Innovative Work Behaviour in Vocational Colleges: Understanding How and Why Innovations Are Developed

Abstract

In workplaces, innovative products and processes are required to address emerging problems and challenges. Therefore, understanding of employees' innovative work behaviour, including the generation, promotion, and realisation of ideas as components of this behaviour is important. In particular, what fosters innovation development and what triggers these activities is important for its promotion and adoption in contemporary workplaces. To investigate how and why innovations at work are developed and enacted, an explorative study comprising structured interviews with vocational teachers in the German vocational system was conducted. The teachers reported on activities they undertook during the development of a specific innovation. Furthermore, they provided information on factors that made this innovation necessary and that they were activated by. The study indicates that even when opportunities for innovation development existed in a workplace, the needs and goals of teachers were pivotal for these opportunities to be recognised and teachers' innovative work behaviour to be triggered. By analysing vocational teachers' work activities, we found that the development of innovations was a complex, iterative and primarily social process. By encouraging teachers to act on opportunities for change and by establishing a collaborative structure at schools, innovation development can be facilitated. We also found that throughout the development of an innovation, reflection played an important role. If the importance of reflective activities is acknowledged by workplaces such as these participants' vocational schools, this not only fosters innovations but also the teachers' professional development.

Modelling Course-Design Characteristics, Self-Regulated Learning and the Mediating Effect of Knowledge-Sharing Behavior as Drivers of Individual Innovative Behavior

“…According to Messmann and Mulder (2011), the challenge of providing solutions to emerging problems and challenges require students to develop innovative tendencies. This has, however, not been the case, as many countries in Africa have failed to attain the critical threshold of producing knowledge workers, who can trigger the process of innovation, and hence leverage technological innovations to provide solutions for societal challenges (World Bank, 2011).…”

Understanding actor innovation behavior: The application of network governance theory in agricultural innovation platforms

“…In agricultural innovation systems, this stage involves the recognition that current agricultural practices such as traditional crops that take long to mature and low yielding are a hindrance to agricultural progress. In this stage, questions relating to whether individuals pay attention to new and improved crop, look for opportunities to improve their farming systems, consider innovative opportunities and explore new crop varieties are essential (Messmann and Mulder, 2011 In the implementation stage, innovative ideas are realized and put into practice. Like the generation stage, this stage is reconstructed into two distinctive stages; Idea promotion and Idea implementation.…”

“…Like the generation stage, this stage is reconstructed into two distinctive stages; Idea promotion and Idea implementation. Idea promotion involves mobilizing support for new ideas, acquiring approval for new ideas, making important platform members enthusiastic for ideas and attempting to convince people to support them (Messmann and Mulder, 2011). This may be done by mobilizing resources, influencing and negotiating with a number of stakeholders in an innovation.…”

“…The new ideas such as new crops and farming practices become a regular part of the production processes (Kleysen and Street, 2001). In agricultural innovation platforms, the implementation stage transforms new varieties into useful applications, systematically introduces new varieties into farming systems and puts effort in the development and sustainability of the new crop verities and agricultural practices (Messmann and Mulder, 2011). The stage process of innovation behavior is consistent with the definition of innovation and helps to construct the process of innovation development from the emergence of an idea to its transformation into a practically relevant outcome (Janssen, 2000;Scott and Bruce, 1994).…”

Development of a measurement instrument for innovative work behaviour as a dynamic and context-bound construct

“…This includes rethinking and changing underlying principles of organizational work. Employees' contributions to the development of innovations are referred to as innovative work behaviour (IWB) which encompasses all work activities carried out in relation to innovation development (Messmann and Mulder 2011;West and Farr 1990). Conceptually, this construct is based on organizational psychological research on creativity and innovation (Amabile 1988;Anderson, De Dreu, and Nijstad 2004;Kanter 1988;Zhou and Shalley 2003).…”