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This paper seeks to examine the dissemination of high‐involvement innovation practices at Finnish workplaces and to consider how their adoption can be promoted by means of a publicly‐funded R&D programme.

The empirical material is based on a survey by the Finnish Workplace Development Programme TYKES. (TYKES is a governmental R&D programme for promoting simultaneous improvements in productivity and the quality of working life by granting funding to development projects at Finnish workplaces.)

The interim results of the survey provide a strong evidence‐based argument in favour of the supportive role of the programme.

The paper suggests areas where governments might introduce support programmes to foster the spread of innovative activity.

The paper provides insights into support policy issues in Finland and will be of interest to those involved in that field.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate effectiveness of the graduate development programme that was aimed at the recruitment and professional development of black engineering graduates through the workplace learning method.

The paper adopted qualitative research strategy using in-depth interviews with semi-structured interview guide that was developed after an extensive review of related literature. Data were analysed using thematic analysis technique.

Result of the paper indicates that the strategy provides an effective mechanism for the inclusion and professional development of black engineering graduates. Coaching and mentoring relationships were found to be an effective way for knowledge and skills transfers.

Although this study presented valuable insights into the complexity of the graduate development programme in South Africa, the authors consider it appropriate to draw some limitations to study for in order to provide some guides on the conduct of a similar study by future researchers. It is important to state that qualitative studies inherently lack external validity that limits its generalisability to a wider context. Further, a non-probability sampling method was used in this study thus posing a threat to the scientific representativeness of the participants. At last, but very important is the emotion and tension that is usually associated with social research and discussion regarding the legacies of apartheid in South Africa. This research was not insulated from such sensitivity and social influence. To this extent, while practical efforts were made to mitigate this factor during the interviews, there is no guarantee that the respondents were completely honest, and not influenced by extraneous nuances and considerations in their responses to the questions. In view of the methodological and social limitations to this study, future researchers could consider, for example, the use of a mixed methods wherein a quantitative research component is conducted on trainees of the programme in order to validate or disprove the answers provided by the training managers which were purely from operator/organisational, rather than training participants’ perspective. The mixed method approach could also enhance the external validity or generalisability of the research outcome to a wider context. At last, the administration of structured questionnaire through the use of a web-based survey could potentially eliminate emotions, social tension and response bias since both the researcher and respondents do not engage in a face-to-face contact and personal interaction. This also effectively protects personal identity of both the researcher and respondent.

Not much research has been conducted in the direction of the graduate development programme as an effective strategy for the career advancement, inclusion and affirmation of black engineers within the engineering landscape of South Africa. Corporate and professional skills development managers could integrate the outcome of this paper into a policy framework that shapes corporate social investment, diversity and inclusion management at the workplaces.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of internal audit workplace learning success for developing early career internal audit professionals in South Africa.

A qualitative research design was used to collect data through focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews from 65 internal audit stakeholders including internal audit employers’ early career; internal auditors’ workplace learning assessors; and presenters and members of the education and training committee of the professional body in South Africa on their experiences of the determinants of workplace learning success for internal auditors.

In line with workplace learning theories, it was found that there are five determinants of internal audit workplace success: the learning environment, management support, the early career internal auditors’ commitment (attitude and motivation to learn) and a relevant, structured and effective formal workplace learning programme.

Internal audit employers, early career internal auditors, workplace learning assessors and presenters as well as the Institute of Internal Auditors globally and in South Africa can use the results of this study as a benchmark for their internal audit workplace learning practices.

This paper provides insight into the determinants of workplace learning success for internal auditors and contributes to the limited body of knowledge in auditing on developing professional competence in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of a workplace development programme (WPDP) targeting small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) by focussing on the people who acted as brokers providing cross-boundary connections between its collaborating partners.

The material, from interviews with 32 individuals and 11 meetings, was analysed in a boundary-crossing framework, which provided tools to reveal how the roles of brokers at different levels (operative, strategic and national) of the WPDP affected its development.

The findings indicate that cross-boundary connections were made by persons who acted as brokers within and between different levels of the WPDP. The brokers who provided cross-boundary connections between different levels of the WPDP were found to play the most important role for the prompt development of the WPDP.

Apart from unique empirical material depicting the development of a collaborative venture between national and regional stakeholders of the manufacturing industry, the value of this study is the attention given to the people behind the policymaking of publicly funded national WPDPs, revealing the complex business of developing policy-driven competence development activities to employees in SMEs.

This paper reviews what has been written on leadership development from the leadership-as-practice (L-A-P) perspective, which views leadership as emerging in everyday activities and interactions of a collective in a specific context. This paper aims to deepen the theoretical understanding of how leadership can be learned and developed from the L-A-P perspective.

An integrative literature review was undertaken to review and synthesise what has been written on the topic in journal articles and scholarly books.

The importance of the context and the practices that are embedded in it is the most central aspect affecting leadership development from the L-A-P perspective. This places workplace leadership development centre stage, but several papers also showed that leadership programmes have an important role. Not only collective capacity building is emphasised in the papers, but the importance of individual-level leader development is also recognised.

The contribution of this study is twofold: First, it brings the currently fractured information on L-A-P development together to enhance theory building by providing a synthesis of the literature. Second, a conceptual framework is constructed to show how the L-A-P perspective on leadership development can take both leadership development at the collective and individual levels into account, as well as the learning that takes place either inside or outside the workplace. This study’s results and framework show that the development has its own specific purpose and suggested methods in both levels, in both learning sites.

The intentions of this article are to contribute reflections of an empirical account of working with critical reflection within an organisational development programme, addressing the following questions: What space is there for critical reflection in organisational development? What issues are raised for in‐company developers and providers by advocating critical reflection in organisation practice?

A case study approach is taken, presenting an empirical account of a management and organisational development programme that integrated action learning and critical reflection.

The account illustrates difficulties of employing critical reflection within the workplace arising from the more complex power relations between the multiple stakeholders in a commercial context. In particular, dissonance provoked by critical reflection confronts the client with a tension over whether to see organisation members primarily as customers to please or as participants in a change process which inevitably will disrupt.

In making sense of the perspectives of different stakeholders a model is presented to help practitioners in development of this kind to anticipate potential issues.

The paper presents a rare account of employing critical reflection in a work organisation development programme.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the need for workplace innovation policies and practices in Europe and evaluate programs that already have been developed.

The paper describes the concept of workplace innovation and trends in society explaining its emergence. The paper then presents and discusses the results of evaluation research as far as this is available.

A growing number of countries is conducting or developing some kind of programme on workplace innovation. These programmes differ in size and governance. Evaluation research shows that simultaneous improvement of performance and quality of working life is possible under certain conditions such as the participation of employees in change projects.

Concepts and designs of evaluation research projects differ considerably. This gives new challenges for companies, trade unions, governments and researchers. In EU2020, little attention is paid to workplace innovation but there is a ray of hope in the draft integrated guidelines for employment policies and in the Flagship Initiative Innovation Union.

Social innovation in the workplace, or workplace innovation, is a new concept, covering to some extent new practices that appear to be relevant for organisations and governments.

This comparative study explored differences in perceptions between Canadian and US post secondary faculty in the fields of adult education (AdEd) and human resource development (HRD) on program development issues in the emerging field of “workplace learning”. In fall of 2001, The Adult Education and Human Resource Development Faculty Survey was electronically disseminated to a selected sample of Canadian and US faculty across both countries. The authors examine respondents' perceptions of: their program's curricular focus on the individual students' learning needs compared to the organization development goals of their current or potential employers; the importance of specific skills to the role of “workplace learning practitioner” compared to skill building opportunities present in the program; and the degree of cooperation between their academic programs and businesses that employs, or potentially employs, graduates from these programs. The findings reveal differences in the manner in which Canadian and US faculties develop and teach in these programs that the authors believe have important implications for the continuing development of this field of inquiry and practice in both countries. Overall, the study argues for closer and more purposeful collaboration between AdEd and HRD faculties who develop and teach in workplace learning programs in both countries, and highlights the importance of alliance building on several fronts in order for this newly emerging field of practice and inquiry to flourish.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on transition of engineering graduates to work. It asks: “What approaches and enabling activities can organisational induction programs use to support successful transition to practice for new-career engineers?”

The paper is grounded in literature review; it discusses central themes in the literature relating to transition to the workplace for Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) graduates. These include: skills required for the workplace; challenging factors in the transition to workplace; and, disciplinary socialisation.

There is a lack of literature that explores the design of workplace induction programs to assist novice engineers transition to professional work. An emerging topic in the literature is educational institution and employing organisation co-production of induction and transition to work programs.

Much of the literature relating to transition to work programs is from higher education rather than from the viewpoint of the workplace. This review contributes to knowledge of transition to work for early-career engineers from the perspective of workplace development programs.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: how can organizations be developed in such a way that it improves simultaneously performance and the quality of working life (QWL). The focus is particularly on diverse organizational and management practices and the nature of development process.

The empirical data consist of self‐assessments of development projects implemented at workplaces as a part of the Finnish Workplace Development Programme (1996‐2005). The self‐assessments have been gathered separately from management, staff and experts used in the project. The data are based on a sample of 1,113 responses from 409 development projects. The research approach is solution‐oriented, seeking factors that can promote concurrent improvements in both performance and the QWL.

Concerning the work, management and organizational practices the findings show that comprehensive development of organization, i.e. implementation of practices is associated with simultaneous improvement in performance and the QWL. Second, concerning the nature of development method, the study shows that employee participation in planning and implementation phase, close collaboration during the process, the methods used by the experts and external networking were related to simultaneous outcomes at workplaces.

This paper makes a contribution to the debate on the effects of organizational development on performance and the QWL, and adds some new empirical findings. It also emphasizes the increasing importance of discussion between organizational development and innovation literature in the future.