دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی شرایط یادگیری کارکنان و خلاقیت - فعالیت های ارائه شده برای توسعه محل کار - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate how the formal competence development activities provided by the Production Leap, a workplace development programme (WPDP), were interwoven with everyday work activities and to identify the conditions that enabled learning and employee-driven innovation that contributed to production improvement, in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. The study adopts a qualitative case approach and draws on evidence from research conducted in four manufacturing SMEs that participated in this Swedish WPDP. Funded by EU authorities, WPDPs provide competence development activities to SMEs in order to boost their production capabilities and/or promote innovation. The findings reveal that the competence development activities provided by the programme triggered learning in everyday work activities and fostered the development of different approaches to employee-driven innovation in the enterprises. The conclusion is that it is essential to consider that employeedriven innovations may take different forms and involve functions that can support innovative learning that goes beyond minor adjustments to the existing standards of production. Moreover, employee-driven innovation may impose new demands on management leadership skills. The findings provide important guidance for future WPDPs, for vocational education and training or university activities that are customised to SME contexts to promote production capabilities, and for SMEs that aim to strengthen employee-driven innovation.

Conclusion

The findings in this paper, despite deriving from a small number of interviews in each enterprise, give important guidance for future WPDPs, for vocational training or university activities customised for SME contexts to promote production capabilities, and for SMEs that aim to strengthen employee-driven innovation. Based on the empirical findings of this study, the first conclusion is that competence development activities and support provided by the WPDP were important triggers for innovative learning, and if combined with an enabling learning environment in the enterprises, including management’s leadership skills in fostering employee-driven innovation, the activities in the WPDP became driving forces for employee-driven innovation. The approaches to employee-driven innovations – the Lean coordinator, engineer or operator approaches – developed in the enterprises indicate that employee-driven innovations may take different forms and involve functions that have the capacity to support workers in innovation processes that go beyond minor adjustments to the existing standards of production. In addition, it appeared that the everyday work activities performed by the workers and their communication with supervisors and management continually negotiated the programme’s aim – in this case, strengthening Swedish manufacturing enterprises’ competitiveness.