Innovation and job quality in the aeronautic industry : Results from qualitative case studies

International Labor and Employment Relations (ILERA) World Congress, 2018, 2018

This study, based on cases studies in the aerospace industry in France and Sweden, explores how work organizational designs and changes may impact on the innovative capacity of firms, with job quality playing as a mediating factor. "Lean" organizational principles were witnessed in all the cases, sometimes introduced by recent organizational changes, but there were significant differences in the way they had been implemented and were impacting on work organizations. A more "technocratic" form of Lean was dominant in the French cases, also coherent with a more hierarchical and bureaucratic form of organization, with top-down planning and control mode of organizational change management, and the domination of the Science-Technology-Innovation (STI) mode of innovation. It contrasted with the more "agile" form of Lean, compatible with the more decentralized "learning" type of organization, the process and learning mode of organizational change management, and the Doing-Using-Interacting mode of innovation, that were better illustrated by the Swedish cases. This resulted in differences in job quality outcomes, in particular in terms of autonomy and involvement and overall job satisfaction, which are important conditions for the making of an innovative workplace. Social dialogue played an important role in accounting for the differences across countries. While in the French cases, unions took on more of a defensive strategy-in line with the more hierarchical "top-down" organization and mode of management ̶ , their Swedish counterparts were playing a more active role-by both formal and informal ways-in promoting a work organization favorable to job quality that enhanced the innovative capacity of the workers and their firms To do so, we focus on a particular sector, the Aerospace industry (AeS). This industry is particularly interesting from our perspective. It is an innovation leader, at least in products and new materials, as well as in processes. Beyond research and development, developing innovative workplaces is crucial for the companies in the sector. Some specific features-such as the high average skill of the workforce (including at blue-collar level) and the high share of big companies competing on quality as much as on price-make this industry a particularly favorable ground for the adoption of HPWSs. Moreover, AeS has experienced steady growth in demand since the mid-2000s, and was much less affected by the crisis that began in 2008 than other sectors in manufacturing. The pressure for aggressive cost-cutting strategies was on average therefore much more limited. Our study relies on qualitative empirical evidence from two main sources, industry experts and in-depth case studies. The latter were carried out in companies with different positions in the global supply-chain in France (FR) and Sweden (SW). These two countries, of comparable development level, offer contrasting institutional contexts. They also both display important differences with "liberal market" economies-such as the United-Kingdom and The United-States-on which most of the existing literature has focused. It must however be emphasized that our purpose is not to provide a comparative analysis of the AeS industry in these two countries. By introducing variation in national institutional contexts, the aim is to better understand factors underlying and impacting the interplay between work organization, job quality (JQ) and the innovative capacity of firms at micro-level. Our objective is to analyze how work organizations, but also, in a more dynamic perspective, the way they are introduced (in relation to the management of change) may impact on the innovative capacity of firms through their effects on JQ. We focus more particularly on specific JQ components related to work autonomy and discretionary learning opportunities-what Gallie (2018) labels "innovation-conducive job quality". We also assess the role of contextual factors inside and outside the entities under study, such as social dialogue, the importance of competitive pressure, and national culture, which all may condition the "work organization-job quality-innovative capacity" nexus. By doing so, we highlight some crucial mechanisms underlying the making of innovative workplaces. Assessing the interactions between work organizations, job quality and innovative capacities From the mid-eighties, as the decline of the Taylorist-Fordist paradigm was patent in Western countries whereas new models of organization were underlying the Japanese outstanding competitive performance, there was an increasing interest in the managerial and industrial relations literature for new forms of organizing and managing work. The issue of workers' "involvement" emerged rapidly as a potential key factor of workplace performance (Lawler, 1986). The paradigm of HPWSs gained popularity from mid-nineties, as it provided a framework for reconciling job quality-notably high workers' autonomy, commitment and satisfaction-and

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021

The aviation sector is constantly evolving, and it is necessary to keep training and education methods and programmes aligned with the needs of the workplace. This paper presents and discusses the results of a multinational study which was carried with 204 participants to analyse the transition from education and training to the workplace. The study was carried out by means of an online survey and structured interviews and focused on four groups of Vocational Education and Training users (flight crew, air traffic controllers, airport operators and Unmanned Aircraft System operators) and three target groups (employees, employers and external training providers). The results of the study highlight gaps in training and education; frequently encountered challenges in the workplace; changes which are expected to occur in the future workplace; and the impact of those changes on jobs and roles. These results will be used to identify new job profiles and to design study pathways, training programmes and assessment tools for the future aviation workforce.

2015

The liberalisation of the European aviation market and the emergence of new business models– e.g. low-cost airlines – has given rise to numerous trends in contemporary employment relations concluded vis-a-vis pilots and cabin crew members. On the one hand this evolution significantly increased and facilitated the competitive nature of the aviation industry to the benefit of individual consumers in what concerns not only price, but equally so, accessibility. On the other hand however, atypical forms of employment (atypical for this study is every form of employment other than an open-ended employment contract) are increasingly prevalent within the aviation industry as a result thereof, including, amongst others, self-employment, fixed-term work, work via temporary work agencies as well as zero-hour contracts and pay-to-fly schemes. Whilst from a legal perspective, atypical forms of employment may not necessarily be problematic, there is rising concern that the application and usage t...

2020

QuInnE – Quality of jobs and Innovation generated Employment outcomes – is an interdisciplinary project investigating how job quality and innovation mutually impact each other, and the effects this has on job creation and the quality of these job. The project is running from April 2015 through March 2018. The QuInnE project is financed by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Programme 'EURO-2-2014 - The European growth agenda', project reference number: 649497. Quinne project brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts from nine partner institutions across seven European countries.

2003

The future of the U.S. aerospace industry depends on how we attract, retain, and develop the skills and capabilities of the workforce. This industry has always been driven by the innovations of a handful of experts and the talents of many others. As we look forward into the 21 st Century, however, the challenge is much greater. The problem is threefold: Challenges in Attracting and Retaining a 21 st Century Workforce: With the end of the cold war, the rise of global competition, maturation of many industry products, instability in funding and technology, and growth in other sectors of the economy, the U.S. aerospace industry has lost its premier status as the employer of choice for many types of professional, technical and production workers-raising deep concerns about attracting and retaining a 21 st Century workforce. Inadequate Infrastructure Enabling Wise Investment in Human Capital: The U.S. aerospace industry-government and private organizations-does not have current data, future projections, or adequate institutional mechanisms when it comes to developing the specific skills and capabilities that are required for successraising the specter of ineffective, misdirected, wasteful and missing investments in human capital. Limited Mechanisms for Diffusing Best Practices Across the Aerospace Enterprise: Innovations around the implementation of new work systems and employment arrangements for engineering and production workforces stand as "islands of success" without a clear process in place for the sort of enterprise transformation needed in U.S. aerospace industry-particularly given the new sense of urgency facing both the military and civil segments of this industry. In response, we recommend five specific initiatives-each designed to have a transformational impact-and an overall recommendation around the importance of research and development spending as a "pull" for the next generation workforce. The specific initiatives are: Public Policy Priority Protecting Investment in Intellectual Capital: Establishing mechanisms to mitigate instability and other threats to investment in "intellectual capital," which could include developing longer-term procurement contracts, targeted attention to intellectual capital issues at key stages of the procurement process, requiring "intellectual capital impact statements" when funding is to be cut or redirected in significant ways, and other related issues. Aerospace Capability Network: Developing a public/private partnership network organization in which all key stakeholders in the aerospace industry coordinate the establishment and dynamic evolution of a full set of relevant skill standards, future capability requirements, and relevant workforce data. National Training and Development Partnership: Establishing a multistakeholder, public/private partnership supporting strategic investment in skills and capabilities that are central to industry success and that would not otherwise receive adequate investment-especially involving investment in building capability across organizations along what can be termed "mission critical" value streams.