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“For travel and tourism companies to succeed in an international and competitive market, they can’t just hire anyone looking for a job; they need competent and engaged employees,” says Eide. She defended her thesis at the University of Tromsø in October.

“Employees should understand how the organisation works and understand their roll as part of the whole,” says Eide.

“Through varied involvement and good arenas for sharing experience and learning, employees and managers can actively influence their own and their colleagues’ development, as well as development within the organisation, to a greater degree.”

Dorthe Eide’s research shows great variance in how management at selected hotels in North Norway involves or excludes employees in learning and innovation. Relations and collective processes are a central aspect of her research.

Everyone Must Have Access to Knowledge

“Access is one of the key concepts in my thesis.  In this context, I am thinking about access to knowledge; access arenas other than those where one works on a daily basis; the opportunity to contribute to decision-making (autonomy); access to resources, support, and so on,” explains Eide.

“It is about working with quality processes and creating new practices, which can only happen if employees are given the opportunity to participate actively.”

“It is not enough that the boss learns something, or that the boss ‘has decided’.  Management shouldn’t forget the people on the ground:  receptionists, cleaning staff, restaurant personnel, or other groups,” says Eide.

Hidden Knowledge Resources

“Managers usually listen closely to their customers.  However, they are not always as good at listening to their employees, for example, hotel receptionists, who are in contact with many more customers on a daily basis than any manager.”

“It is pretty obvious that there is a great forgotten knowledge resource to be found in employees,” emphasises Eide.

“Work, innovation, and learning are intertwined to a great extent, not separate processes as was previously thought.”

“The degree of innovation and learning in organisations is depends enormously on how management is organised,” she says, and describes two extremes from her research.

In one case, she discovered that new cleaning personnel, even after four or five months on the job, were only allowed to wash bathrooms.  The reasoning was that they “should learn to clean one room properly first”.

According to Eide, this reflected a hierarchy where the more senior cleaning personnel were then free to focus on easier or more satisfying tasks.

Increasing Engagement and Learning

“The other extreme was a hotel where new cleaning personnel were able to work in other departments and function more as customer service hosts, after only a short time.”

“This practice develops a completely different kind of working environment, motivation, identity, understanding, and premise for interaction within the company.”

In one of the case companies, all employees, even the newest members of the team, are expected to get involved and actively participate in quality and innovation processes, with new ideas and suggestions.

“For the industry, it is important to be able to attract and hold on to a highly qualified workforce. This necessity will be amplified to an even greater degree in the future, parallel with increased competition, both within the industry and for labour in general,” says Eide.

In her Ph.D. thesis, she describes the various consequences of different management approaches; both positive and negative learning spirals.

“Employees that make concrete and constructive suggestions and express a desire to get involved in teamwork are valuable. But if, or when this enthusiasm falls on deaf ears, is overlooked, or met with “mind your own business” criticism, this kind of initiative disappears just as fast.”

“Employees ask themselves, ‘Why should I care when my manager doesn’t seem to care about our customers, me, or the company?’  Initiative is then transformed into passive loyalty; sometimes the person even quits.”

Consideration and Obligation

By contrast, when management encourages and takes employee suggestions under consideration and lets them participate actively, positive learning spirals develop.

Employees feel recognition and self-worth, they feel like they are part of a team, working together, and thereby experience real consideration and involvement.

They avoid the negative breakdown between objectives and opportunities, and that can generate a solid innovative working and learning environment. In this context, Eide specifies that consideration and obligation are by no means incompatible.

“Obligations can be demanding, also when it comes to participation, but that employees experience being heard and seen, and are actually able to participate, characterises an appreciative and considerate management approach.”

Cost-Saving and Quality-Seeking

Dorthe Eide is convinced that increasing emphasis on involvement and interaction can contribute to increased knowledge and learning, both when it comes to maintaining quality and encouraging innovation.

As a rule, there is a need for both types of learning.  This kind of learning and innovation in businesses and organisations is important, but difficult and undervalued.

“In addition, earlier research indicates that when people are seen, involved, and experience recognition, their job satisfaction increases.  This again contributes to a reduced risk of a breakdown in quality, fewer absences due to illness, and lower employee turnover.”

“The opposite can be extremely costly for the company, and it should be in every manager’s interest to reduce these kinds of negative factors,” says Dorthe Eide, of the Bodø Graduate School of Business
Innovation Research.

“Research on innovation is often disproportionally focused on technology and products, particularly on developing new ‘gadgets’.  This can be because the ‘engineer paradigm’ still dominates.  Research on both innovation and service is therefore inadequate,” asserts Eide.

“You have to remember that the core business in service industry companies is often entirely, or to a large degree, immaterial, where relationships are very important. Technology is just one tool, and physical products are just aspects of the concept of service.”

“There is a lot of research left to be done on service innovations and on innovations in management, organisation, marketing, and so on – both in the public and private sector,” says Eide.

“Take HSE innovations, for example, which really can contribute to reducing absences due to illness; something that is extremely important both for individuals, organisations, and society at large.  Here, there are no simple solutions, and there is a great need for innovation and research.”

“Innovations in such areas are complex and often demand other approaches, methods, and concepts than afforded by the technology and product focus.”

Invisible Innovation

“Norway scores low on the innovation index, but I believe that a lot of innovative work in organisations is not registered because it does not fit neatly into the ‘technology and product’ world.”

"My examples most certainly are not registered as part of any innovation statistics. These are examples where work, learning, and innovation are intertwined and where processes happen out in organisations and are driven by people on the ground,” says Eide.

“These processes are not driven by researchers or an R & D department; they don’t lead to a tangible object or something that can be patented.  Still, they can have a great impact on value creation, and can be relevant for others.  But they are not easily duplicated,” explains Eide.

“In other words, there is a lot of invisible innovation and learning that deserves to be promoted so we can improve our knowledge, concept development, understanding, indicators, and adaptations.”

“Increased knowledge of such innovations is also important because knowledge leads to increased recognition and respect.  This is also related to status, identity and power.  To put it differently:  Who and what is considered important in today’s society.”

“One advantage of the lack of research on innovations in the service industry is that there is still a lot of exciting research to do – and I hope to be a part of it,” concludes Eide.

Article by: Arne Finne, Journalist, Bodø University College