The new Finnish workplace development programme (TYKES-FWDP) as an approach to innovation

The paper surveys the background, aims, and content of the Finnish Government’s new working-life development initiative for the period 2004 to 2009. The aim of the new Finnish Workplace Development Program (TYKES-FWDP) is sustainable productivity growth, where increases in productivity are combined with improvements in the quality of working life. In addition to funding development projects in both companies and public-sector organizations, the program will promote method development, learning networks, and continuing education for researchers on working life. As an innovation policy approach, TYKES-FWDP represents a "broad systemic innovation policy" that focuses equally on all sectors of the economy and on the interaction and combination of technological, organizational, and other kinds of social innovations.