaluation surveys carried out by the Finnish Workplace Development Programme TYKES (2004–2010). TYKES was a governmental programme for promoting simultaneous improvements in productivity and the QWL in workplaces through changes in work, managerial, and organizational practices. Information obtained via two different surveys has been combined for the purposes of this article: a survey on HIIPs within a work organization (HIIP) and a self-assessment survey of project outcomes (SA). The survey material comprises altogether 253 responses from 163 different workplaces. The analysis provides evidence in favor of a view that publicly funded workplace development projects constitute appropriate means to support productivity and the QWL simultaneously. The results provide evidence that HIIPs, including decentralized decision making, competence development, internal cooperation, and external cooperation, are of importance when trying to gain better results in both productivity and the QWL from both management and employees’ point of view. In addition, the development process itself, that is, how the practices are implemented and good skills in project management, is highlighted. Concerning the supervisor’s supportive role in employees’ innovation activities, the picture is more mixed and surprising.

scholarly journals Workplace Development as Part of Broad-based Innovation Policy: Exploiting and Exploring Three Types of Knowledge

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomo Alasoini
Keyword(s):  
Innovation Policy ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Quality Of Working Life ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Knowledge Process ◽  
Organization Level ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
Workplace Development

This paper looks at the possibilities that a broad-based innovation policy contained by the national innovation strategy recently adopted in Finland opens up for the promotion of workplace innovations and examines the types of knowledge needed in workplace development. The author highlights the interconnections between workplace development and the prerequisites of both economic growth and the preservation of the Finnish welfare state. The paper also aims to explain why, in addition to the productivity of work, improving the quality of working life should feature as an increasingly important aim in the innovation policy of the future. An argument for the need of three types of knowledge in workplace development - design knowledge, process knowledge and dissemination knowledge - is made, together with an overview on new developments in each of those three domains. In conclusion, the author demonstrates how problems in the productivity of work and the quality of working life can be simultaneously tackled with at work organization level through two kinds of development approaches.

The new Finnish workplace development programme (TYKES-FWDP) as an approach to innovation

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomo Alasoini
Keyword(s):  
Method Development ◽  
Innovation Policy ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Quality Of Working Life ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
Public Sector Organizations ◽  
Workplace Development

The paper surveys the background, aims, and content of the Finnish Government’s new working-life development initiative for the period 2004 to 2009. The aim of the new Finnish Workplace Development Program (TYKES-FWDP) is sustainable productivity growth, where increases in productivity are combined with improvements in the quality of working life. In addition to funding development projects in both companies and public-sector organizations, the program will promote method development, learning networks, and continuing education for researchers on working life. As an innovation policy approach, TYKES-FWDP represents a "broad systemic innovation policy" that focuses equally on all sectors of the economy and on the interaction and combination of technological, organizational, and other kinds of social innovations.

scholarly journals Layering Learning for Work-Readiness in a Science Programme

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne McKay ◽  
Antoinette Smith-Tolken ◽  
Anne Alessandri
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Work Readiness ◽  
Engaged Learning ◽  
Research Project

In order to prepare our students for a challenging workplace, the Department of Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa have ‘layered’ Engaged Learning strategies throughout the four-year undergraduate degree in an approach that is innovative in a science-based programme. In this research project, we assessed the effects of service-learning (SL) and a six-month internship on student employability by analysing reflections that were collected over a number of years. We also asked industry members whether they felt students had improved in key areas after the final year internship. The student submissions for SL showed evidence of personal growth and transformation, and those for the internship reflected industry requirements for professional skills in a complex and technically demanding milieu. It was found that these engaged experiences provided sound preparation for working life, as well as  giving students opportunities for self-questioning and personal growth, which is unusual in the natural sciences learning environment.

scholarly journals Former Glory and Challenges Ahead: The Definition of Working Life Research in Sweden

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Håkansta
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Science System ◽  
Public Science ◽  
University Departments ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Definition Of

This conceptual paper looks into the definition of “working life research” in Sweden and poses two questions: (1) How has the definition of the concept working life research changed over time? (2) Why has it changed? The paper is based on two studies using two different empirical sources. The first source consists of government documents related to science policy in general and working life research in particular. The second source consists of interviews with Swedish researchers. According to the results of the first study, there has been a gradual decrease in attention to working life research in government science science policy documents since the 1990s. Furthermore, there was a conceptual change in the early 1990s when working life research went from referring to work organization research to a broader definition also including work environment and labor market research. The results from the second study show that work science decreasingly appears in university curricula and in titles of university departments. They also show that currently active researchers, especially the younger ones, tend not to refer to themselves as “work scientists” and “working life researchers.” The author argues that the root cause of the apparent disappearance of the concept working life research has been the influence of neoliberalism, which, since the 1980s–1990s, has affected science policy as well as labor market policy. The effects of policy change on working life research are the loss of its previously so privileged position in the public science system and the weakening of what used to be its most important political ally: the trade unions.

Concept-Driven Change

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Gustavsen ◽  
Anders Wikman ◽  
Marianne Ekman Philips ◽  
Bernd Hofmaier
Keyword(s):  
Work Organization ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Strong Increase ◽  
Work Roles ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Productivity Increase ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Increase In Productivity

Sweden experienced a strong increase in productivity during the first part of the 1990s. Data from the Swedish Working Life Fund show that the productivity increase is linked to changes in work organization. These changes did not break with the Swedish tradition of expanding on work roles and the potential for learning and development among shop floor workers. The new element in the changed organization of work relates first and foremost to development processes as such, and new ways in which to broaden and accelerate such processes.

Recommended Implementation Strategies

2017 ◽  
pp. 106-128
Keyword(s):  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
School Cultures ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Lateral Capacity ◽  
Copy And Paste

Learning for both students and teachers is not a one-size fits all or a copy and paste operation. For teachers to value and create student-centered classrooms, they must experience professional learning in a personalized and embedded manner. Supportive school cultures recognize the value of professional collaboration and actively seek to connect educators in meaningful ways. Technology must be used as a tool for learning and not an entity unto itself to meet the challenges of tomorrow's workforce. Personalized professional learning, incorporating coaching, modeling, reflection, collaboration, and professional learning communities build both internal and lateral capacity through a carefully planned environment involving stakeholders. This chapter encompasses recommendations for implementing personalized professional learning strategies to connect institutional knowledge and practices through professional learning networks (PLN), interactions, collaborative conferencing, and coaching.

Towards social partnership

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Gustavsen
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Employee Participation ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Development Fund ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Enterprise Level ◽  
Workplace Development

The article presents the most recent workplace development program in Norway, called Value Creation 2010. With the notion of broad employee participation on enterprise level at its core, the program aims at creating and sustaining learning networks between enterprises and at strengthening regional and branch-based coalitions between private and public actors. The program is a joint creation of research, a public development fund and the labor market parties and reflects the idea of social partnership.

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