Liideri - Business, Productivity and Joy at Work; a new Finnish National Programme

2014 – Liideri (2012 -2018), is the new Finnish national programme that provides grants to companies and researchers who do research and development in the field of innovation of  management, organization and work and actively use the expertise and competencies of employees.

History: TYKE, TYKES
Liideri is a successor of the national programmes: TYKE and TYKES. The first Finnish Workplace Development Programme: TYKE  was launched in 1993 and prolonged in 1996.
TYKES (2004 – 2010) was a follow-up, that actually ran until 2012.

Until 2008, these programs fell under the Ministry of Labour. In 2008 TYKES was moved to the Finnish Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes); this was appropriate in the implementation of a new national innovation strategy. 

Within the framework of these programs more than 2,000 companies implemented some workplace innovations. The old programmes are evaluated and the results monitored (see Annexes).
Broadly came from this studies that in about 70% of the projects improvements have occurred in productivity, product quality and production processes, quality of service and work flow. Over 50% of the projects brought improvements in the quality of work. In all projects there was cooperation between management and employees.

Liideri
“Liideri ‘is a Finnish twist of the English word ‘Leader’, referring to a forerunner. The programme was developed together with researchers, developers, workplaces, labour market organizations and policy makers.
The purpose of the programme is to be a ‘next-generation’  workplace development programme that represents a broad-based innovation strategy. This fits in with the new national innovation strategy that should increasingly focus on ‘demand- and user-driven innovations’ and on the promotion of  ‘non-technical innovations’ including workplace innovation.
The programme has three focus areas:
• Management 2.0 (principles, processes and practices)
• Employee-driven innovation
• New forms of work.

Reference
More information about Liideri can be found in a presentation of the Agency Tekes about this new programme, which is attached.

Two evaluation studies of previous programmes also are annexed:
Alasoini, T., Ramstad, E., Rouhiainen, N. The Finnish Workplace Development Programme as an expanding activity. Results, challenges, opportunities. (2005).
Alasoini, T., Heikkilä, A. and Ramstad, E., High-Involvement Innovation Practices At Finnish Work Places (2007).

Themes: Dynamic management & Leadership, Innovation & Innovation capabilities, Intrapreneurship