Innovative work practices and sickness absence: What does a nationally representative employee survey tell?

Abstract

This article examines the effect of innovative work practices on the prevalence of sickness absence and accidents at work. We focus on the "bundles" of workplace innovations that consist of self-managed teams, information sharing, employer-provided training, and incentive pay. We use nationally representative individual-level data from the Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey from 2008. The findings point to the conclusion that high-performance workplace system has little impact on the overall health of employees. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved.