Peter Oeij - Industry 5.0 for shaping sustainable and inclusive futures

Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No 101069651 and No 101135884. The contents of this publication are however the sole responsibility of the BRIDGES 5.0 and the
SEISMEC project consortium only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or HADEA. Neither the European Union nor HADEA can be held responsible for them.
Industry 5.0 for shaping sustainable and
inclusive futures
Dr. Peter Oeij / TNO, The Netherlands
Conference:
British Academy of Management (BAM) 2025 Conference
Professional Developmental Workshop (PDW):
"Shaping Sustainable and Inclusive Futures:
Exploring Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 through Research, Policy, and Practice"
1 September 2025 (online)
The 39th edition of the BAM Conference /
1st September (Virtual Day) and 3rd - 5th
September (In Person) 2025
Kent Business School, University of Kent.

Content
1. What is Industry 5.0 and why is it relevant?
2. The need of an integral perspective.
3. Company 5.0: workplace innovation as a driver for
Industry5.0?
4. Concluding remarks.
Bridges5.0 is a EU
research project on
digitalisation, Industry5.0
and workforce skills
https://bridges5-0.eu/
SEISMEC is a EU
demonstration and
research project on
human-centricity in
sociotechnical contexts
https://seismec.eu
Online session: Shaping sustainable and inclusive futures (BAM2025)
Main message: Industry5.0 is not easy but offers long
term opportunities for sustainable and inclusive
futures

1.
What is Industry 5.0 and
why is it relevant
3
Innovation for life
Rotterdam Erasmus bridge

5

6

7

Techno -driven
increase efficiency and flexibility
smart factory / connectivity
Shareholder driven
limited interest for society
limited interest in environmental issues
dominance neo-liberal model
Economic value driven
job destruction is no issue
obsoletion of skills not responsibility of industries
7
Commonalities:
-apply newest (digital) technologies and continuous innovation;
-digitalisation pervades into all production processes;
-I5.0 does not replace but complements I4.0 with human and social values.
INDUSTRY4.0 INDUSTRY5.0
Sustainability
circularity
reduce energy / emissions
not jeopardise future generations
Human-centric
technology should support humans
technology should adapt to humans
technology not impinge worker's rights
Resilient
more robust / critical infrastructure
strategic value chains / security
Source: Breque et al. (2021). Industry 5.0: Towards a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry (European Commission, DG R&I).
Social
aspect, that
links with
Society 5.0

Human-centricity
8
• EC (Breque et al): “ a human-centric approach in
industry puts core human needs and
interests at the heart of the production
process. Rather than asking what we can do
with new technology, we ask what the
technology can do for us. Rather than asking the
industry worker to adapt his or her skills to the
needs of rapidly evolving technology, we want to
use technology to adapt the production
process to the needs of the worker, e.g. to
guide and train him/her. It also means making
sure the use of new technologies does not
impinge on workers' fundamental rights, such as
the right to privacy, autonomy and human
dignity.”
The link between Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 is the social element, e.g., with the interests of workers:

2.
The need of an integral
perspective
9
Innovation for life

Economic: high quality competitiveness and innovativeness
Social: inclusive, cohesive and highly qualified workforce
Climate & energy: cleaner production, alternative energy sources
Technology: newest technology keeping humans-in-the-loop
Why is Industry 5.0 relevant (today)?
12

Integral perspective: requires collaboration
-entrepreneurs must see the added value of Industry 5.0
-correlation between sustainability, human-centricity and resilience must be transformed into business cases
-need to develop and acquire (new) workforce skills
-collaboration needed among labour market and educational institutions
-business and innovation ecosystems require collaboration of companies and other agents to align instead of
compete for (regional) innovation and business development
-althogether it is a big order!
-entrepreneurs must take initiative and show responsibility
-policymakers should support companies (rules, regulations, investments)
-agents must align their interests, esp. in relation to technology choices
-observe differences between Anglo-Saxon and European welfare systems
13

12
Industry 5.0
Ecosystem
Adjacent regional
Ecosystem
Adjacent regional
Ecosystem
Adjacent regional
Ecosystem
Incumbent
companies and
startups
Governmental
organisations and
policymakers
Educational and
labour market
institutions
Employer
organisations and
unions
Financial
institutions,
technology
suppliers, and
investors
Branch and
sectoral
organisations
Playing field for ecosystem
collaboration

3.
Company 5.0: workplace
innovation as a driver for
Industry5.0?
13
Innovation for life

What do companies need to do? : challenges
Sustainable business Energy / green transition: feasible?
Resilient modes of operation Smarter supply chains: collaboration
possible?
Human-centric mode of organising Putting human well-being central:
prepared to?
Further: Assess how digitalisation and AI can support these changes
Moreover: don't lose sight on your business proposition
Let's look how workplace innovation can be a driver for Industry 5.0
17

Workplace Innovation
15
• "Workplace innovation is an integral set
of participative mechanisms for
interventions relating to structural
aspects (e.g., organisational design) and
cultural aspects (e.g., leadership,
coordination and organisational
behaviour) of the organisation and its
people with the objective of
simultaneously improving the conditions
for performance and quality of working
life" (Oeij & Dhondt, 2017).
• The definition of WPI applied as human-
centric can be formulated as: "human-
centric innovations with regard to TOP
(Technology, Organisation, Personnel) in
order to enhance business performance
and human performance simultaneously"
(Oeij & Dhondt, 2024).

Points of departure for 'Company5.0'
• Technology choices
• Improve efficiency and effectiveness without purely
monitoring and controlling employees (algorithmic
management)
• Augmenting the functioning of employees
• Organisation design choices
• Avoid maximising the division of labour
• Minimize bureaucratic structures (sociotechnical design)
• Personnel:
• Human-in-the-loop, human-in-command
• Optimise job autonomy (sociotechnical design, SMART work
design)
• Facilitate employees in learning opportunities and use of
talents
19

Two examples of EU projects
BRIDGES5.0 https://bridges5-0.eu/
- focus on required workforce skills
- practical cases to translate Industry5.0 technologies into learning and
teaching factories > 'skills labs'
SEISMEC https://seismec.eu/
- focus on introducing digitalisation whilst taking into account human-centric
values and sociotechnical principles
- demonstration the implementation in practice at ca. 20 cases
20

4.
Concluding remarks
18
Innovation for life

Take away message
Industry5.0 offers opportunities to simultaneously improve
economic goals, social goals and technology utilisation.
To meet the three pillars, sustainability, human-centricity and
resilience, is however very challenging, especially due to their complex
interrelationships in 'ecosystems'.
Workplace Innovation can help to make a start at the level of
organisations, and translate the three pillars into a feasible design of
modes of production, non-bureaucratic organisation structures, and
human-centric jobs.
22

Thankyouforyourattention!
Presenter: Peter Oeij [peter.oeij@tno.nl]
Sources:
-Breque, M., De Nul, L.& Petridis, A. (2021). Industry 5.0. Towards a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. R&I Paper Series,
Policy Brief. Brussels: Directorate-General for Research And Innovation.
-Kuipers, H., Van Amelsvoort, P., & Kramer, E.-H. (2020). New ways of organizing: Alternatives to bureaucracy. Leuven, Den Haag: Acco.
-Oeij, P.R.A., & Dhondt, S. (2024). Reviewing workplace innovation as a plea for a practical approach. Sociology Compass, 18 (4), April, e13203, 1-
15. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13203
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379567643_Reviewing_workplace_innovation_as_a_plea_for_a_practical_approach#fullTextFileContent
-Oeij, P.R.A. & Dhondt, S. (2025), Responsible business in the context of Industry 5.0, workplace innovation and social innovation. In: Stefan Markovic,
Adam Lindgreen, Franҫois Maon and Cristina Sancha (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Responsible Business (pp. 283-296). Routledge, New York
and London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003373162
-Oeij, P.R.A., Dhondt, S. & Vaas, F. (2025). SMART work design and modern sociotechnical theory: a marriage made in heaven? European Journal of
Workplace Innovation, 10 (1), 7-33. https://journal.uia.no/index.php/EJWI/article/view/1395/1191
-Oeij, P.R.A., Lenaerts, K., Dhondt, S., Van Dijk, W., Schartinger, D., Sorko, S.R., Warhurst, C. (2024). A Conceptual Framework for Workforce Skills for
Industry 5.0: Implications for Research, Policy and Practice. Journal of Innovation Management, 12 (1), 205-233; DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24840/2183-0606_012.001_0010
-Oeij, P.R.A., Van der Torre, W., Vaas, S., & Dhondt, S. (2019). Understanding Social Innovation as an innovation process: Applying the Innovation
Journey model. Journal of Business Research, 101(8), 243-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.04.028
-Parker, S. K., & Knight, C. (2023). The SMART model of work design: A higher order structure to help see the wood from the trees. Human Resource
Management, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22200
-Schröder, A. (2023). 'Industry 5.0: An Approach Fostering Social Innovation?!' Presentation 'Open Living Lab Days', Barcelona, September 2023.
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