Additional Resources - Workplace Innovation

Curious to Learn More?

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For additional insights, check out the resources below.

Intrapreneurship for Social Change

Intrapreneurship can be a way to "create change from within" an organization. It can also be a means of making social change. We made similar links in the Sustainability Innovation Challenge, where you were asked to address some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and consider universal design as part of the design thinking process. To learn more about how workplace innovation can support social change, consult the following resources:

Del Baldo, M. (2014). Sustainable entrepreneurship: Next stage of responsible business Links to an external site.. In Weidinger, C., Fischler, F., & Schmidpeter, R. (Eds.), Sustainable entrepreneurship: Business success through sustainability (pp.135-153). Springer Berlin. 

Intrapreneurship + UN SDGs Links to an external site.: The League of Intrapreneurship defines an intrapreneur as "[a]n employee who harnesses the assets of their organization to solve real world problems that need solving," or "[a]n entrepreneur on the inside." They explicitly link these "real world problems" to the UN SDGs, just as you did in your SI Challenge.

To learn what it's like to create new pathways in a social sector and what it's like to engage in social intrapreneurship work, check out the experience of Ryan Shepard, the Executive Director of CARE Atlanta Global Innovation Hub Links to an external site..

Innovation Capability

Beasley, R. & Ingram, C. (2020). How systems engineering and systems thinking enable innovation Links to an external site.. INCOSE International Symposium, 30(1), 1032-1048. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2334-5837.2020.00770.x

Catmull, Ed. (2008, September). How Pixar fosters collective creativity. Links to an external site. Harvard Business Review. 

Hill, L. A., Brandeau, G., Truelove, E., & Lineback, K. (2014). Collective genius: The art and practice of leading innovation Links to an external site.. Harvard Business Review Press.

Iddris, F. (2016). Innovation capability: A systematic review and research agenda. Links to an external site. Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, 11, 235-260.

Failure to Innovate

Laugharne, J. (2020, November 3). Companies that FAIL due to Innovation Links to an external site.. LinkedIn.

Miller Cole, B. (2019, January 10). Innovate or die: How a lack of innovation can cause business failure Links to an external site.. Forbes.

Job Crafting

Berg, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2008). What is job crafting and why does it matter? Links to an external site. Center for Positive Organizations, University of Michigan.

Demerouti, E. (2014). Design your own job through job crafting Links to an external site.. European Psychologist, 19(4), 237-247. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000188

Le Blanc, P. M., Demerouti, E., & Bakker, A. B. (2017). How can I shape my job to suit me better? Job crafting for sustainable employees and organizations. Links to an external site. In Chmiel, N., Fraccaroli, F., & Sverke, M. (Eds.), An introduction to work and organizational psychology: An international perspective (pp. 48-63). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119168058.ch3

Tims, M., & Knight, C. (2019). Job crafting: an individual strategy to develop oneself. In Burke, R. J., & Richardsen, A. M. (Eds.), Creating psychologically healthy workplaces Links to an external site. (pp. 152-170). Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Job Crafting in Various Work Environments & Types of Jobs

Demerouti, E., Soyer, L. M., Vakola, M., & Xanthopoulou, D. (2021). The effects of a job crafting intervention on the success of an organizational change effort in a blue‐collar work environment Links to an external site.. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 94(2), 374-399. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12330

Elsayed, R. S. (2019). Nurses' job crafting and its' relationship with their job demands, job resources, and career competencies Links to an external site.. International Journal of Novel Research in Healthcare and Nursing 6(2), 1459-1474.

Harbridge, R., Ivanitskaya, L., Spreitzer, G., & Boscart, V. (2022). Job crafting in registered nurses working in public health: A qualitative study Links to an external site.. Applied Nursing Research, 64, 151556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2021.151556

Job Crafting - Creating Meaning in Your Own Work

"Rarely are jobs designed to match the talents, preferences, and aspirations of the individual. Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, discussed the art and science of job crafting. Wrzesniewski studied hospital maintenance workers to consider how job crafting affected their work experience and morale. She set up two groups - one simply followed the job description while the second was asked to take on other, related tasks of their own choosing. Differences between the two groups were significant. The second group found meaning in their work and saw themselves and their purpose as radically different from their counterparts. Allowing an employee to influence work scope changes the meaning of that work, and allows them to take ownership of their job. Wrzesniewski's work shows that job crafting can foster engagement, job satisfaction, and resilience" (Authentic Happiness, 2014).

To learn more about Dr Wrzesniewski's work on job crafting, and her four tips for successful implementation of job crafting Links to an external site., as well as other initiatives studying the psychology of happiness, visit the University of Pennsylvania's Authentic Happiness website.

Authentic Happiness

To learn more about Positive Psychology, which includes job crafting, visit the Authentic Happiness Links to an external site. website, developed by the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of work, love and play" (University of Pennsylvania, 2023, para. 3).

Science, Creativity and Play

Ben-Menachem, D. (2014, March 14). Why we should play at work: Embracing play in our creative field can make us happier and more productive Links to an external site.. UX Collective.

Brown, S. M. & Vaughan, C. (2009, March 5). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul Links to an external site.. Penguin Random House. New York.

National Institute for Play Links to an external site. wants the world to know that play – feeling playful – is seriously important for a healthy life. Each person feels playful in their own unique way. A significant body of research on play behaviours has been produced over the last ten years. Explore their free Library of Play Links to an external site..

Science.org Dance Your Ph.D. Links to an external site. is a contest that challenges scientists to explain their research without using jargon, PowerPoint, or words… just dance. The purpose of the contest is to educate by explaining complex theories through interpretive dance. Watch the winners of [2022] ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ contest Links to an external site..

OPTIONAL Video: Why You Should Make Useless Things | Simone Giertz

"In this joyful, heartfelt talk featuring demos of her wonderfully wacky creations, Simone Giertz shares her craft: making useless robots. Her inventions -- designed to chop vegetables, cut hair, apply lipstick and more -- rarely (if ever) succeed, and that's the point. 'The true beauty of making useless things [is] this acknowledgment that you don't always know what the best answer is,' Giertz says. '"It turns off that voice in your head that tells you that you know exactly how the world works. Maybe a toothbrush helmet isn't the answer, but at least you're asking the question.'" (TED, 2018, para. 1).

This external video has accurate captions. For closed captioning, click on the subtitles button at the bottom-right of the video interface, or download the transcript (PDF Download PDF | DOC Download DOC).