Work organisation and innovation: Case study: Elica, Italy

The Italian company Elica has manufactured cooker hoods since the 1970s. Elica has instigated many work organisation innovations over the past five years. The Harvard Business Review collectively labels Elica’s developments as ‘proposition innovation’. The innovation is a series of processes which generate suggestions for innovations from employees. Management develops a process for bottom-up ‘propositions’ which form the basis of change at the organisation. This case study presents four company-wide innovations. These are: Elica Life, World Class Manufacturing, Supplementary Agreement, and Matrix Structure. These innovations demonstrate the organisational processes that have been developed to incorporate participation.