Project Lead
David Guile
Team Members
Rachel Wilde
Description
The focus of this research area is on inter-professional project-based work (IPPW), which is the most common way of organising economic activity in the Creative and Cultural sector – a recognised UK economic strength (Treasury/BIS, 2011), and is gradually spreading to other sectors. This increasingly important form of work involves teams of professionals being constituted from a mix of large companies, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) and freelancers. Such team are either bound together by contractual arrangements that only run for the life of the project or are part of longer-lasting socio-professional networks that are members sustain over time by regularly re-contracting with one another.
The focus of this research area is on inter-professional project-based work (IPPW), which is the most common way of organising economic activity in the Creative and Cultural sector – a recognised UK economic strength (Treasury/BIS, 2011), and is gradually spreading to other sectors. This increasingly important form of work involves teams of professionals being constituted from a mix of large companies, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) and freelancers. Such team are either bound together by contractual arrangements that only run for the life of the project or are part of longer-lasting socio-professional networks that are members sustain over time by regularly re-contracting with one another.
What forms of expertise and resources are required for inter-professional project-based work?
Despite some research in, for example, Economic Geography, Organizational Science, Workplace Learning, little is known about: (i) the modes of expertise required in IPPW; (ii) the work practices that assist members of IP teams to share their expertise with one another; (iii) how IPPW contributes to economic growth; and, (iv) the implications of IPPW for extant models of professional and vocational learning.
The project is investigating the following questions:
- what is distinctive about learning and expertise in IPPW?
- how far are these findings generalisable to other sectors?
- what challenges does this pose for national policies for skills?
Drawing on concepts from Social Theory (‘Networked Society’), Economic Geography (‘Project Ecologies’ and TKDs), Organizational Science (‘Organising Processes’), and, Learning Theory (‘Object of Activity’; ‘Recontextualisation’), the team is creating a new inter-disciplinary framework to investigate the relation between IPPW, economic growth and education. Specifically, the team are seeking to identify: (i) why professionals engage in IPPW; (ii) how IPPW is changing in response to new technologies, governance regimes and economic imperatives; (iii) how professionals learn to share existing knowledge with one another and create new knowledge through projects; and (iv) what forms of expertise and resources are required for IPPW. The team will assess the implications of this investigation for: (a) other sectors; and, (b) national policies for skills.
Research on IPPW requires a very different unit of analysis compared with the focus of research on traditional forms of work and learning. This is because the unit of analysis has to capture the complex interlocking set of relationships, networks and modes of expertise that sustain projects, rather than individual or clusters of firm(s). To do so, the team will use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. The first database of the slim extant research on IPPW will be compiled, and made available to other researchers via the LLAKES website. Using members existing contacts with bodies, such as, Design and Art Directors Agency (D&AD), the team will gain access to ongoing and new IPPW projects. Observations, interviews, and access to digital communications (emails/tweets etc), will enable the team to develop a longitudinal qualitative perspective on, and to produce case studies of, IPPW. These case studies will provide the ideal basis for answering the research questions.
Project publications
Lyle, K., Fuller, A. and Halford, S. ‘Work organisation, lifelong learning and employee-driven innovation in the healthcare sector’, Employee-driven Innovation, LLAKES Research Seminar, 5 February 2014, UCL Institute of Education, London
Fuller, A., Halford, S. and Lyle, K. ‘Achieving employee-driven innovation in the healthcare sector: new challenges for professional practice’, presentation to ProPel International Conference, 25-27 June 2014, University of Stirling, Scotland.
Fuller, A. ‘Working and Learning for Innovation in Health care: New organisational forms and practices in Homeless Health’, AERA, 16-20 April 2015, Chicago.
Fuller, A. ‘Working and Learning for Healthcare Innovation: New ways of practising healthcare for homeless people’, Researching Work and Learning (RWL), Dec 2015, Singapore.
Taylor, R., Fuller, A., Halford, S., Lyle, K. & Teglboorg, A. ‘Organising Innovation in Healthcare: the creative practices of everyday bricoleurs’, MedSoc Conference, 9-11 September 2015, University of York, York.
Taylor, R., Fuller, A., Halford. S, & Lyle, K. ‘Organizing Innovation in Healthcare: The Creative Practices of Everyday Bricoleurs’ Paper presented by co-author Rebecca Taylor at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, 2016, Birmingham.
Fuller, A. (2016) ‘Applying an Apprenticeship Approach to HRD: Why the concepts of occupation, identity, and the organisation of workplace learning still matter’. In Shipton, H. Human Resource Management, Innovation and Performance.
Fuller, A. ‘The importance of a “cause”: understanding professional working and learning for innovation in the Healthcare sector’, LLAKES Research Seminar, 11 April 2017, UCL Institute of Education, London.
Fuller, A. ‘Innovating for a cause, emergent processes in healthcare for homeless people’, Ninth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, June 2017, Kos, Greece.
Taylor, R. Fuller, A. Halford, S. Lyle, K. & Teglborg, A. ‘Translating employee driven innovations in healthcare: The creative practices of everyday bricoleurs’ presented at 33rd EGOS Colloquiem, July 2017, Copenhagen – Sub-theme 68: Dynamics of Practices, Knowledge and Work in Healthcare Organizations.
Fuller, A. ‘Organising for a Cause: The work and learning required to create innovative healthcare for disadvantaged groups’, Keynote at 18th International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations, March 2018, University of Konstanz, Germany.
Fuller, A., Halford, S., Lyle, K., Taylor, R. and Teglborg, A. (2018) Innovating for a cause: the work and learning required to create a new approach to healthcare for homeless people. Journal of Education and WorkDOI
Fuller, A., ‘Employee-led innovation: a case study in healthcare for homeless people’ presented at a Queens Nursing Institute Learning Event called ‘Improving Health through innovation: better care for people experiencing homelessness’, 27 April 2018, QNI, Bristol.
Fuller, A., Halford, S., Lyle, K., Taylor, R. and Teglborg, A. (2018) ‘Innovating for a cause: The work and learning required to create a new approach to healthcare for homeless people’ Paper presented by Alison Fuller at The Nordic Work Life Conference, 13-15 June 2018, Oslo, Norway.
Halford, S., Fuller, F., Lyle, K and Taylor, R. (2018) Organizing Health Inequalities? Employee-Driven Innovation and the Transformation of Care. Sociological Research Online DOI
Impact
Challenging the status quo: new structures and practices
Our case studies demonstrate the value of employee driven innovation: frontline healthcare professionals have a unique capacity to innovate in service delivery, grounded in their experiential understanding of both patient needs and the organisation and delivery of healthcare. However, we also saw how challenging it is for employees to translate their knowledge and insights into changes in organisational practice, especially within a large and highly regulated bureaucracy like the NHS. Initiatives often met internal resistance and staff faced difficulties in accessing the necessary resources to implement new ways of working. Some found they could only initiate and sustain innovation by operating at the edges of NHS organisational structures, or even by creating entirely new organisations, working practices and job roles. It is difficult to embed resources and managerial support for high quality innovations – even those with enormous potential to improve patient care and save money. Innovations are, by their very nature, new ways of working towards previously unachieved outcomes, yet they must conform to standardised regulatory and evaluative processes which prioritise metrics and criteria that do not capture the aims of these innovations.
Initiating and embedding innovation: harnessing workforce expertise
Our research findings suggest that employee driven innovation is initiated by distinctive groups of staff, who have identified a clear weakness in services for disadvantaged or vulnerable patient groups. It is often, but not always, doctors who have access to the necessary resources, and the power and expertise to mobilise them in support of their ‘cause’. However, these innovations were only embedded in practice because they were facilitated by a wider group of supportive colleagues, harnessing the skills of an extensive network of expertise and knowledge. If employee driven innovation is to change the NHS, then we need more thought and pro-active attention to how we can engage the expertise of the full range of clinical and non-clinical staff, and facilitate the development of integrated teams.
Employee Driven Innovation in Healthcare Symposium
On 9 June 2016 we held a symposium to present the results of our research and discuss the policy implications with leading experts and practitioners in the field. The event had a diverse audience with representatives from a range of NHS Trusts, commissioning groups, public bodies, and educational institutions, and featured two expert panels including:
Stephanie Aiken, Deputy Director of Nursing, Royal College of Nursing
Kath Checkland, Professor of Health Policy and Primary Care, University of Manchester
Dan Hopewell, Director of Knowledge and Innovation, Bromley By Bow Centre
Ian Wheeler, Head of Research and Evaluation, Skills for Health
Karen Deeny, Head of Staff Experience, NHS England
Ann Griffin, Academic Lead for Quality, UCL Medical School
Nigel Hewett, Medical Director, Pathway
Raj Jethwa, Head of Public Health and Healthcare Delivery, British Medical Association
The research briefing published for the event can be found here: http://bit.ly/IHC0606P
Photographs from the symposium are available at: bit.ly/IHCPhotosGD
We develiped a policy briefing based on the discussions from the symposium that details practical strategies to encourage, support and sustain change available here: https://bit.ly/2pNxjsT
