Agency for Innovation: Validating and Scaling a Culturally Appropriate Employee-Empowerment Program in India

An employee-training program at the Vardhman Group textile mills in Baddi, India, appears to capitalize on low-income migrant workers’ existing understandings of self and agency to improve employee wellbeing, product and process innovation, and firm performance. Phase I research, funded by SEED, suggests that the psychological mechanism through which this employee training program operates is interdependent agency, a new psychological construct defined as people’s ability to produce desired changes by collaborating with others. The proposed one-year, Phase II research project will build upon our Phase I findings to: 1) Measure the effects of heightened interdependent agency on employee-level outcomes such as absenteeism, injuries, identification with the workplace, and self-reported well-being; (Study 1); 2) Identify the components of the employee-training program that are both necessary and sufficient to increase interdependent agency (Study 2); 3) Refine the employee-training program and test whether the streamlined program increases interdependent agency and, in turn, improves both employee-level and firm-level outcomes, including product innovation, process innovation, manufacturing delays and errors, and firm profits (Study 3); 4) Package and disseminate the employee-training program to other factories and industries in India.