JACOBS UNIVERSITY BREMEN

Aging workforce versus innovation? New Jacobs University research on the effects of demographic change

   

The Study „The Effects of the Aging Workforce on the Innovation Process: A Large-Scale Study of Technology Intensive Companies“ is financed by the Volkswagen Foundation Funding Initiative “Innovation Processes in Economy and Society” with a round 324.000 Euro. Sven Völpel, Professor of Business Administration at Jacobs University Bremen, and Gerben S. van der Vegt, Professor in Work and Organizational Psychology at University of Groningen, are heading the three-year project.

[ Nov 19, 2007]  As a result of the dramatic increase of older employees in the workforce of the industrial countries, the economy faces new challenges. Despite the demographic changes, the companies have to keep on being innovative and future-oriented and have to adapt their personnel policy to the altered situation. Understanding the relationship between the changing age structure and innovative work behavior will make it possible for organizations and companies to optimize innovative processes in work groups with high age diversity, from the very first steps of developing innovative ideas to their final implementation.

By focusing on the impact of an aging workforce on innovation processes the research project at Jacobs University aims at providing the basis for developing new organizational strategies. Eight researchers from universities in Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa, and the USA will explore how innovation processes are affected by an increase in age diversity of work groups. The first step is to analyze data from companies and develop an descriptive model of the impacts, which then can be used to develop recommendations and actual measures for optimizing innovation processes by integrating diverse innovative behaviors of age dissimilar cohorts.

“To date, research has just begun to focus on this topic. The consequences of increases in age diversity of the workforce for organizational innovativeness have been virtually overlooked in organizational research”, project leader Sven Völpel explains. By bringing together an international academic network and using the resulting organizational capabilities, the scientists will provide a unique opportunity for transdisciplinary research and shared expertise, stimulate discussion and generate new ideas.

 


Author: Corporate Communications. Last updated on 20.11.2007. © 2007 Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen. All rights reserved. No unauthorized reproduction. http://www.jacobs-university.de. For all general inquiries, please call the university at +49 421 200-40 or mail to info@jacobs-university.de.