FIAP e.V. – Institute for innovative and preventive job design
Research fields
Work design and integration
Working worlds and processes are transformed analogously to technical, social and general social transformation processes. The actors in the world of work are faced with the challenge of actively shaping the increasingly dynamic transformation processes, identifying and preventing risks, driving and managing innovation processes, and driving heterogeneous interests and needs. Individuals, organisations and institutions need support instruments and targeted development concepts that are developed and tested directly with the actors of the working world in applied research at FIAP.
The diversity of culture, age, gender and religion in the world of work also requires preventive concepts. In a society that is becoming more and more diversified, coexistence and cooperation must be shaped. The potentials of different genders, generations and cultures must be brought together without conflict in order to use their complementary potentials, e.g. for innovation processes in the world of work. Here the goal is also to redesign ways into work and develop support instruments tailored to the target group that facilitate this path.
The FIAP investigates the conditions for preventive, health- and innovation-promoting work and develops and tests concepts for the promotion of individuals, organisations and institutions in the knowledge economy. The focus is on shaping the balance of a work environment characterised by diversity.
A particular research focus is on current transformation dimensions and trends such as digitization and internationalization. The potentials and challenges for individuals, organizations and institutions arising from these transformation dimensions are analysed. The projects also focus on target groups that have difficulties integrating into the labour market.
Work design and integration
International vocational training
Working worlds and processes are transformed analogously to technical, social and general social transformation processes. The actors in the world of work are faced with the challenge of actively shaping the increasingly dynamic transformation processes, identifying and preventing risks, driving and managing innovation processes, and driving heterogeneous interests and needs. Individuals, organisations and institutions need support instruments and targeted development concepts that are developed and tested directly with the actors of the working world in applied research at FIAP.
The diversity of culture, age, gender and religion in the world of work also requires preventive concepts. In a society that is becoming more and more diversified, coexistence and cooperation must be shaped. The potentials of different genders, generations and cultures must be brought together without conflict in order to use their complementary potentials, e.g. for innovation processes in the world of work. Here the goal is also to redesign ways into work and develop support instruments tailored to the target group that facilitate this path.
The FIAP investigates the conditions for preventive, health- and innovation-promoting work and develops and tests concepts for the promotion of individuals, organisations and institutions in the knowledge economy. The focus is on shaping the balance of a work environment characterised by diversity.
A particular research focus is on current transformation dimensions and trends such as digitization and internationalization. The potentials and challenges for individuals, organizations and institutions arising from these transformation dimensions are analysed. The projects also focus on target groups that have difficulties integrating into the labour market.
International vocational training
Sustainability and climate protection
Against the background of climate change, sustainability management and climate protection have become increasingly urgent issues in recent decades. The awareness and behaviour of younger generations in particular has now responded to this emergency. On an individual level a transformation process is already taking place, which will also be noticeable in the future in common social values and which shows how important sensitization for climate protection and sustainability is both in a person’s educational biography and in relation to everyday working life.
On an organisational and institutional level it is much more difficult to implement transformations. This has created a high demand for completely new technological and social skills in companies and organisations. Institutions must develop new structures to take account of these changes. New organisational and institutional cultures have to be initiated in order to anchor sustainability and climate protection at these levels as well.
FIAP is involved in various sustainability-oriented projects in order to strengthen the sensitization of individuals. Here, in cooperation with Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen, the topic of career choice orientation for motivation in relation to technical, green occupations has emerged as a field of action that can be integrated into vocational training projects in particular.
On the other hand, the research focus is on organisational and institutional design approaches that are modeled in pilot projects in order to support new, sustainable working environments and job profiles.
Sustainability and climate protection
Cross-sectional top digitisation
Everyone is talking about digitisation. New, digital media that facilitate and optimize work processes, but also open up completely new possibilities for interaction and perception, also play a central role in FIAP’s research work.
Particularly in connection with the topics of vocational training and networked work, cooperations with VR and AR experts and providers have emerged within the projects, which have created new impulses in the projects and in the research work. The location in the Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen plays a key role in this. This is where the annually planned VR Festival Places takes place and around the Wissenschaftspark, in the district of Ückendorf, a digital community with many VR start-ups has established itself. The FIAP networks this scene with cooperation partners in the projects and uses the exchange with the actors to integrate innovative applications into the research work.
A theoretical approach is being developed at the institute on the subject of VR/AR in vocational education and training, which shows how extended realities can serve to initiate necessary transformation processes. In the future, this will be one of the focal points of the applied research activities.
Cross-sectional top digitisation
Services and co-creation
Services structure our social life at all levels. Increasingly complex digital and analog “service networks” are triggering positive developments in many areas, but can also have negative effects, especially with regard to the quality of work. Against the background of interdisciplinary, design-oriented service research, it is our goal to design services that promote a responsible, sustainable lifestyle and good quality work.
The FIAP has developed a concept of interactive service development that enables open innovation processes, the integration of internal and external partners in the innovation process, the institutionalization of value creation partnerships and the active participation in the design of services and processes. This conceptual approach is used both for research on transcultural education services, in particular for international cooperation in vocational education and training, and for the development of services that support awareness-raising and the promotion of sustainability and climate protection. FIAP’s research approach in these collaborative development processes focuses on the analysis of conducive and inhibiting conditions of co-creation in heterogeneous groups.
Furthermore, the FIAP investigates the framework conditions for quality-oriented work in the service sector and develops new models and concepts for practice-oriented support of service professions. Qualification, occupation and social appreciation of service work are central ‘drivers’ of quality and innovation in the service sector. Recent research has come to the conclusion that these dimensions in the economy are an important source for the performance and innovation capacity of enterprises and employees. At the same time, however, this ‘source’ has hardly been tapped for a number of possible reasons, especially in the area of personal services. On the contrary: the lack of appreciation, professionalism and working conditions that promote innovation and health are central barriers to the development of quality-oriented work in the service sector. The implementation-oriented research of the institute develops new approaches to solutions with practice.