- Project number: F 2488
- Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
- Status: Completed Project
Description:
The project "Interactive work: effects and design of technological change (Interaktionsarbeit: Wirkungen und Gestaltung des technologischen Wandels, InWiGe)" was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As a so-called ‘meta project’, InWiGe had to fulfil a dual role within the funding scheme “Future of work: working with people”: On the one hand, it carried out its own research on how the changes in the world of work have affected the working conditions and health of employees performing interactive work. On the other hand, it brought together other projects and participants within the funding scheme by offering networking opportunities, and enabling a wide dissemination of research results. In general, the project aimed at developing a set of tools and approaches for analysing and designing interactive work in a humane and health-promoting way.
Our own research included a qualitative comparative study, literature analyses and quantitative analyses of secondary data. In the context of the inductive qualitative study, 106 semi-structured interviews and nine days of observations were carried out in six different occupational groups to study the working conditions of staff performing interactive service work. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse the collected data and provide theoretically and empirically relevant insights.
The project underlines that the social interactions at work are often not considered as ‘real work’ in the academic, labour and social policy as well as societal debates, and that they are not sufficiently taken into account in the evaluation and design of work. This is also evidenced by the fact that there are hardly any specific recommendations for the humane and health-promoting design of interactive work.
InWiGe has contributed to address these issues: The project results emphasise that interactive work is literally work - it requires specific qualifications and skills that can be (partially) learnt. This should also be reflected in job evaluations. Moreover, work design should be pointed towards reducing the probability of difficult customer interactions. This goes hand in hand with the recommendation to strengthen not only behavioural, but also situational prevention.
As meta project, InWiGe also aimed at facilitating the networking of relevant stakeholders. Therefore, support mechanisms were established such as working groups, events, an online exchange platform as well as a dedicated website that has become "the" online platform providing information on interactive work in Germany. Moreover, a range of publications linked to the project (scientific and practitioner-oriented articles, case study reports, newsletters etc.) contributed to the wide dissemination of the research results.
