Current projects

08 October 2007

Distinctiveness and Cities — Beyond ‘Find and Replace’ Economic Development

This new report looks at the importance of distinctiveness and highlights cities which have successfully built a unique character and gained economic benefits as a result. Read 'Distinctiveness and cities' here

07 September 2007

Fit for Work?

As part of our healthy work and wellbeing research stream, this new report looks at the impact of musculoskeletal conditions on work. Read 'Fit for Work?' here

03 September 2007

Ten Years of the UK's Knowledge Economy: UK Competitiveness Index Commentary Paper

Using data from the UK Competitiveness Index, The Work Foundation reports that the difficulty of creating ‘knowledge economy’ jobs in cities based in the north and west of the UK may be the principal reason for the continuation of the north-south divide. Read 'Ten Years of the UK's Knowledge Economy' here.

02 August 2007

Liberating Leadership

New findings from The Work Foundation suggest that public sector managers lack confidence in their own leadership skills and consistently underestimate what they achieve. This is the central finding of an analysis of results from The Work Foundation’s Liberating Leadership ‘profiling tool’ — a system that rates managers against 42 specific leadership behaviours. The results show that individual managers are regularly rated more highly by their own managers and colleagues than they rate themselves. Read 'Liberating Leadership' here.

09 July 2007

Offshore outsourcing

This paper takes a detailed look at the subject of offshore outsourcing and concludes that the threat to high quality UK knowledge jobs from developing economies has been vastly overstated. Read 'Offshoring, a threat to the UK's knowledge jobs?' here

04 July 2007 

Labour under Labour

As Brown takes office, The Work Foundation takes a look back at ten years of work under Labour plotting the successes, surprises and pitfalls along the way. Read  '7 out of 10: Labour under Labour 1997 - 2007'

25 June 2007

Staying ahead: the economic performance of the UK’s creative industries

In this report commissioned by the Department for Culture Media and Sport, The Work Foundation takes a detailed look at what has propelled the UK’s creative industries to the financially successful position they occupy today, generating almost as much revenue annually for the UK economy as financial services. Read 'Staying ahead: the economic performance of the UK's creative economy' here.

London's Creative Economy: An Accidental Success

This paper by John Knell and Kate Oakley in partnership with The Work Foundation and The London Development Agency, looks at the success of London’s creative industries, the capital’s second biggest revenue generator after financial services. It considers the challenges that might threaten the industry’s continued success and reveals that despite their reputation for being open-to-talent and free from prejudice, London’s creative industries are characterised by exclusive social networks, exploitative labour practices, and low levels of ethnic diversity. Read 'London's Creative Economy: An Accidental Success' here

Trading in ideas and knowledge

If Germany is good at making cars and Japan at micro electronics, what does Britain excel at economically? The answer is ‘knowledge services’. Ian Brinkley’s most recent paper in the Knowledge Economy research programme argues that knowledge services — in essence selling specialised brainpower - is the one category of economic activity in which the UK appears to be leading the rest of the world. Read 'Trading in ideas and knowledge' here

9 May 2007 

Leading for High Performance

This three-year research programme led by Penny Tamkin will focus on the specific role played by leaders in creating the conditions for high performance.

The study will look at how leaders’ behaviour affects team and organisational performance, and, once identified, these approaches and techniques will be tested to establish how applicable they are to other organisations. The study marks a move away from abstract assumptions about what makes effective leaders, and instead aims to develop an empirically based theory of leadership, looking at all levels of leadership, not just CEO, and senior management and to test its impact on performance. Read the press release

Best of British Industry Awards

The winners of the 2007 Best of British Industry awards were announced at a ceremony at the Tate Modern. Trade and Industry Minister Jim Fitzpatrick MP, who gave a keynote speech at the event said: ‘British industry has a great deal to be proud of and it is right that we celebrate it. Manufacturing accounts for 14% of our GDP and half of UK exports, and lies at the heart of the emerging knowledge economy.’ The awards, sponsored by AMEC and organised in conjunction with the Sunday Times drew endorsements from across the industrial and political spectrum. See the press release and full list of winners here

13 November 2006

Competitiveness Index

The Work Foundation published the findings of the 2006 Competitiveness Index which showed the reputed north-south divide may be closing as northern regions experience rapid growth. The CI is the brainchild of Robert Huggins of the University of Sheffield, and measures regional competitiveness across Britain. For more information about this project contact Alex Jones ajones@theworkfoundation.com

Public Value

Published on 1 November 2006. 'Deliberative Democracy and the Role of Public Managers', is the result of the public value consortium project, which sets out the case for public sector managers to think of their jobs in terms of 'creating public value' - just as private sector managers aim to create shareholder value. Public value argues the public should be treated not as 'consumers' of public services, but as 'citizens'. Citizens consider the wider public benefits of public services, as opposed to merely their own. One of the jobs of managers is to refine peoples' preferences as regards public services so that a rational judgement about what the public values most can be reached. The Work Foundation will also be building consultancy services around the public value concept. Find out more about public value here

Knowledge economy

The second report in the Knowledge Economy programme demonstrated that the size of the knowledge economy in Europe is equal to that of the United States. However, it warned that unless more investment is made in research and development, higher education and ICT, the growth of Europe’s knowledge economy may begin to slow. Find out more about knowledge economy here

Willingness to Pay and the BBC

An investigation into the British public’s willingness to pay the BBC licence fee found that people are prepared to pay more for BBC services (both existing and planned new services). On average people will pay £162.66 a year, compared with the current licence fee of £131.50. However, there was also support for the corporation’s future activities to be funded by subscription. The report generated a lot of media attention, including front page reports in the Financial Times and the Daily Express and extensive coverage on radio and television. Read 'Willingness to Pay and the BBC'