Designing for learning and innovation at work

In this article we focus on aspects of organisations that they can use to design workplaces in such a way that individual learning and organisational innovation can blossom. Recent studies in this field reported positive associations between organisational characteristics stimulating learning and innovation and performance of the firm. However, it stays unclear which factors are the most prominent facilitators or inhibitors of learning and innovation. This study provides directions for designing the workplace in order to stimulate on-the-job learning by employees, and by this, to organisational innovation. A range of both individual and organisational factors seems to be the building blocks of routes to workplace learning and innovation. Notwithstanding the way an organisation implement these routes and, also, measures the outcomes, it stays clear that designing for learning and innovation is beneficial for organisations in terms of their sustainable competitive advantage. Based on a literature review, we selected the most important organisational aspects to focus on in order to encourage learning and innovation in organisations. Furthermore, we derived from interviews with Dutch managers in what way and in what extent these aspects can be recognised in their organisations. Finally, various ways in which organisations can design the workplace for learning and innovation are discussed and suggestions for possible new directions are given.