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Researcher's Corner: Sustaining Innovation Capabilities Beyond COVID - A New & Distinctive Role for Polytechnics


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5 minutes

Researcher’s Corner shines the spotlight on research studies that have been published in the Journal of Innovation in Polytechnic Education (JIPE) in 2022.

Abstract: In responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Canadian workplaces have experienced a surge of employee engagement with innovation. Maintaining this momentum can help the country to achieve its “Build Back Better” goals post-pandemic, as well as to address some of Canada’s longstanding innovation challenges. In this time of change, Canada’s polytechnic institutions are afforded an opportunity to make a distinctive contribution: equipping graduates with the innovation capabilities they need to navigate the future of work. Drawing on Breznitz’s work, we begin by noting a key factor for Canada’s longstanding innovation challenge, specifically its insufficient attention to the role of the individual as an Agent of Innovation. Then the case for employee-led workplace innovation is made, with reference to research and work underway globally, and mention of both the links to and differences from entrepreneurship (with which innovation capabilities are often equated). Having established the value of employee-led workplace innovation, the authors propose polytechnic institutions as the optimal venue for advancing this work in Canada. The paper concludes with a discussion of the opportunities that employee-led workplace innovation can bring to polytechnic institutions, specifically in terms of instructional development, collaboration with workplace partners, and potential for leadership in North American higher education.

Read the full article: Sustaining Innovation Capabilities Beyond COVID: A New & Distinctive Role for Polytechnics

Why did you choose this research topic?

Tom and Janet: In a sense, this research topic chose us! We have to thank Dr. Tom Roemer, British Columbia Institute of Technology’s (BCIT) Vice President, Academic, who connected Janet with Tom Carey on a project related to polytechnic epistemologies in Industry 4.0+, which in turn provided the preliminary work for our research. By way of background, Dr. Thomas Carey is Co-Principal Catalyst for the Workplace Innovation Network for Canada and formerly served as an Executive-in-Residence for the B.C. Association of Institutes and Universities, Professor and Associate Vice-President at the University of Waterloo and Senior Research Director with the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

As a project lead at BCIT, Janet is inspired by the possibilities for polytechnic education, yet cognizant of assumptions and resulting practices that hinder its potential. She views the convergence of employee-led workplace innovation with polytechnic education as key in preparing job-capable graduates in the Future of Work. Last year, with the pandemic providing both the context and momentum for the exploration, Tom and Janet jumped in with both feet!

What next? What do you see as the impact of this research study?

Tom and Janet: Tom is currently co-leading a pan-Canadian research project funded by the Government of Canada's Future Skills Centre: Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work (with which Humber has been invited to collaborate). As part of that larger project, Janet and Tom are working with Steve Wilson of BCIT’s Centre for Digital Transformation to engage with regional employers in the Vancouver area on employee-led workplace innovation to support Digital Transformation. This September, we are bringing together an expert panel of researchers with industry partners to share cutting-edge research and to discuss adaptation to advance employee-led workplace innovation with their own workforces.

What is/are your favourite book(s)?

Janet’s favourite books of the past year: Exhalation by Ted Chiang; Encircling trilogy by Carl Frode Tiller; Anxious People by Fredrik Backman; Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood. Janet also highly recommends a book related to her research, Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World by Dan Breznitz.

Tom's favourite books this year include: Saving Us – A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Katharine Hayhoe; Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light by Leonard Shlain; This Strange Visible Air by Sharon Butala; An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe.

About

Thomas Carey is Principal Catalyst with the Workplace Innovation Network for Canada, a B.C.-based not-for-profit building academic-workplace partnerships to advance Employee-led Workplace Innovation in Canada. Tom’s past leadership roles in Canada include Associate Vice President at the University of Waterloo, Senior Research Director for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, and Executive-in-Residence for the B.C. Association of Institutes and Universities.

In the U.S., Tom’s leadership roles have included Chief Learning Officer for a network of 18 higher education systems led by the California State University, Visiting Scholar for the California Community Colleges Success Network and the Los Angeles Community College District, and Senior Partner for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is also currently Executive-in-Residence for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Monash University in Australia.

Tom’s past work as a faculty member has received awards for excellence in teaching and learning, research on user experience design and interactive technologies, collaboration across academic institutions and industry-university cooperative projects.

Janet Zlotnik is Project Lead, Academic Support Planning at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.  With experience in teaching, action research, and leadership, Janet possesses both strategic perspective and operational know-how. She designs and guides special projects that yield innovative yet achievable solutions.

In her research, Janet is driven to find what will work in specific real-world situations and will 'stick' once a project ends. Her experience shows that it is critical that participants develop a sense of ownership for change and that operational details are factored into solutions. For this reason, she applies her knowledge of change management and her experience in the post-secondary system in BC to her project work.

Janet has also held instructional and leadership roles at Vancouver Community College, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and UBC. In addition to holding two Master’s degrees, she is certified in adult education, higher education leadership, and change management.