About the closing workshop of the TWAIN Project

Technology use at Work And INovative work practices

The results have helped in defining good practices in the management of employees, and in outlining the pattern of information sharing and communication that could improve firms' performance.

In the context of the advent of the knowledge-oriented society, the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within firms strengthens the acquisition and the transfer of information and knowledge between employees. The diffusion of these technologies associated with new work models (such as decentralization of decision-making or teamwork) are supposed to increase firms' performance.

The key economic problem for firms, in this context, is to build a compensation system and provide a motivating work environment to favour the optimal diffusion of information and knowledge that should, in turn, result in productivity gains. This motivating work environment can also allow firms to retain motivated and skilled workers. Thus, it increases the profits and decreases the costs due to labour turnover (relating to the recruitment and training of new workers).

The main objective of the TWAIN (Technology use at Work And INovative work practices) project was to assess the impact of technological and organizational changes on employees’ autonomy, collaborations, work motivations and intent to leave. By focusing on the specific, multinational labour market of Luxembourg, the project has taken into account, among others, language and cultural differences that relate to the way in which employees perceive their work environment and the characteristics of the management in their firms. The analyses undertaken in this project relied on two sources of data coming from survey data and experimental economics. The purpose of the workshop has been to provide the main empirical results of the project and discuss the findings with invited experts.

The results have helped in defining good practices in the management of employees, and in outlining the pattern of information sharing and communication that could improve firms' performance.