Work Organisation and Innovation in Ireland

[Excerpt] Innovations in work organisation have the potential to optimise production processes in companies and improve employees’ overall experience of work. This report explores the links between innovations in work organisation – under the broader label of high performance work practices (HPWPs) – and the potential benefits for both employees and organisations. It draws on empirical evidence from three case studies carried out in the Republic of Ireland, where workplace innovations have resulted in positive outcomes and where social partners played a significant role in their design and development

Work Organisation and Innovation - Case Study: LHT, Germany

[Excerpt] Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT) provides aircraft-related technical services to a worldwide customer base comprising airlines, aircraft leasing companies, maintenance organisations, and operators of business and VIP aircrafts. Besides the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services that form the organisation’s core business, activities also include development and production activities, as well as logistics

Work Organisation and Innovation

[Excerpt] Innovations in work organisation have the potential to optimise production processes in companies and improve employees’ overall experience of work. This report explores the links between innovations in work organisation – under the broader label of high performance work practices (HPWPs) – and the potential benefits for both employees and organisations. It draws on empirical evidence from case studies carried out in 13 Member States of the European Union where workplace innovations have resulted in positive outcomes

Achieving Green and Healthy Homes and Communities in America

In the Fall of 2010, the National Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisioning contracted with the National Academy to develop and execute an online dialogue that would examine ways to increase the health, safety, and energy efficiency of low- to moderate-income homes. Since 1999, the National Coalition had worked to improve low- to moderate-income housing through the support and execution of home interventions that addressed multiple issues within a home at one time; an approach that often did not align with other traditional, single-issue housing assistance programs. By 2010, the National Coalition had taken on the leadership of the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, a public-private partnership focused on integrating funding streams to improve low- to middle-income homes across the country.With plans to expand the GHHI's operations, the National Coalition partnered with the National Academy to conduct the National Dialogue on Green and Healthy Homes, a collaborative online dailogue in which participants were asked to identify challenges to, and innovative practices for, improving the health, safety and energy-efficiency of low- to moderate- income homes. The Dialogue was live from November 4-November 22, 2010, and collected 100 hundred ideas and 362 comments from 320 registered users. Over the course of its two and a half week duration, the Dialogue received more than 2,500 visits from over 1,100 people in 48 states and territories. Key FindingsBy reviewing the feedback received in the Dialogue, the Panel was able to make a number of recommendations on how the green and healthy homes community of practice could increase the health, safety and energy efficiency of homes across the country. These recommendations included: Conduct an evaluation of current housing standards to determine if they meet the Nation's health, safety, and energy efficiency needs; Develop a tiered performance standard for healthy, safe and energy efficient homes; Group government funding streams to better align programs with the comprehensive intervention approach; Develop a long-term funding strategy to support efforts after Recovery Act funding ends; and Educate government decisionmakers and the public on the importance of developing green and healthy homes and communities, and the work that supports that development

Building sustainability on deep values through mindfulness nurturing

To effectively pursue sustainability, companies need to develop an awareness of the importance of social and environmental objectives in addition to economic. To achieve this, they need to promote a set of shared values in their strategy and cultural change which align global sustainability with organisational performance. To assist organisations with this process and thus identify and nurture their members’ underpinning values, we present the Organisational Presence Model including a Real Dialogue Methodology. We draw on Lewin’s participative approach to change and the deep concept of Mindfulness related to Buddhist precepts, while contributing with a way to initiate Mindfulness nurturing in business context, facilitating its acceptance and practice by organizational members. In our study case we find signs of positive effects of the model in sustainability pursuing. The new strategy has been built aligned with resulting values, that are also perceived by organizational members as inspirational, generating motivation and helping the effective communication that integrates the strategic objectives in the economic, social and environmental aspects

Working Conditions in Central Public Administration

During the last few decades, public administration workers have been subject to a number of structural, modernising reforms, in a framework often designated as ‘new public management’. The current economic and financial crisis has also meant that the steep rise in public debt has prompted many authorities to try to reduce public expenditure by introducing freezes and reductions in pay and employment for civil servants. This report sets out to provide an overview of the main causes and reasons for change in central public administration in the European member states plus Norway. It also looks at the impact these changes have had on the sector\u27s working conditions, as well as exploring how this situation is expected to evolve

Learning From Experience With Performance Assessment Frameworks for General Budget Support

This report provides the findings of a study financed by SECO and undertaken under the auspices of the OECD-DAC multi-country evaluation of General Budget Support (GBS). The overall objective was to gather preliminary lessons on what could be good international practice in the development\ud of Performance Assessment Frameworks (PAFs) for GBS. The study is based on the experience of three countries which have adopted harmonised PAFs – namely Ghana, Mozambique, and Tanzania, and two which are moving in this direction – Benin and Nicaragua. In order to assess the effectiveness of these PAFs, the study employed a simplified, standard framework reflecting the OECD-DAC guiding principles for the provision of budget support.\u