The ‘New World of Work’ and Innovative Employee Behaviour : A Quantitative Analysis

Although the ‘New world of Work’ (Nouveau Monde du Travail - Het Nieuw Werken) is a popular topic in current HR literature, empirical research on its effectiveness is lacking. This article studies the impact of this ‘New world of Work’ on the innovative work behaviour (IWB) of employees. We distinguish between four major principles of the New world of Work: (1) time- and place-independent work, (2) self-management work, (3) free access and circulation of knowledge and information and (4) flexible employment relations. Using survey data of 927 employees from five different sectors (banking, social sector, retail, hotels & restaurants and chemical industry), we perform a multiple regression analysis to test which aspects of the New world of Work are related to the innovative behaviour of employees. The results show that the New world of Work principles have only a limited capability in explaining the innovative behaviour of employees. While working from home relates positively to IWB, this is not so for flexible working hours and autonomy over the time schedule. The largest effects stem from the second principle ‘self-management work’. Further, the analysis shows that flexible employment relations stand in very weak or even negative relation to the IWB