Innovation and quality of working life: perspectives and dimensions for analysis

The essay proposes a theoretical framework for reading the relationship between innovation and equality of working life. With the changes currently being felt the world of work, it is especially important to establish promising perspectives for defining quality of working life, and the dimensions by which we understand it. Having considered the multidimensional character of innovation, provided a brief overview of some of the principal attempts to formulate measures of job quality, and illustrated the relationship between innovation and quality of working life, we argue the need (also identified by other authors) to expand our framework for analysing quality of working life to incorporate not only questions of quality of work but also those of the quality of the work-life relationship. These changes help us to better understand changes in working conditions and the theoretical and methodological implications of the relationship between innovation and quality of working life. The perspectives and dimensions that form the basis of the model proposed are therefore founded on this theoretical and methodological assumption.