Workplace Innovation: A Search for Its Determinants Through a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Workplace innovation (WPI) plays an important role at the institutional level, enabling firms to improve their competitive advantage. However, it remains an under-researched theme. The purpose of this paper is to extend current knowledge of the mechanisms that facilitate innovations in the workplace, identifying the main determinants that leverage WPI, based on a systematic literature review (SLR). An SLR has been carried out in order to determine the main determinants of WPI. The main topics are analyzed, and then the determinants derived inductively. WPI is depicted as a wide array of topics (38) that may be clustered around five different determinants that are transverse and intertwined. This research contributes by filling the gap regarding WPI. It combines five main determinants and provides important insights into possible avenues for the research of WPI.

Reviewing workplace innovation as a plea for a practical approach

“…Consensus about the meaning of WPI is absent (Almeida & Moreira, 2022; Prus et al., 2017; Weerakoon & McMurray, 2021). There is no agreement on whether WPI should be seen as a cause, an effect or a mediating variable.…”

“…Three recent 'systemic' literature reviews on WPI try to contribute to theory development, but their endeavour is not leading to practical and actionable knowledge. Almeida and Moreira (2022) In another systemic literature review, Prus et al (2017) wanted to disentangle the ontological, epistemological and theoretical aspects of WPI. They clustered studies into research traditions and identified eight workplace dimensions, namely work system, workplace democracy, high-tech application, workplace boundaries, workspaces, people practices, workplace experience, and workplace culture.…”

“…In the past years, four edited books on WPI have been published (McMurray et al, 2021;Kopp et al, 2021;Oeij et al, , 2023aOeij et al, , 2023bOeij et al, , 2023c, four special issues of scientific journals have appeared (Howaldt & Oeij, 2016;Oeij et al, 2019b;Rus et al, 2017Rus et al, , 2019, three literature review articles were written (Almeida & Moreira, 2022;Prus et al, 2017;Weerakoon & McMurray, 2021) and in 2015 the European Journal of Workplace Innovation was launched; in 2021 we counted 426 scientific and non-scientific articles, reports and books that were dealing with WPI (Oeij et al, 2021). Because the proliferating field is very heterogeneous, it is time to take stock.…”

“…Three recent ‘systemic’ literature reviews on WPI try to contribute to theory development, but their endeavour is not leading to practical and actionable knowledge. Almeida and Moreira (2022) performed a systematic literature review. Guided by their research question “What are the determinants leveraging WPI and what are their interdependencies?”, they identified 38 topics which they clustered into five determinants: Organizational Dynamics, HRM, Collaboration, Information Technology Infrastructures and Other Facilitators (topics are Change management, WPI implementation and External Factors).…”

Workaholism Scales: Some Challenges Ahead

“…First and foremost, the SCOPUS database was chosen to search for scientific articles, and reviewed them as reliable, curated databases, covering peer-reviewed articles from quality-assessed journals [19,20]. The search keywords used in this review were "Workaholic*" and "Scale*," aiming to capture different words related to "workaholic" and "scales".…”