European Journal of Workplace Innovation

Editorial

Egoitz Pomares — 2025-06-26

“Why a European Journal of Workplace Innovation?” this was the question posed in the journal’s first editorial. The answer offered was both practical and conceptual: to create a space where different traditions of research and practice could meet. Since then, the European Journal of Workplace Innovation has published seventeen issues across ten volumes. Hosted by the University of Agder, it has remained committed to that original purpose: to contribute to knowledge “that unfolds within some kind of totality, a totality that no research
approach can claim to fully overview” (Pålshaugen, 2015, p. 10). This editorial vision has also consistently emphasised pluralism over orthodoxy, aiming “not to impose a particular view or model,” but rather to offer “an arena where a number of previously separate discourses can meet” (Ennals, 2016, p. 4).

The journal’s second decade begins as the first did; with questions, not answers. In this volume, these reflections are complemented by a special editorial by Professor Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen, Managing Editor of the journal. His view offers a perspective on the journal’s trajectory and future avenues.

This tenth volume of the European Journal of Workplace Innovation presents seven contributions. They address different domains of practice, reflect varied research strategies, and emerge from distinct institutional and national contexts. Parts of these contributions were first presented at the EUWIN conference The Future of Workplace Innovation, held in Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain) in October 2024.

The European Journal of Workplace Innovation Celebrates 10 Years

Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen — 2025-06-26

The European Journal of Workplace Innovation is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The first issue was published in 2015 as part of the EUWI initiative (European Union Network for Workplace Innovation). The University of Agder took on the administrative role for the journal, which was established as an open-access scientific publication.

Over the past decade, the journal has published 17 issues including three special issues. These special issues focused on topics such as socio-technical systems thinking in manufacturing, sustainable work, and green jobs. The two most recent special issues were double issues. Notably, the issue on sustainable work was further developed into a book. All the issues are available online at this address: https://journal.uia.no/index.php/EJWI/issue/archive

SMART Work Design and Modern Sociotechnical Theory

Peter R.A. Oeij — 2025-06-27

Organisation designers responsible for organisational change and the introduction of new digital technologies may share an interest in ensuring good quality of work but often choose different angles. Some of them, likely with an HR background typically emphasise the importance of human needs and job satisfaction when it comes to work design. Others, like organisation designers with an operations management background, might focus more on the division of labour, work processes, and sociotechnical design aspects. Some organisation designers may highlight strategic and organisational choices as prerequisites for work quality, whereas others concentrate on person-environment-fit approaches.

However, to ensure a good quality of work in the digital era, it is much more helpful if organisation designers apply a common lens. Recently, we have observed a convergence in the field of organisational and work sciences with the development of the SMART work design model; this approach integrates individual, team, and organisational elements, linking human needs, job characteristics, and organisational conditions. Previously, researchers in Europe had already connected sociotechnical design thinking to organisational design principles for production layouts and work quality criteria, particularly characteristic of the modern sociotechnical approach (MST) of the Low Countries.

This conceptual and essayistic article aims to spark a discussion on how elements of the SMART work design approach and MST can be integrated into a comprehensive approach where organisation designers can collaborate with a common language. The article argues that the WEBA tool, a method to analyse jobs from both a human needs and organisational design perspective, can serve as a bridge in this context.

Key words: work design; modern sociotechnology; quality of work; organisational design; job design

Exclusion and Inclusion Through a Discourse of Equality

Eva Lindell — 2025-06-27

Blue-collar steel industry workers have traditionally been engaged in hard, physical, manual labour, but with the transformation of Industry 4.0, the need for manual human labour is reduced. In this article we explore the consequences of this transformation for the constructions of discursive positioning of the blue-collar worker. Analysing the material from 89 interviews from five steel companies in Sweden we analyse the the linguistic constructions of concept: what the blue-collar worker is and might become in Industry 4.0, and the consequences this concept has for the blue-collar worker as object: who the blue-collar worker is, and who (s)he is not. This shows that blue-collar workers are constructed as skilled and equal to white-collar workers, but also as deskilled and standardized.

Furthermore, inclusion into this equal and standardized workforce is constructed as being based on abilities and experiences that are only shared by a fragment of the population; the young, well-versed, socially skilled, and fast learners, with permanent contracts. The study contributes with an understanding of how social polarization is taking place in contemporary industry and points to the need for management, labour unions and to take the constructions of social inclusion and exclusion in daily interactions in the workplace seriously, in order for the development towards an innovative, human-centric Industry 5.0 to become just and fair.

Keywords: blue-collar workers; Industry 4.0; upskilling; deskilling; equality

Jobs and skills of production workers at manufacturing SMEs

Koen Nijland — 2025-06-27

The skillsets of production workers are crucial for the effective adoption of smart technologies which are largely shaped by job design. However, current literature lacks comprehensive insights into the skills and work designs of production workers in the context of Industry 5.0, thus hindering the successful adoption of Industry 5.0. Grounded in literature of work design and skills this study explores the required skills and perceived work design characteristics for adoption of smart technologies in Dutch SMEs in the context of AI, AR/VR, and Robotics. This qualitative study involved 19 semi-structured interviews with two groups: 6 work design experts and 12 professionals (managers and production workers). Results reveal a need to reassess traditional job profiles, as two distinct production workers roles emerge from the results. Machine operators face potential deskilling through low feedback from the job, task variety and job complexity, and foreman-production workers require additional skills due to job enlargement and enrichment. However, they seem to be put in this job role due to (1) the lack of various professional and transversal skills to fully utilize smart technologies, and (2) to accommodate a viable return on the technology investment. This highlights the importance of (1) balancing job resources and requirements in work design, (2) the usage of training programs for I5.0 skill development, and (3) understanding of contextual design elements of manufacturing systems that contribute to viable I5.0 adoption in SMEs. Finally, further research may investigate use-cases for viable smart technology adoption in an I5.0 context.

A Pilot Study on the Effects of a Task Analysis Training Program on Self-Efficacy and Work Engagement in Disability Welfare Facility Staff

Hideaki Nakai — 2025-06-27

This study examined the effects of a task analysis training program on Organizational-Based Self-Esteem (OBSE) and Work Engagement (WE) among staff at disability welfare facilities. The training program consisted of two interactive sessions, workplace implementation phases, and a follow-up evaluation. Participants selected a workplace task for improvement, documented current workflows, and identified areas for enhancement. The first session introduced task analysis techniques, incorporating practical exercises and peer feedback. Participants then implemented their proposed improvements and reconvened for the second session to refine their strategies. A five-week implementation phase followed, during which participants documented the impact of their changes. Work engagement, OBSE, personal attributes, and workplace resources were assessed using validated scales, and statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics 27. The results indicated that task analysis training enhanced self-efficacy and significantly increased OBSE; however, its effect on work engagement remained inconclusive. These findings underscore the importance of structured training programs in addressing both the practical and emotional challenges faced by staff, ultimately contributing to their well-being and improving the quality of care provided to service users.

Appropriation of SMART Glasses

Niek Zuidhof — 2025-06-27

Smart glasses could revolutionize healthcare workplaces. Despite pilot studies, long-term use insights are limited. This study examines nurses using smart glasses (Vuzix M400) for wound care over several years. In the use case presented in this study, nurses visit patients at home, consult remote experts via smart glasses, and treat patients accordingly. However, since knowledge about the long-term use and appropriation of smart glasses is scarce, this study aims to understand long-term use experiences through interviews with home care nurses (n=7), remote wound care nurses (n=7), and hospital managers (n=3). Data were analysed using directed content analysis, revealing four main themes: personal experience, collaborative experiences, unanticipated consequences, and future needs. Respondents reported personal habits, emotional aspects, and experiences when working with smart glasses. In collaboration through smart glasses, respondents mentioned the increased quality of care and the change in interdependencies. Furthermore, working together via smart glasses had an impact on care at home as well. The consequences of the long-term use of smart glasses led to more feedback between nurses and patients, and to shifts in tasks between stakeholders. Future needs for smart glasses lie in further coordination with various stakeholders: patients, colleagues, IT, management, and developers of smart glasses. In conclusion smart glasses enable hands-free, high-quality home care, where an expert advises with a first-person perspective, the nurse learns new skills and a vulnerable patient can remain in the comfort of their environment. Despite it is currently cost increasing, it also saves time and space in the hospital.

Zooming in on the Impact of Collaborative Robot Arms in Manufacturing Workplaces

Milan R. Wolffgramm — 2025-06-27

Collaborative robot arms (cobots) are gaining a strong foothold in contemporary manufacturing workplaces. While more information about the cobot’s impact becomes available, crucial design, work perception, performance, and strategic implications are systematically overlooked. Following a modern sociotechnical systems design theory (MSTS) perspective, which lies at the heart of workplace innovation literature, we studied if, how, and why the cobot made production units more resilient and strategically relevant. We ran a comparative case study involving 15 Dutch small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and 36 interviewees (managers and operators). The results describe how the cobots are designed as autonomous and rigid mini-robots, handling one or a few high-quantity products in ways that are not inherently more reliable and efficient. Operators interacting with the cobots experience stronger motivational work characteristics, but
the cobot’s autonomous and stable operation also provokes classic out-of-the-loop problems. Consequently, cobot-equipped production units do not always perform better. Nonetheless, SMEs deem their units strategically relevant since they (indirectly) improve financial flexibility, increase production capacity, streamline
future automation projects, and accommodate the resolution of labor scarcity issues. This research creates a pathway for more MSTS and workplace innovation research at the crossroads of human-robot interaction, organisational design, production management, applied psychology, and entrepreneurship. Practical implications are provided and discussed elaborately.

Keywords: Modern sociotechnical systems, workplace innovation, collaborative robots, future of
work, comparative case study, small- and medium-sized enterprises, industry 5.0

A design framework for ecosystems that facilitate continuous employee skill development

Koen Nijland — 2025-06-27

In today’s dynamic business landscape, the continuous development of employee skills is an important driver for innovation and performance in the workplace. However, employee skillsets are often inadequate, posing a challenge for organisational innovativeness and performance. Although concepts and instruments at the organisational level are helpful, organisations need additional methods to facilitate continuous skill development. Interorganisational skills learning communities (ISLCs) have recently emerged in Europe to address this need, presenting a promising approach to enhance employee skill development. Nevertheless, designers and employees face significant challenges in ensuring long-term skill development through ISLCs. Treating ISLCs as dynamic interorganisational ecosystems that must adapt to changing contexts is essential, but learning community literature currently lacks specification on how adaptive and effective ISLCs can be designed.

In the present paper, we present a novel and comprehensive ISLC design framework underpinned by modern-sociotechnical systems theory (MSTS), network theory, and state-of-the-art literature on skills learning communities. Accordingly, an adaptable and effective ISLC can be achieved through (1) distinction of different design levels, (2) distinction between design of a learning structure and governance structure, (3) pursuit of a specific design sequence, (4) clusters of micro learning communities (LCs), and (5) an iterative, interactive and multi-level design of feedback loops. The resulting design framework breaks new ground for interorganisational learning community theory-building and offers a novel direction for researchers, HRD practitioners and policy makers to address HRD problems in today’s changing business environment. More research should be conducted on the validation of this conceptual design framework.

Keywords: interorganisational skills learning communities (ISLC), ecosystems, modernsociotechnical
systems (MSTS), network theory, workplace innovation, continuous skill development, Industry 5.0.