Why there will be no pay transparency obligation in job offers in Poland? On challenges for the development of social innovations in people management processes

Abstract

Objectives In December 2019 a proposal to introduce the obligation to provide transparent information on salaries in job offers was submitted to the Polish parliament. This proposal was criticized by representatives of employers and state administration and received a negative opinion from the Council of Ministers. In this article, we conduct an analysis of these critical comments to find an answer to the question of why there will be no pay transparency in job offers in Poland? Material and methods A reflective thematic analysis of the source material available on the website of the Sejm was carried out, where the problem of pay transparency has been placed in the broader theoretical context of social innovation. Results Thematic analysis revealed seven challenges for the pay transparency as a social innovation: 1) preferences to maintain the status quo, 2) pseudo-innovation, 3) mismatch between innovation and reality, 4) resistance from those who lose something through innovation, 5) resistance against the coercion of innovation, 6) conflict of innovation with the axio-normative system, 7) opposition of innovative radicals. Conclusions Our results reveal specific challenges for the pay transparency in job offers but also allow us to distinguish general categories of challenges for social innovation. Taking into account the growing interest in pay transparency in contemporary societies, our findings might be useful both when implementing pay transparency in business organizations and constitute a theoretical contribution to a better understanding of the development of social innovations.

Keywords

• innowacja społeczna
• jawność wynagrodzeń
• normy wynagradzania
• tajemnica wynagradznia
• zarządzanie innowacją