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Ylenia CURZI
Professore Associato
Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi"
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Pubblicazioni
2024
- Factors associated with work ability among employees of an Italian university hospital
[Articolo su rivista]
Casolari, Loretta; Curzi, Ylenia; Mastroberardino, Michele; Pistoresi, Barbara; Poma, Erica; Broccoli, Lorenzo; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Background: A growing body of evidence clearly documents the benefits of integrated systems approaches to protecting and promoting the safety, health and well-being of workers. The purpose of this study is to provide a holistic view of the work ability of employees of an Italian University Hospital measuring their resources in relation to job demands. In particular, it examines socio-demographics, family and organizational antecedents of health professionals' work ability. Methods: A survey was conducted to assess the work ability of healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses and administrative staff, working at the University Hospital of Modena (Italy). The data collection allows us to get a sample of 443 workers, who correspond to 11% of the target population. The data were analyzed using preliminary statistics on the main characteristics of the sample in terms of work ability, socio-demographic variables, family and organizational characteristics. In addition, logit models of the likelihood of having high work ability were estimated using SPSS version 25. Results: Work ability decreases with increasing age, comorbidity, high body mass index, having at least one child under 5 and/or a dependent adult, having a poor work-life balance, and doing more than 20 h of housework. Specific job resources can significantly promote work ability, including relationship-oriented leadership, autonomy in decision making and individuals' skill match. The nursing profession is associated with a low work ability. Finally, a significant gender gap has been documented. Women find it more difficult to reconcile life and work, especially when they have children of preschool age and work in professions with greater responsibilities, as in the case of women doctors, who experience lower work capacity. Conclusions: Our results suggest that it is necessary to consider other factors, in addition to age, that are equally relevant in influencing work ability. Consequently, organisational interventions could be implemented to improve the work ability of all workers. In addition, we propose targeted interventions for groups at risk of reduced work capacity, in particular older workers (45 years and over), nurses, women with children of preschool age and in the position of physician.
2024
- High-performance work systems and firm innovation: the moderating role of digital technology and employee participation. Evidence from Europe
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia; Ferrarini, Filippo
abstract
Abstract
In the literature, evidence is to be found of the positive effect of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) on innovation in firms. However, innovation is enabled by not only human resources but also digital technology, and scholars have called for further investigation into the interplay between digital technology and HRM systems. Drawing on signalling theory and HPWSs research, the purpose of this study is to explore
the moderating role of digital technologies in the relationship between HPWSs and innovation in the firm and consider employee participation as an additional conditioning factor.
This study uses data from the European Company Suvery 2019 administered in a sample of more than 20,000 European establishments and applies logistic regression with a
three-way interaction.
HPWSs underpin product and process innovation. Moreover, this study shows that in firms with low levels of employee participation, digital technology enhances the effect of HPWSs on innovation, while in firms with high levels of employee participation, this effect is reduced.
This study enriches the scholarly discussion about the link between HPWSs and
innovation in the firm, by investigating in theoretical and empirical terms the moderating effect of digital technology, underlining that either positive or negative synergistic effects are possible. By adding employee participation to the analysis, the authors cast light on an important boundary condition for understanding when the synergic effects become more prominent. This intends to respond to recent calls from scholars and practitioners for more insight into the precise nature of the synergies between HPWSs and digital technology on innovation in the firm, with important implications for management.
2023
- AMO-enhancing practices, open innovation and organizations’ innovation in the European context: testing a mediation model
[Articolo su rivista]
Ferrarini, Filippo; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
2023
- Il futuro del lavoro si chiama “smart working”? Riflessioni e prospettive
[Articolo su rivista]
Antonelli, Gilda; Agrifoglio, Rocco; Bissola, Rita; Buonocore, Filomena; Cuel, Roberta; Curzi, Ylenia; De Molli, Federica; Di Lauro, Stefano; Di Virgilio, Francesca; Fabbri, Tommaso; Flamini, Giulia; Imperatori, Barbara; Metallo, Concetta; Mochi, Francesca; Montanari, Fabrizio; Neri, Massimo; Palumbo, Rocco; Paolino, Chiara; Pompa, Leonardo; Ravarini, Aurelio; Sarti, Daria; Scapolan, Anna Chiara; Tursunbayeva, Aizhan; Varriale, Luisa; Zifaro, Maria
abstract
Gli studiosi di questioni organizzative - da sempre interessati al tema del lavoro, della sua evoluzione e del suo rapporto con la tecnologia - si interrogano da qualche tempo sul significato di una etichetta quale è Smart Working (SW), espressione che indica modalità di svolgimento della prestazione lavorativa volte ad allentare i vincoli tradizionali di tempo e luogo e indirizzate a logiche di discrezionalità e di responsabilizzazione verso obiettivi lavorativi, in un contesto nel quale le potenzialità della tecnologia svolgono un significativo ruolo abilitante. L’intento di questo paper è quello di offrire un contributo al consolidamento di una riflessione su cosa lo SW sia e possa essere, quali sfide ponga sia sul versante individuale che su quello organizzativo e quali opportunità possa offrire una sua precisa comprensione.
2023
- Il performance management e lo sviluppo del capitale umano in un contesto di lavoro ibrido
[Articolo su rivista]
Scapolan, Anna Chiara; Curzi, Ylenia; Ferrarini, Filippo; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Nel lavoro ibrido, le competenze richieste non sono solo quelle ‘tradizionali’, cioè conoscenza e saper fare tecnico-specialistico, nel senso di strettamente legato al tipo di mansione svolta e all’area aziendale specifica nella quale tale lavoro si inserisce e quindi quelle tipiche che definiscono e danno identità a una specifica occupazione. Altrettanto, se non più rilevanti, diventano anche competenze nuove, cioè non tradizionali o tipiche della posizione o occupazione, come le capacità informatiche e digitali e le soft skills.
Tali competenze possono essere formate e sviluppate in tanti modi diversi, ma tra di essi certamente l’apprendimento on the job ossia l’esperienza lavorativa quotidiana, per cui il lavoro in sé e il contesto nel quale si svolge diventano esperienza formativa e contesto di apprendimento stimolato anche dalla trasmissione intergenerazionale, occupa un ruolo centrale.
È anche per questo che i sistemi di performance management – tradizionalmente intesi come strumento di valutazione di come il lavoratore svolge il proprio lavoro – possono essere (ri)letti e (re)interpretati come strumento a supporto dell’investimento in capitale umano da parte sia delle imprese che si stanno digitalizzando, sia dei lavoratori che stanno sperimentando l’ibridazione delle loro tradizionali attività lavorative con le nuove tecnologie digitali.
Nonostante le numerose call che invitano ad approfondire sia dal punto di vista teorico che empirico il tema del performance management, soprattutto in relazione alle sfide che la trasformazione digitale pone all’organizzazione del lavoro, alla leadership e alla gestione delle risorse umane, in diversi settori, la questione di come si configurino e stiano cambiando, nella percezione di imprese e dipendenti, e in un contesto di lavori ibridi, i sistemi di valutazione e gestione della prestazione e se e come questi possano promuovere l’investimento in capitale umano “ibrido” è ancora largamente inesplorata. L’articolo si propone di colmare questa lacuna, utilizzando i dati raccolti dall’Osservatorio sul Performance Management di Modena e Reggio Emilia.
2023
- Mobile work, individual aspirations and job satisfaction in Europe
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia; Pistoresi, Barbara; Coppeta, GAETANO FRANCESCO
abstract
Purpose
This article responds to the call for more research on mobile work by exploring how the aspirations of these workers relate to job satisfaction through adaptation to the job characteristics they experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on aspiration theory and the literature on mobile work, the paper examines how mobile workers form aspirations and how this is related to their perception of job satisfaction. The empirical analysis uses a two-tier stochastic frontier analysis and the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey dataset.
Findings
Mobile workers formulate higher aspirations than the working conditions they experience and report lower levels of job satisfaction than other types of workers. They revise their aspirations downwards when they experience autonomy, discretion, performance-related pay schemes, relation-oriented leadership while they increase their aspirations when they experience work intensification and discrimination.
Originality/value
This paper provides new insights into the work perceptions of mobile workers and enriches existing research by highlighting the importance of the study of individual aspirations to advance understanding of the complex dynamics of mobile work.
2023
- PROGETTARE INTERVENTI DI TOTAL WORKER HEALTH®: LA MISURAZIONE DELLA CAPACITÀ LAVORATIVA DEGLI OPERATORI DELL’AOU DI MODENA
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Casolari, Loretta; Rossi, Giorgia; D’Elia, Cristiana; Garavini, Denise; Glieca, Francesca; Mariani, Stefania; Venturelli, Luca; Vivoli, Daniela; Mastroberardino, Michele; Broccoli, Lorenzo; Nicastro, Ottavio; Pistoresi, Barbara; Poma, Erica; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Modenese, Alberto; Gobba, Fabriziomaria
abstract
2022
- Autonomy in and Outside the Employment Relationship: An Organizational Perspective
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
This chapter focuses on the interpretative challenges that digitalization and its possible implications on the regulation of work pose to organizational and labor law scholars. It firstly considers the current organizational debate and points to the mainstream organizational scholarship’s inability to clarify if organizational changes associated with digitalization might indeed enhance workers’ autonomy. Then, it turns its attention to the labor law debate on the autonomy versus subordination traditional legal categories and the proposals advanced to address the regulatory problems that dichotomy engenders in the light of the empirical trends associated with the digitalization of work. Against this background, the essay draws attention toward concepts and analytic distinctions drawn from non-mainstream organizational theories which reflect a processual conception of organization, highlights how they may inform the empirical analysis of the organizational regulation of work and summarizes the insights they offer into the issue of autonomy in and outside the employment relationship.
2022
- Defining and Protecting Autonomous Work: A Multidisciplinary Approach
[Curatela]
Addabbo, Tindara; Ales, Edoardo; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Rymkevich, Olga; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
This book, adopting a multidisciplinary approach, investigates the definition of autonomous work and the kind of protection it receives and should receive in a global perspective. The book advocates for the existence of genuine autonomous work to be distinguished from employment and false self-employment. It deserves specific attention from legislators in the view of removing any obstacles to the exercise of freedom of association and collective action at large.
The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on the evolving notion of autonomy and its consequences on social protection, offering a theoretical frame from an organizational, political and legal point of view. The second aims at discovering new regulatory and protective horizons for autonomous work, in the light of blockchain, platform work, EU Competition Law, social security and liberal professions. Finally, the authors offer insights and recommendations on how to protect work beyond categories.
2022
- Remote Locations Are not All the Same: Determinants of Work Well-Being Among Home-Based and Mobile e-Workers
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Pistoresi, Barbara
abstract
This chapter analyses the impact of remote e-work on workers’ well-being by exploring whether their perception of work-related stress and job satisfaction vary as a function of the type of remote location. It also explores whether organizational autonomy and discretion as well as work intensification have a differential impact on home-based and mobile e-workers’ job satisfaction and work-related stress. The main results suggest that compared to home-based e-workers, mobile ones perceive a greater number of work intensification dimensions as drivers of work-related stress, some of which (i.e. frequent work interruptions, working during one’s free time and time pressure) also have a significant negative impact on job satisfaction. Moreover, although several organizational autonomy and discretion variables positively affect mobile e-workers’ job satisfaction, only discretion over work pace is also significant to reduce their work-related stress. Our findings contribute to advance the understanding of current trajectories of the micro-level organizational transformations associated with the use of new digital technologies, offering insights into the ability of today’s European organizations to leverage the opportunity they open up to shape novel work practices that meet their organizational members’ needs.
2022
- The Home-Based Teleworking: The implication on workers' well-being and the gender impact
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia; Pistoresi, Barbara; Poma, Erica; Tasselli, Chiara
abstract
Home-based telework is becoming more and more common and with it the dematerialization of the work-life boundary. If from one side this working form increases the worker’s discretion, on the other hand it could seriously damage his/her well-being. This paper explores the influence of organizational conditions on work-related stress of a sample of home-based teleworkers drawn from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. It also uses the 2020 Living, Working and COVID-19 Survey to analyse the evolution of the gender differences in telework from 2015 to 2020. We find that the perceived stress of the home-based teleworkers is mainly due to the forms of working time arrangements and work intensification, for example the lack of discretion over work pace, working with tight deadlines and at high speed, working during free time to meet work demands. Female teleworkers also perceive that the lack of discretion in the working time arrangement and the lack of recovery time increase their stress. The analysis also documents a sharp increase in the perceived level of stress from 2015 to 2020 and higher levels of stress in women mainly due to work-life balance problems. This gender stress differential is reasonably constant in the two periods and hence both in the emergency and in normal telework. The general agreement in the literature that telework is as a way of promoting better wellbeing and work-life balance for workers especially for women is not supported by our findings.
2022
- VOICES AGAINST INEQUALITIES: MULTI-LEVEL EVIDENCE FROM BRAZILIAN DIGITAL CONTENT CREATORS
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Curzi, Ylenia; Reis, Rosana; Bolzani, Daniela
abstract
The last decade has seen an increasing number of studies addressing the issue of labor inequality and workers’ marginalization in the domain of digital labor. Either focusing on the individual or the collective level, however, the majority of available research has failed to show how the micro- and the macro-levels of analysis may be connected. In an attempt to fill this gap, this study aims to shed light on the mechanisms through which the micro-level processes of managing digital work insecurity can transform into collective- and higher-level outcomes. We conducted qualitative inductive research focusing on 40 Brazilian online literary content creators. Based on Hirschman's (1970) exit-voice-loyalty perspective, our findings show that our informants first display loyalty to the rules of the game and to the gender, race and class stereotypes they are subject to. Then, as they become more “experts” they reconfigure their objectives thus turning to different forms of voice in an attempt to affect the macro-level field. Our study provides new theoretical insights on insecure work, especially in digital work, with a particular attention to vulnerable groups of workers – such as women and people of colour.
2021
- AMO-enhancing practices, open innovation and organizations’ innovation in the European context: testing a mediation model
[Working paper]
Ferrarini, F.; Curzi, Y.
abstract
The literature has recognized the key role of the HRM practices for enhancing firms’ innovative performance.
At the same time, scholars have consistently demonstrated open innovation to be an effective approach for
boosting companies’ innovative outcome. Nevertheless, academics have largely overlooked to investigate
the complex relationship between HRM practices, open innovation and organizations’ innovativeness.
Using the AMO framework as analytical lens and data drawn from the European Company Survey 2019, a
large-scale representative dataset at European level, this study investigates the direct and indirect
relationship between the ability, motivation and opportunities-enhancing practices and firms’ innovation
capacity, hypothesizing a potential mediating role of open innovation.
The results show that companies that motivate workers and give them the opportunity to contribute with
their skills, knowledge and abilities not only have higher probability to innovate, but also are more inclined
to collaborate with external partners. Moreover, open innovation not only enhance the innovation capacity
of the firm, but also partially mediates the relationship between HRM and organizations’ innovativeness.
These results shed further lights on both “the human side” of open innovation, as well as in the mechanisms
linking HRM practices with innovation.
2021
- Does Control Change Nature in Industrial Digital Work? A Secondary Analysis of the 1991–2015 European Working Conditions Surveys
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Parisi, Tania
abstract
The aim of this chapter is to identify the prevalent trend in control and surveillance in industry since 1990 to present, focusing in particular on the differences between highly digitalized and traditional workers. The authors elaborate three ideal-types of management control, namely Controlled Autonomy, New Tayloristic Control, and Panopticon Control. Then, they analyze data from the 1991–2015 European Working Conditions Surveys. The findings show a growing trend toward forms of control approaching the ideal-type of Controlled Autonomy, particularly among digital workers. Highly digitalized industrial work practices offer greater opportunities for workers to develop new skills and exercise their autonomy. Such an autonomy, however, has an individual rather than a collective character, does not concern strategic organizational objectives and goes along with work intensification. At least in the countries, sector and period considered in the analysis, it seems that digital workers are not able to get out of a growing loneliness, to raise the level of social conflict and to oppose real autonomy to management. The study contributes to the stream of critical research on new post-fordist work practices, which today gains new momentum thanks to the digital transformation of work.
2021
- Organization as Collective Rule-Making
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The idea that the individualistic-contractualistic view of the work relationship has insufficient regulatory power is attracting renewed attention from jurists, especially in Italy. Consequently, a number of prominent labor law scholars are calling for a dedicated thematization of the “third,” or “collective-relational” dimension of the work relationship, as a distinct component from the individual and the collective-trade union dimension, concerning the coordination of interdependent workers and jobs in the organization. With a view to contributing to this debate, this chapter aims at shedding light on the organizational roots of that dimension. To this end, it focuses on and illustrates two options for interpreting coordination drawn from organizational theory—i.e., predetermination and processual regulation—which reflect two different ideas of the organization and of the workers’ participation in the regulation/coordination of interdependent/cooperative actions. The chapter argues that only by means of an epistemological turn to a processual perspective on organization and regulation/coordination, scholars can go beyond the long-standing and still unresolved opposition, in labor law debate, between contract and organization.
2021
- The Collective Dimensions of Employment Relations. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Workers' Voices and Changing Workplace Patterns
[Curatela]
Addabbo, Tindara; Ales, Edoardo; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Rymkevich, Olga; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
2020
- EVIDENCE ON ROUTINE DYNAMICS IN A BRAZILIAN FRANCHISING BRAND
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Reis, Rosana; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
This paper aims to highlight the continuing relevance of March and Simon’s concept of programs and related propositions to much recent discussion of change in repeated behavior. Drawing on a single case study – a Brazilian Franchising brand in the car rental sector that has innovated the way to structure inter-organizational relationships within the chain – we stress the idea of repetitive behavior linked to programs helps to identify two levels of analysis at which human agency of those who execute programs may find expression. Our study highlights that the formation of novel programs prior to the accomplishment of actions may reflect the agency of those who execute programs as much as the performance of actions. This study represents the first attempt to extend March and Simon’s work, by investigating whether its concepts and propositions are likely to produce valid interpretations of why and how repeated behavior change over time even when the attention focuses on a research context and level of analysis different from those that have made the ground for their original development.
2020
- Human Resource Practices, Job Satisfaction and Perceived Discrimination(s) at the Workplace
[Articolo su rivista]
Russo, Tullia; Addabbo, Tindara; Curzi, Ylenia; Pistoresi, Barbara
abstract
This research contributes to the debate in the human resources management (HRM) literature by examining the impact of some HRM practices on workers’ overall job satisfaction and the determinants of workers’ perception of discrimination. The novelty of our study consists in the deepening of the relation between HRM practices and the employees’ perception of discrimination at the workplace: a largely unexplored topic, until now. Our aim is to add value to existing literature by assessing the synergy effect between perception of discrimination and HRM practices on workers’ job satisfaction, performing a probit regression analysis of a selection of variables drawn from the sixth wave of European Working Condition Survey data, collected in 2015. We also provide a comparison of different types of discrimination, examining the moderating effect of the perception of discrimination on the relationship between HRM practices and employees’ job satisfaction, assuming that the strength of the above relation is weaker for discriminated workers. Our findings highlight that HRM practices we analysed (except for autonomy of the work-group and job-intensity) have a positive impact on workers’ satisfaction and reduce the perception of discrimination. Moreover, we find that the perception of every kind of discrimination have a negative impact on workers’ job satisfaction. Our results also suggest that the perception of discrimination has a moderating role in the relation between HRM practices and job satisfaction. Policy implications are finally discussed.
2020
- Il lavoro dopo la pandemia: oltre l'agilità dell'emergenza
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
2020
- Organizzazione: parole chiave. Terza edizione
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Il volume si propone come “bussola” teorico-pratica per orientare chi si occupa di organizzazione. Le parole-chiave dell’organizzazione sono illustrate in forma sintetica e secondo una struttura costante, derivata dal moderno dibattito epistemologico, affiancando le definizioni di matrice oggettivista, soggettivista e processuale. Questa terza edizione, rispetto alle precedenti (2014 e 2016), è stata interamente rivista, in diversi punti rinnovata, nonché ampliata con nuove parole-chiave.
2020
- Performance Appraisal Criteria and Innovative Work Behaviour: The Mediating Role of Employees’ Appraisal Satisfaction
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Pistoresi, Barbara
abstract
Digitalization of work has recently rekindled the debate about the effectiveness of performance appraisal in encouraging innovative work behaviour. This study addresses this issue by hypothesizing that employees’ satisfaction towards their performance appraisal plays a mediating role in this relationship. Data collected from a sample of 865 Italian employees are used to estimate the mediation model. The main findings show that performance appraisal focused on the employees’ achieved results and new-developed competences boosts innovative behaviour more than traditional forms of evaluation based on time spent at the workplace, assigned tasks, working hours. Moreover, the employees’ satisfaction with the appraisal system and their performance rating agreement totally mediate the above relationship.
2020
- Performance Appraisal in Modern Employment Relations: An Interdisciplinary Approach
[Curatela]
Addabbo, Tindara; Ales, Edoardo; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Rymkevich, Olga; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
Contributing to the debate on work performance evaluation in a time of technological transformation, this book explores the impact of digitisation on production and organisation models, as well as on the rights and interests of the stakeholders involved. As organisations down-size, merge with other companies and become decentralised, the boundaries in employer-employee-customer relationships are blurred and new models for the organisation and assessment of work performance have emerged. With these new models, innovative regulatory approaches are sorely needed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on theoretical concepts from organisation studies, human resource management, sociology and labour economics, this all-encompassing collection is not only essential reading for academics and students, but also for policy-makers and employers who are looking for innovative and practical solutions to the challenges of modern employment relations.
2020
- Social Work Assessment and Information Systems: A Critique of Managerialist Models and an Agenda for an Alternative Approach
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Radin, Arianna
abstract
Today’s public social service organizations are increasingly confronting two principal and potentially conflicting drivers of change: the need for the improvement of professionals’ autonomy and skills and simultaneously the need for tools which enable more comprehensive and faster managerial control of the results, efficiency and the quality of organizational processes. The present chapter deals with the issue of how to pursue the co-alignment between the above pressures. To this end, it focuses on three levels of analysis and intervention: the conception of assessment in public social services, the implementation of information systems for the planning and assessment of social services and the relationship between social workers’ organizational mandate and their professional and social mandates. At each level, the chapter argues against managerialism in the management of public organizations which is at the heart of the New Public Management approach, whose key precepts are still predominant and sets out an agenda for an alternative view that confers equal dignity to the three mandates of the social worker.
2020
- System, Actor, and Process: Keywords in Organization Studies
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
"System, Actor and Process: Keywords in Organization Studies" is intended as an epistemological ‘compass’ to navigate through the multifaceted key concepts typically used in organizational practice and research. The book illustrates thirty-four keywords using a tripartite structure: each keyword is briefly discussed from three points of view, namely the system-centered, actor-centered and process-centered conception of organization, which reflects the options emerging from contemporary epistemological debate in organizational studies and, more generally, in social sciences, namely objectivism, subjectivism, and the Weberian "third way".
Primarily addressed to researchers and academics in organization studies.
2020
- The stressful implications of remote e-working: Evidence from Europe
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Pistoresi, Barbara
abstract
Abstract
This paper investigates the importance of different modes of spatial flexibility as well as of the distinction between autonomy and discretion to find plausible explanations of the so-called autonomy paradox, which maintains that the more the job autonomy that remote e-workers have the greater the effort they put into their work with adverse effects on work-related stress. Using multiple regressions, we test the hypotheses regarding the direct influence of autonomy, discretion and work intensification as well as their interaction effects on occupational stress in two subsamples of 1.380 home-based e-workers and 2.574 mobile ones drawn from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. The main findings are as follows. Home-based e-workers perceive that autonomy (namely over work goals) directly decreases occupational stress and buffers work intensification (i.e. autonomy over work goals and in the organizational choices of their department/company). In the context of remote e-work, discretion is more likely to boost the stressful impact of work intensification when work is mobile. At the same time, we do not find that autonomy increases work intensification, neither among mobile e-workers, nor among home-based e-workers (for whom it buffers the adverse impact of work intensification). In summary, this study does not confirm the existence of an autonomy paradox associated with remote e-work. Contrarily, it suggests that such a paradox is more likely to surface when research relies on conceptual frameworks that ambiguously define autonomy in terms of what should be more properly conceptualized as discretion.
2020
- Understanding the stressful implications of remote e-working: Evidence from Europe
[Working paper]
Curzi, Y.; Pistoresi, B.; Fabbri, T.
abstract
This paper investigate the importance of different modes of spatial flexibility as well as of the distinction between autonomy and discretion to find plausible explanations of the so-called autonomy paradox, that is the more the job autonomy that remote e-workers have the greater the effort they put into their work with adverse effects on work-related stress. Using multiple regressions, we test the hypotheses regarding the direct influence of autonomy, discretion and work intensification as well as their interaction effects on occupational stress in two subsamples of 1.380 home-based e-workers and 2.574 mobile ones drawn from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. The main findings are as follows. Home-based eworkers perceive that autonomy (namely over work goals) directly decreases occupational stress and buffers work intensification (i.e. autonomy over work goals and in the organizational choices of their department/company). In the context of remote e-work, discretion is more likely to boost the stressful impact of work intensification when work is mobile, demanding to managing complex relationships with a high number of different interest groups and thus more uncertain. At the same time, we do not find that autonomy increases work intensification, neither among mobile e-workers, nor among home-based eworkers (for whom it buffers the adverse impact of work intensification). In summary, this study does not confirm the existence of an autonomy paradox associated with remote e-work. Contrarily, it suggests that such a paradox is more likely to surface when research is based on the JD-C and JD-R frameworks or other approaches that like the former ambiguously define autonomy in terms of what should be more properly conceptualized as discretion.
2019
- PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIORS
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Curzi, Y; Fabbri, T.; Scapolan, A. C.; Boscolo, S.
abstract
Employees’ proactive behaviors aimed at generating, disseminating and implementing new ideas in the workplace are key strategic assets for organizations in the current competitive environment.
Despite its utmost important role in ensuring the alignment between individuals’ goals and behaviors and the organization’s strategic goals, to the best of our knowledge extant empirical research has neglected to investigate how the debated HRM practice of performance appraisal may contribute to employees’ innovative work behaviors. Thus, drawing on the insights provided by the signaling theory of HRM (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004), our research aims at exploring the relationship between the employees’ perception on the main characteristics of the performance appraisal system - in terms of ‘how’ the appraisal may be conducted and ‘what’ may be evaluated - and the effectiveness of this system in promoting individual work-related innovation.
We carried out a survey on 865 employees working in large, multinational firms located in Italy operating in several sectors. Our findings suggest that formality of performance appraisal does not have a positive impact on employees’ perception that appraisal boosts individual innovative work behaviors. Furthermore, even though we found that performance appraisal focused on employees’ results - instead of behaviors - affects positively its perceived positive impact on work-related innovation, our results show a stronger perceived positive relationship between the appraisal of new competences developed by employees and their innovative work behaviors. These results provide a twofold contribution. On the one hand, they add to the recent debate on the effectiveness of traditional formal appraisal processes. On the other hand, our results contribute to extant literature on the importance of employees’ perception of HRM practices as determinants of individual creativity and innovation in organizations.
2019
- Performance Appraisal and Innovative Behavior in the Digital Era
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Y.; Fabbri, T.; Scapolan, A. C.; Boscolo, S.
abstract
In digital competitive environments, organizations’ ability to innovate is more than ever the key to competitive advantage. One way to cope with this increased pressure for innovation is to capitalize on employees’ ability to generate new ideas and use these as building blocks for new and better products, services, and work processes. Individual innovation thus emerges as a key competence required from workers, in turn crucially affecting the way managers make employees contribute to organizational goals and assess their performance.
This study draws on the process-based approach to HRM (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004) suggesting that HRM practices may have a signaling effect, to address the following research question: which specific characteristics of performance appraisal are more likely to be perceived as promoting individual innovation at work? To address this issue, we carried out a survey on 865 employees working in large, multinational firms operating in digitalized sectors or industries with the potential to become digitalized. We collected data on the main characteristics of the performance appraisal systems adopted by the firm where respondents work, as perceived by employees themselves. We gathered also data on the respondents’ overall perception that performance appraisal boosts innovative work behavior. Then, we employed logit analysis to test the relationship between data on performance appraisal systems and data on the effectiveness of performance appraisal as a booster of innovative work behavior.
Our results reveal that, as compared to informal feedback, formal performance appraisal is more likely to reduce the perception that performance appraisal promotes individual innovation and creativity at work. In addition, we found that in the employees’ perception performance appraisal focused on the achievement of pre-set, quantitative outcomes is more likely to affect positively innovative work behavior than appraisal focused on pre-defined skills that employees exhibited performing their work. However, performance assessment focused on the new competences developed by the employees has a perceived positive impact even stronger than result-oriented appraisal. Taken together, these results contribute to advance our understanding of how organizations should evaluate employees in the digitalization era.
2018
- Conclusion
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The combination of studies rooted in different disciplines has offered the opportunity to broaden the analysis of the main implications of digitalization on work and work relationships beyond the boundaries of the single disciplines. This chapter first summarizes the main suggestions for multidisciplinary reflection flawing from the comprehensive analysis of the studies included in the book, and then focuses on the question that cuts across all of them: How to regulate the digital transformation of work relationships with a view to ensuring adequate protections for digital workers’ interests and rights. This issue asks for an interdisciplinary perspective of analysis. The chapter highlights the conditions to achieve this end and draws attention to some bridging analytic categories that could help scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds to address the above issue.
2018
- DigitAgile: The Office in a Mobile Device. Threats and Opportunities for Workers and Companies
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Albano, Roberto; Bertolini, Sonia; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Parisi, Tania
abstract
The chapter focuses on “smart working”, also known as “agile work” - that is, work based on the extensive use of digital devices and increasing spatial and temporal “disembedding” from the formal organization. The chapter firstly examines the spread of the phenomenon at the international and national levels. Through a meta-analysis of existing qualitative and quantitative research, it then addresses the following research questions:
- Organizational autonomy, discretion, and control in the regulation of work.
- The relationship between digitalization, employment, individual and organizational productivity.
- The reconciliation of work with extra-work life.
A complex picture emerges, including both opportunities and risks with respect to the development and circulation of new competences, work-life balance, as well as good practices of organizing work and productivity.
2018
- Perceived autonomy and discretion of mobile workers
[Articolo su rivista]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Parisi, Tania; Tirabeni, Lia
abstract
In the beginning, remote working was enthusiastically presented as a means for transforming traditional ways of working thanks to the possibility of separating working activities from the physical constraints imposed by offices and factories. The assumption behind such enthusiasm – from both managers’ and employees’ perspectives - was that being physically at a distance from managerial control would increase workers’ autonomy. Nowadays scholars are debating whether remote working – or better, so-called smart working - can really open up new possibilities for workers to make autonomous decisions in the regulation of their work, or, on the contrary, it increases managers’ control over work processes, thus reducing the actual autonomy of workers.
The present paper proposes to examine the question starting from the analytical distinction between autonomy and discretion. Particularly, based on a recently proposed theoretical framework, we consider these two concepts as dichotomous dimensions that can be combined in order to identify four types of “organization personality” – that is, four prevailing ways in which the individual can contribute to the organizational process: other-directed, discretionary, relatively autonomous, and mainly autonomous. Finally, we performed a factor analysis of some variables drawn from the sixth wave (2015) of the European Working Conditions Survey in a subsample of four industrialized countries (Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom) characterized by robust digitalization of industrial production, to measure the consistency of the four types of organization personality in two groups of respondents: mobile workers (a proxy group of smart workers) and other categories of workers (traditional).
The results show that in our sample the perception of relative autonomy is more widespread among mobile workers than in other categories of workers. Smart working seems to be a way for achieving ‘dependable role performance’ in complex work processes without foregoing innovative and autonomous behaviours.
2018
- Strategicità delle risorse umane nelle organizzazioni turistiche alberghiere: retorica o (possibile) realtà?
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Gran parte della riflessione accademica concorda nel ritenere che le persone siano una risorsa
strategica chiave per la competitività delle organizzazioni turistiche alberghiere. La diffusione di
pratiche e politiche di gestione strategica del personale nelle organizzazioni del settore sembra,
tuttavia, ancora oggi limitata. Quali sono i principali ostacoli all’adozione di un approccio
strategico alla gestione del personale da parte delle organizzazioni turistiche alberghiere e quali
condizioni possono invece renderla possibile? Questo contributo propone una riflessione su tali
tematiche e questioni a partire da alcuni articoli recentemente pubblicati su International Journal
of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
2018
- WORK AUTONOMY, CONTROL AND DISCRETION IN INDUSTRY 4.0
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
The present chapter focuses the relationship between Industry 4.0 and the regulation of work processes, in terms of autonomy, control and discretion. Attention is first drawn to two theses emerging from recent empirical research, Digital Taylorism and Electronic Panopticon, both postulating a univocal impact of Industry 4.0 on work and organization. Using selected data from the 1991-2015 European Working Conditions surveys, we show that there seems to be no empirical evidence for the predictions made by both the above theses. We thus argue that an alternative approach is needed to advance our understanding of the relationship between Industry 4.0 and the regulation of work. Namely, an approach that helps us understand how and why, even in highly digitalized and automated work settings, workers may participate in the regulation of work and develop new experience and competences on the job. An approach that considers routine work as ever-changing work, that continuously calls for new competences and forges new experience (Pfeiffer, 2014; 2016; Pfeiffer and Suphan, 2015), and in which autonomy and discretion in the regulation of work are clearly distinguished (Reynaud, 1988; Terssac, 1992; 2003; Maggi, 2003/2016). In conclusion, we discuss some implications for the management of human resources in the context of Industry 4.0 and outline some directions for future research.
2018
- Working in Digital and Smart Organizations: Legal, Economic and Organizational Perspectives on the Digitalization of Labour Relations
[Curatela]
Ales, E.; Curzi, Y.; Fabbri, T.; Rymkevich, O.; Senatori, I.; Solinas, G.
abstract
Contributing to recent debate on the emergence of digital and agile work, this book explores the implications for labour and employment relations within and beyond organizational boundaries. Taking a multidisciplinary approach to the key issues and challenges of digitalization, this collection covers topics such as the gig economy, crowdworking and Industry 4.0. Theory and analysis are combined as the authors examine the impact of digital and smart work on organization, HRM and labour law. With comprehensive empirical evidence for those interested in understanding the more complex trajectories of today’s transforming work relationships, this book will not only appeal to students and academics but also to policy-makers, trade unionists and employers’ organizations.
2017
- Access to Employment by People with Disabilities: A Critical Reading of the Italian Legal Provisions
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Albano, Roberto; Ballocchi, Eleonora; Curzi, Ylenia; Torrioni, Paola Maria
abstract
The paper presents a critical examination of Italy’s current statutory legislation on the right to work of people with disabilities. The analysis is framed into the more general aspects of the relationship between organization and well-being, and aims at assessing whether the legislation on people with disabilities is consistent with the principle of reasonable accommodation introduced by the Council Directive 2000/78/EC and later taken up by the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In the authors’ view, the Italian legislation reveals a conception of the organization as a predetermined and intangible system that requires the adaptation of disabled individuals to the its own needs. As long as this conception persists, Italy will unlikely go beyond a merely apparent compliance with the principle of reasonable accommodation. As a result of this conception of the organization, public and private employers are not required to analyse and monitor work process as a whole in order to accommodate work situations, while aside from begging the question, employers have free rein to simply refuse to determine whether reasonable accommodation measures are possible.
The critical examination will on the one hand rely on analysis criteria drawn from organizational theory, and on the other hand on international normative parameters. It will also refer to the biopsychosocial approach to classifying disabilities, which is the basis of the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), currently one of the major international benchmarks. In the conclusion, the paper illustrates how the analysis criteria allow passing from a criticism of the current legislation to a constructive position, by putting forward a few provisional suggestions for a better implementation of the principle of reasonable accommodation.
2017
- Using Multiple-Methods Approach to Tackle Stress and Promote Well-being at Work. Evidence From a Study in a Subcontracting Company
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Nardella, Christian
abstract
The paper develops a critical reflection on the guidelines on the assessment of risks to health related to stress at work issued by the Italian advisory committee for health and safety at work. In doing so, the authors make reference to the recommendations of the European Framework Agreement on work-related stress and the general principles of prevention introduced by the European and Italian legislation. Thus, they set forth an alternative approach, which combines quantitative data about workers’ perceptions of work organization and occupational well-being dimensions, with an in-depth organizational analysis of work processes, which permits to identify the organizational decisions giving rise to and allowing for the prevention of problems of work-related stress. The paper illustrates how qualitative and quantitative methods can be combined to assess and prevent risks to health related to stress at work in a subcontracting company. The analysis shows that both methods yield to similar results highlighting that workload is one of the most critical conditions of work in the case under analysis. The concluding section identifies some potential areas of intervention to eliminate the potential sources of stress in the work processes under investigation, and discusses the suitability of the proposed approach to assist employers and other OH&S operators in putting in place interventions covering the organizational conditions of work as a whole, as required by EU and national law.
2017
- Well-being at and through Work
[Curatela]
Addabbo, T.; Ales, E.; Curzi, Ylenia; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
The concept of “well-being at and through work” opens up the opportunity to investigate certain implications of current employment, labour market strategies, and changing patterns of work organization that would be neglected otherwise. It also offers the opportunity to reflect on the values underlying labour legislation, the trends in collective bargaining and ways of organizing work, and to envisage the way ahead in the regulation of change. The book brings together insights from different disciplinary perspectives (labour law and industrial relations, economics, organization and human resource management, sociology, work and organizational psychology), focusing on the relationship between the changes in the world of work and their impact on personal well-being.
2016
- Organizzazione: parole chiave
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Albano, Roberto; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Il volume muove da un intento preciso: mostrare che nella ricerca e nella pratica organizzativa si utilizzano termini o locuzioni polisemiche, il cui significato non è cioè univoco ma invece si specifica diversamente in ragione della postura epistemologica di colui che li utilizza. L’uso della locuzione struttura organizzativa, per esempio, non qualifica di per sé un modo preciso e distinto di descrivere, interpretare e intervenire sull’organizzazione e sul suo funzionamento: occorre infatti chiarire a quale concezione di organizzazione si sta facendo riferimento e, per fare ciò, è necessario spostare la riflessione dal piano dei concetti e delle teorie in cui questi sono inseriti a quello dell’epistemologia che li sottende. Il volume si propone come “bussola” teorico-pratica per orientare chi si occupa di organizzazione. Le parole-chiave dell’organizzazione sono illustrate in forma sintetica e secondo una struttura costante, derivata dal moderno dibattito epistemologico, e dunque affiancando le definizioni di matrice oggettivista, soggettivista e processuale. A docenti, ricercatori e practitioner il volume esplicita il radicamento epistemologico e teorico del proprio agire sulle e nelle organizzazioni. Rispetto alla prima edizione, apparsa con il titolo Organizzazione: parole chiave per l’analisi e la ricerca, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino 2014 (e-book), questa seconda edizione è stata interamente rivista, in diversi punti rinnovata, nonché ampliata con alcune nuove parole-chiave.
2015
- Executive Summary
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
The chapter presents and discusses the results of a research supported by the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) concerning the implementation of occupational welfare schemes across Europe by means of social dialogue. Information was collected through the review of secondary sources, a first-hand examination of collective agreements, and in-depth study of companies located in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden. The research adopted a broad conceptualization of occupational welfare, encompassing measures consisting in cash benefits, services or benefits in kind as well as changes in work organisation. In so doing, occupational welfare appears as a field of intervention that provides new opportunities for social dialogue and collective bargaining to implement juridical-organizational regulations consistent with a high-road approach to competitiveness and thus capable of meeting both the organization requirements for greater competitiveness and the individuals’ needs related to the quality of working life and work-life balance opportunities. The research results contribute to advance the understanding of the implementation of occupational welfare practices in different European industrial relations systems. In all the cases under examination occupational welfare operates at best as a compensation for workers’ acceptance of the company requirements for greater flexibility and productivity, rather than as a part of a win-win negotiation strategy aimed at changing the work organization so that to meet jointly the long-term competitive organizational aims and the individuals’ needs. In light of that, the chapter concludes by highlighting some conditions necessary to direct occupational welfare programmes towards and high-road pathway.
2015
- Getting Flexicurity Right: New Ways to Reconcile Welfare, Flexibility and Competitiveness in a Post-Crisis Europe
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
In the light of the target of smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth laid down by the Europe 2020 strategy, the manuscript starts from a reflection on the shortcomings of the flexicurity approach in the current economic crisis. Then, it attracts attention on occupational welfare as operational terrain for social partner to achieve win-win regulations, both juridical and organizational, to meet the needs of both employers and employees, and to direct flexicurity strategies towards high road pathways. In this line, the chapter presents a conceptual scheme, which highlights the prerequisites for highroad strategies embedded in social dialogue practices, and which can be used for analysing, classifying, and evaluating occupational welfare practices actually implemented at company level by social partners. In relation to the labour law and industrial relation analytical perspective, the conceptual scheme draws from the capability approach and the theoretical framework of “reflexive labour law”. With regard to the organizational perspective, the conceptual scheme highlights a set of organizational choices that shape working conditions congruent with both the aim of long-term economic growth and the individual needs for work-life balance, skills and competence development. In the same line, the contribution develops an empirical and conceptual critique on the adequacy of high performance work practices to serve as a means to achieve win-win solutions.
2015
- Going Up the High Road: Rethinking the Role of Social Dialogue to Link Welfare and Competitiveness (agreement No. vs/2013/0349)
[Curatela]
Senatori, Iacopo; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso; Rymkevich, Olga
abstract
The volume outlines the main findings of the research project “Going Up the High Road. Rethinking the Role of Social Dialogue to Link Welfare and Competitiveness”, supported by the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Agreement nr. VS/2013/0349). The idea of a research project on the implementation of occupational welfare schemes across Europe by means of social dialogue emerged from a broader reflection on the shortcomings of the flexicurity approach in the current economic crisis. In light of that, and of the general aim laid down by the Europe 2020 Strategy of smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth, the project looks at occupational welfare as operational terrain for social partners to implement virtuous regulatory solutions, both judicial and organizational, to meet both employers and employees’ needs. The research adopts a broad definition of occupational welfare, encompassing not only services and cash benefits, but also changes in work organization to meet new social needs, such as work-life balance, skills and competence development, and so on, to the benefit of employees. In this perspective, the research aim is twofold. On the one hand, to increase the knowledge base with regard to the implementation of occupational welfare practices in different European industrial relations systems, and namely in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden. On the other hand, to develop a conceptual scheme for the analysis, classification and evaluation of the practices under examination. Data were collected through a review of secondary sources, a first-hand examination of collective agreements, and the in-depth study of companies located in all the countries mentioned above. The research results provide answer to the following issues: - What are the sources of regulation of occupational welfare schemes in the surveyed system? Who are the actors, and at what level(s) do they operate? – What are the matters dealt with under the “occupational welfare” concept? What needs are addressed, and what are the measures adopted? - To what extent do these schemes pursue or establish conditions favourable to freedom of choice? Do they provide any particular procedure or toolkit for employee empowerment or voice? - Are the occupational welfare schemes framed in a more complex competitive strategy? If so, of which kind (defensive or expansive, based on the reduction of costs, on product quality, on innovation)? Are the experiences under examination framed in a set of organizational choices aimed at fostering flexibility? What kind of flexibility (internal, external, both)? Does the experience under examination present some kind of linkage between flexibility and other production-related needs and welfare arrangements?
2015
- How Social Dialogue Can Attempt to Link Welfare and Competitiveness at the Company Level: Insights from three Metalworking Companies in Italy
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The contribution deals with social dialogue practices at the company level addressing the implementation of occupational welfare measures linked
to internal flexibility programmes in the attempt to strike a balance between two relatively autonomous and potentially diverging viewpoints, i.e. -
the entrepreneurial standpoint, and thus the need for competitiveness, long-term economic growth, and revenue, and the points of view of
people at work, reflecting their needs for an effective combination of the capability for work and the capability for life, for health, for the
promotion of fundamental human rights, and of the human dignity. The manuscript offers an in-depth analysis of the adoption decisions of
corporate welfare programs undertaken by company management and employee representatives in three large metalworking enterprises in
Italy. The focus of the analysis is whether and how these programs are connected with changes in the way work is organized, as well as the
logic with which they are oriented by the involved parties to the joint improvement of corporate competitiveness and levels of workers‘ wellbeing.
Measures and practices implemented by the social partners are evaluated against the multidisciplinary methodological approach
based on on the concept of “freedom of choice”, drawn from Amartya Sen’s capability approach, as well as a set of criteria, drawn from
organisational analysis, to evaluate whether the internal flexibility measures implemented in each case promote the well-being of the workers
concerned, while promoting the capability of the company to innovate products and processes, and to achieve smart and sustainable
growth. The contribuition concludes with some implications concerning the changes in the logic of trade union and government action that are
needed to fully exploit the potential of internal flexibility to promote both the health and well-being of the workers concerned and the
company capability to innovate and pursue long-term economic growth.
2015
- Welfare aziendale, competitività e relazioni industriali: luci e ombre di un connubio possibile
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Senatori, Iacopo
abstract
Il contributo presenta i risultati di una ricerca che scaturisce da una riflessione sulle carenze delle politiche del lavoro e dell’occupazione basate
sulla flexicurity, specialmente nel contesto della crisi. Il focus è sugli schemi e i programmi di welfare aziendale attuati in Europa tramite il
dialogo sociale. I dati sono stati raccolti mediante l’esame della letteratura e di altre fonti secondarie, l’analisi diretta dei testi contrattuali, e lo
studio in profondità di casi di impresa, e riguardano in particolare le esperienze di dialogo sociale e contrattazione collettiva attuate in
Bulgaria, Estonia, Ungheria, Italia, Spagna e Svezia. Il welfare aziendale è concettualizzato in modo ampio, così da includere non solo
l’erogazione di servizi o prestazioni economiche, ma anche gli interventi sull’organizzazione. In tale prospettiva, esso si configura come
ambito di intervento che apre nuove spazi di azione al dialogo sociale e alla contrattazione collettiva per l’attuazione di soluzioni di
regolazione giuridica-organizzativa “a somma positiva”, cioè capaci di soddisfare sia le esigenze di competitività aziendale che le istanze
individuali di qualità del lavoro e di conciliazione vita-lavoro. I risultati prodotti arricchiscono le conoscenze sullo stato dell’arte delle prassi di
welfare aziendale in diversi sistemi di relazioni industriali in Europa. Nelle esperienze esaminate il welfare opera come elemento di uno
scambio contrattuale che contempla, a guisa di controprestazione, l’accettazione da parte dei lavoratori di vincoli di flessibilità e di
produttività intesi a soddisfare l’interesse dell’impresa; non, quindi, come parte di una strategia negoziale a somma positiva mirata ad
intervenire sull’organizzazione al fine di configurare condizioni di lavoro atte a soddisfare simultaneamente le esigenze di competitività di
lungo periodo e quelle personali. Su queste basi, il contributo si conclude evidenziando alcune condizioni che potrebbero favorire
l’implementazione di pratiche di welfare aziendali in linea con un approccio alla competitività di tipo “high road”.
2014
- Antecedenti del conflitto lavoro-famiglia in un contesto accademico italiano: differenze tra docenti-ricercatori e personale tecnico-amministrativo
[Articolo su rivista]
Molino, M.; Zito, M.; Colombo, L.; Ghislieri, C.; Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia; Cortese, C. G.
abstract
Summary. The academic world of work has recently witnessed many changes, including a decrease in resources and an increase in demands. This study draws on the job demands-resources model as its theoretical framework. It investigates the relationship between certain resources (job autonomy, supervisors’ and colleagues’ support), demands (workload, emotional dissonance, workaholism), and the work-family conflict (WFC) in an Italian university. Relationships between the two subsamples, academics (n = 177) and administrative staff (n = 292) were examined. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed negative relationships between resources and the WFC but positive relationships between demands and the WFC. Findings highlight the relevance of information and training on the effects of the «overwork», in order to prevent and cope with the WFC, even through individual counseling.
2014
- LA SODDISFAZIONE LAVORATIVA IN UN ATENEO ITALIANO: DIFFERENZE TRA DOCENTI-RICERCATORI E TECNICI-AMMINISTRATIVI
[Articolo su rivista]
Ghislieri, C.; Colombo, L.; Molino, M.; Zito, M.; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Objective: The changes in the academic world led to an increase in job demands and a decrease in the available job resources. In recent years, the positive image of work in academia has gradually blurred. The present study, within the theoretical framework of the job demands-resources model, aimed to analyse the relationship between some job demands (workload, work-family conflict and emotional dissonance) and some job resources (autonomy, supervisors' support and co-workers' support) and job satisfaction in a medium-sized Italian University, by observing the differences between the academic staff (professors and researchers) and the technical-administrative staff.
Methods: The research was conducted by administering a self-report questionnaire which allowed to detect job satisfaction and the mentioned variables. Respondents were 477 (177 from academic staff and 300 from technical-administrative staff).
Results: The analysis of variance (independent samples t-test) showed significant differences in variables of interest between academic staff and technical-administrative staff. Multiple regression pointed out that job autonomy is the main determinant of job satisfaction in the academic staff sample, whereas supervisor support is the main determinant of job satisfaction in the technical-administrative staff sample.
Conclusions: This research represents one of the first Italian studies on these topics in the academic context and highlights the importance of further in-depth examinations of specific job dynamics for both teaching and technical-administrative staff. Among practical implications, the importance of keeping high levels of job autonomy for academic staff and of fostering an effective leadership development for technical-administrative staff emerged.
2014
- Organizzazione: parole chiave per l'analisi e la ricerca
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Albano, R.; Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Nella ricerca e nell’analisi organizzativa, l’uso di un termine o di una locuzione non individua di per sé un particolare modo di vedere, di descrivere, di interpretare l'oggetto di studio. Non basta dunque evocare un concetto per qualificare un approccio, una teoria, un modello di analisi: occorre chiarire a quale modo di concepire il concetto si sta facendo riferimento. Per far ciò, è necessario spostare la riflessione dal piano dei concetti, e delle teorie in cui questi sono inseriti, a quello dell’epistemologia che li sottende. Su queste basi, il libro si propone come “bussola” per orientare chi si occupa di analisi e ricerca in ambito organizzativo. Alcune delle parole-chiave che tipicamente si trovano nella letteratura di settore, sono illustrate sinteticamente e secondo una struttura costante, che fa riferimento al dibattito epistemologico in campo organizzativo e, più in generale, delle scienze sociali. Il lettore è guidato quindi a distinguere per ciascuna voce tra definizioni tipiche di teorie di matrice oggettivista , soggettivista e processuale. Per coloro che già da tempo si occupano di organizzazione (docenti, ricercatori, practitioner), il testo può essere uno strumento utile a mettere in luce i fondamenti epistemologici spesso impliciti, del proprio agire sulle e nelle organizzazioni.
2013
- Gestione delle risorse umane e valorizzazione delle competenze
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
Il saggio tratta del rapporto tra gestione delle risorse umane e competenze dei lavoratori, a partire da una domanda: è possibile che la ‘gestione’ delle risorse umane sia uno strumento per la valorizzazione delle competenze dei lavoratori? Per rispondere, innanzitutto bisogna chiarire che cosa si intende per ‘gestione delle risorse umane’ e per ‘competenze’ dei lavoratori e poi, alla luce di quei chiarimenti, si può valutare se e come tra i due termini si possa stabilire una relazione positiva (valorizzazione). A tal fine, la prima parte del saggio ricostruisce il quadro concettuale che orienta la gestione delle risorse umane nelle sue formulazioni logico-strumentali più accreditate e diffuse, evidenziando come si qualifica al suo interno la nozione di competenze. Come emerge dalla ricostruzione, quel quadro concettuale incontra una fondamentale difficoltà in sede di applicazione pratica; conseguentemente, la seconda parte del saggio introduce gli elementi di un quadro concettuale alternativo da cui, nella parte finale, si ricavano le implicazioni in termini di gestione delle risorse umane.
2013
- Going beyond the capital-labour divide: some insights from an organizational analysis of worker participation at the workplace
[Working paper]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
The current debate is devoting increasing attention to organizational innovation as a key choice to escape from the present crisis, and on worker participation in decision-making processes at the workplace as a key factor for organizational innovation. The present paper addresses this issue with a twofold objective. It firstly aims at critically reflecting on the managerial practices most often used to foster worker participation. These practices are centred on tools for evaluating workers skills. Notwithstanding, they are drawn from theories that make them unsuitable to promote the kind of worker participation needed for organizational innovation. The problem lies in the theoretical assumption that top management should pre-determine the skills that workers need to participate in decision-making processes. It doesn’t matter that it concerns skills rather than behaviours, predetermination still hinders organizational innovation, and in complex working conditions it jeopardizes both economic performance and organizational equity. In light of that, the paper shall outline an approach to competence evaluation based on different assumptions, and namely on the idea that behaviours and knowledge can be partly pre-ruled, but workers may always change any pre-regulations, and develop new rules, knowledge and competence during the accomplishment of work in a way consistent with the achievement of economic performance and the satisfaction of their personal needs. The competence evaluation approach discussed in the paper thus makes new room for considering worker participation as a means to simultaneously satisfy different criteria of rationality. This consistently with a view of labour relations as relations where power is a non-zero-sum game.
2013
- Lo stress lavoro-correlato: dalla valutazione alle misure organizzative di prevenzione
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Y.; Fabbri, T.; Nardella, C.
abstract
Questo breve saggio è dedicato all’illustrazione di un approccio allo stress lavoro-correlato che supera i limiti della prassi prevalente e ristabilisce la centralità dell’organizzazione del lavoro nell’eziologia e conseguentemente nella prevenzione dello stress lavoro-correlato. Secondo gli orientamenti normativi e giurisprudenziali in materia, gli obblighi datoriali di prevenzione sono innanzitutto primari; la valutazione cioè deve essere innanzitutto finalizzata alla diagnosi e all’intervento sulle caratteristiche
organizzative della situazione di lavoro che influiscono sull’insorgenza dello stress. Il saggio argomenta che la scelta degli strumenti e delle modalità di valutazione impatta in
maniera decisiva sulla capacità di ottemperare a tale obbligo. Gli strumenti e le prassi di valutazione oggi più diffusi hanno certamente una valenza diagnostica della presenza di
un problema di stress lavoro-correlato e forniscono informazioni utili a orientare la ricerca delle soluzioni; essi, tuttavia, non bastano per risalire alle cause organizzative dei
problemi rilevati, e quindi per individuare quale sia lo specifico intervento organizzativo da realizzare in concreto in quanto adeguato alla prevenzione del problema. Nell’intento
di contribuire a colmare questo gap, il saggio propone e illustra un approccio alla valutazione dello stress lavoro-correlato interdisciplinare e mixed-method, che combina in
modo razionale ed efficiente indicatori oggettivi e soggettivi, analisi organizzativa (propriamente detta) e intervento nelle situazioni di lavoro stressogene (eventualmente)
identificate. In questo approccio la valutazione dei rischi e la diagnosi dei problemi non sono separate dalla individuazione delle scelte organizzative che possono averli generati,
e dalla progettazione delle conseguenti misure di prevenzione.
2012
- Benessere e lavoro: un’eredità e una direzione di ricerca
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Il saggio ricostruisce l'eredità interdisciplinare disponibile per l'interpretazione dello stress lavoro correlato e mostra come la concezione di stress oggi utilizzata - nelle leggi e regolamenti in vigore, negli strumenti di valutazione dei rischi in uso, e nelle pratiche di intervento organizzativo - esiti da una torsione in senso psicologico e prelude ad una insidiosa deriva psico-igienista, che tradirebbe l'orientamento assiologico delle stesse norme in materia di salute sul lavoro. Su queste basi, il saggio propone una direzione di ricerca, centrata su una diversa concezione del rapporto tra organizzazione del lavoro e salute, e capace di valorizzare la migliore eredità medico-lavoristica, in particolare italiana.
2012
- Benessere in Ateneo: una ricerca presso l’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
[Capitolo/Saggio]
E., Cavani; L., Colombo; Curzi, Ylenia; C., Ghislieri; P., Michelini
abstract
Scopo: Il capitolo presenta i risultati di una ricerca-intervento per la promozione del benessere rivolta a tutto il personale dell’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia. Disegno/metodologia/approccio: L’analisi delle scelte organizzative legate al malessere/benessere è stata condotta basandosi su dati oggettivi e soggettivi. Per quanto riguarda i dati oggettivi, sono stati utilizzati indicatori selezionati tra quelli (di rischio e manifestazione) indicati dall’Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité e per i quali erano disponibili informazioni nei database dell’Ateneo. La rilevazione è stata condotta su una popolazione di 1529 individui e l’analisi si è avvalsa del calcolo del valore medio (aritmetico)
e/o del valore percentuale, dello scarto (semplice) dalla media di Ateneo e della variazione (relativa percentuale) rispetto all’anno precedente, calcolati sull’intero Ateneo e aggregazioni di genere, ruolo e di struttura di afferenza utilizzate. Per quanto riguarda i dati soggettivi, è stato somministrato un questionario self-report a 684 soggetti. L’analisi dei dati soggettivi è stata condotta su un totale di 607 soggetti e ha previsto: statistiche descrittive per ciascuna variabile e singola scala (media, deviazione standard), correlazioni (r di Pearson) per osservare le relazioni bi-direzionali tra le variabili inserite nel disegno di ricerca e regressioni multiple per indagare le determinanti degli indicatori di benessere e malessere psicofisico. L’analisi delle relazioni bi-direzionali e quella della direzione delle relazioni tra le variabili rilevate sono state condotte in modo distinto per i due gruppi del personale docente/ricercatore (PDR) e tecnico/amministrativo (PTA). Le differenze nella percezione degli indicatori di benessere e malessere psicofisico al lavoro e delle determinanti in funzione del genere, della categoria lavorativa e del ruolo sono state calcolate attraverso l’analisi della varianza. I risultati delle analisi dei dati oggettivi e soggettivi hanno costituito la base conoscitiva per l’individuazione delle misure di intervento. Principali risultati: L’analisi dei dati soggettivi evidenzia delle differenze significative in relazione al genere, alla categoria lavorativa e al ruolo ricoperto: le donne e il PTA dichiarano, nel confronto rispettivamente con gli uomini e il PDR, maggiori sintomi fisici. Di contro, gli uomini dichiarano, rispetto alle donne, un più elevato benessere psicologico emotivo al lavoro e il PDR, rispetto al PTA, una maggiore soddisfazione lavorativa. Le donne dichiarano, inoltre, rispetto agli uomini, livelli più elevati di workaholism e di dissonanza emotiva ma anche di supporto da parte dei colleghi. Il PDR presenta, rispetto al PTA, punteggi medi più elevati riguardo a workaholism, conflitto lavoro-famiglia, carico di lavoro. Fattori di rischio quali il workaholism, il conflitto lavoro-famiglia e la percezione di un elevato carico di lavoro sono maggiori nei professori ordinari e nei ricercatori. Il PTA dichiara, invece, punteggi più elevati di dissonanza emotiva e punteggi più bassi di autonomia lavorativa e commitment. Tali evidenze trovano corrispondenza nei risultati dell’analisi dei dati oggettivi. Valore/originalità: La ricerca-intervento presenta elementi di originalità, sia sul fronte dell’analisi che dell’intervento: la rilevazione dei dati soggettivi ha previsto l’inserimento di variabili inedite rispetto ad altre ricerche in università (per esempio conflitto lavoro-famiglia e il workaholism) ed è stata condotta distinguendo le determinanti di malessere/benessere in relazione alla categoria professionale dei lavoratori interessati. Sul versante delle azioni correttive/migliorative, è stato esplicitato il criterio per l’individuazione di un ordine di priorità nella realizzazione degli interventi.
2012
- Bridging rigour and relevance: Weber’s research approach to understand knowledge integration in creative processes of teams spanning over time and space
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia; R. S., Reis
abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to call for an in-depth reflection on Weber’s research
approach based on the notions of adequate causation and objective possibility.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper illustrates the main characteristics and premises of
the research approach. It further exemplifies its application through a qualitative study that
investigates “How” and “Why” knowledge integration occurs in the creative processes of teams
spanning over time and space. In so doing, it argues that Weber’s epistemology could remain a valid point of reference to shift from the generation of empirical propositions through qualitative research to the quantitative analysis of empirical regularities recurring into a large number of empirical cases.
Findings – This paper shows how Weber’s research approach could assist researchers in
overcoming the dichotomy between rigour and relevance in qualitative research within organization
and management studies.
Originality/value – The work offers new ways of looking at established ideas within organization
and management studies, through new lenses as alternative ways of knowing social phenomena
available to scholars, to produce theoretical knowledge relevant for and applicable into practice.
2012
- Job demands-resources model in an Italian sample of academics
[Poster]
P., Gatti; L., Colombo; Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
In recent decades, universities in many countries have undergone important changes that have profoundly affected the working life of academics (Winefield et al., 2008), making it more demanding and stressful (Kinman et al., 2006). In Italy, these changes – directly linked to the university reform (Law 240/2010) – are now highly critical (Pellerey, 2011; Sundry Authors, 2010).This study investigates health impairment and motivational outcomes of Italian academics in the theoretical framework of the job demands-resources model (JD-R model; Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti, et al., 2001). The robustness of the JD-R model was already tested and demonstrated in different national and occupational contexts (Llorens, et al. 2006), and in the context of academics (Bakker et al., 2010; Boyd et al., 2011).
2012
- Lavoro e salute: approcci e strumenti per la prevenzione dello stress e la promozione del benessere al lavoro
[Curatela]
Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Il volume presenta i risultati di un impegno pluriennale, teorico ed empirico, sul rapporto tra lavoro e salute, che ha coinvolto i ricercatori della Fondazione Marco Biagi, i dottorandi della Scuola Internazionale di Dottorato in Relazioni di Lavoro dell’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia e i dirigenti e funzionari di tre amministrazioni pubbliche modenesi, nell’ambito di progetti aziendali di valutazione e intervento per la prevenzione dello stress e la promozione del benessere al lavoro. Dopo aver introdotto il punto di vista prevalente nelle discipline che si occupano elettivamente del rapporto tra benessere e lavoro, il testo illustra gli approcci di valutazione e prevenzione adottati presso l’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, l’Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico di Modena e l’Azienda USL di Modena. Il volume così dà conto della ricchezza di un itinerario di ricerca-intervento, che ha stimolato riflessioni critiche, generato promettenti domande di ricerca e chiaramente evidenziato che il dialogo tra discipline è imprescindibile per individuare quadri teorici e impianti metodologici sempre più efficaci per la tutela della salute e la promozione del benessere delle persone al lavoro.
2012
- Organizational learning and action research: the organization of individuals
[Capitolo/Saggio]
R., Albano; Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
This chapter focuses on organizational change, its control and regulation, from the standpoint of a non-dualistic conception of the relationship between individuals and organizations, rooted in the social theory of Norbert Elias, in a theory of organizational learning (Fabbri, 2003) and in a conception of action research (Albano, 2010) in support of organizational learning (Albano, Fabbri, 2010) which are consistent with each other. The combination of these theoretical and methodological references allows an original interpretation of organizational change and the identification of some prior rules for organized collective actions helpful at guiding change accordingly to organizational members' needs.
2012
- Phenomenology, Organizational Politics, and IT Design: The Social Study of Information Systems
[Curatela]
G., Viscusi; G. M., Campagnolo; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The book offers a new look at the latest research and critical issues within the field of information systems by creating solid theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical findings on social and organizational change related to information systems. Professionals, academics, and researchers working with information will find this volume a compelling and vital resource for a cross-fertilization among different, yet complementary, and strictly connected domains of scientific knowledge, consisting of information system research, philosophy of social sciences and organizational studies.
2012
- Preface [Phenomenology, Organizational Politics, and IT Design]
[Prefazione o Postfazione]
G., Viscusi; G. M., Campagnolo; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The preface deals with some basic issues in the social and organizational study of information systems along three directions of analysis. The first direction draws attention on how phenomenological concepts make it possible to recast the idea and the use of formal representations in computer programming as a challenge for the information systems design. The second direction of analysis focuses on the changes in the practices of planning, designing, and deploying information systems in the case of global Information Infrastructures implemented across multiple sites within large branch-plan organizational structures. It further shows how these changes challenge core assumptions embedded in received notions of phenomenology via ethnomethodology, and discusses the biographic turn in the social study of information infrastructures. The third direction deals with the issues of whether and how organizational re-design associated with the introduction of ICTs in work settings is still possible even though the starting point is the focus on 'unique and singular worlds' which, actually, challenges the word of 'design'. It further discusses different conceptualizations of the concept-word of 'ICT-related organizational design' and different approaches to techno-organizational re-design. Finally, it addresses the issues of whether and how it is possible to carry out ICT- related organizational change processes consistently with organizational members’ requirements, and discusses the role of conflicts and power in this regard.
2012
- Recensione di “B. Maggi (a cura di), Interpretare l’agire: una sfida teorica, 2011, Carocci, Roma- ed. originale: PUF, Parigi, 2011”
[Recensione in Rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
La recensione presenta il volume dedicato all’agire sociale, un tema elettivo delle scienze umane e sociali, e quindi centro di interesse di molteplici discipline come la psicologia, la sociologia, il diritto, la linguistica, l’economia, le scienze dell’educazione, la riflessione interdisciplinare sull’organizzazione e molte altre ancora. Seguendo lo stesso originale schema espositivo, i capitoli dell’opera affrontano temi centrali per le discipline coinvolte: il corso dell’azione sociale e delle sue conseguenze nel loro rapporto specifico con la regolazione e il potere; il ruolo del pensiero e del linguaggio rispetto all’attività di lavoro; la socializzazione come regolazione dell’agire sociale, tra autonomia e eteronomia; il lavoro d’organizzazione delle attività professionali; il rapporto tra apprendimento organizzativo e strutturazione organizzativa; gli sviluppi nel diritto del lavoro in relazione a più ampi cambiamenti sociali, economici, culturali e politici di lunga durata; e ancora: la razionalità tecnica delle azioni, la ri-produzione di routine organizzative, la capacità dei soggetti nel lavoro organizzato di affermare i propri punti di vista e interessi anche entro configurazioni sociali fortemente asimmetriche; il rapporto tra analisi del lavoro, pensiero e linguaggio nei servizi di inserimento, orientamento e transizione professionale; il rapporto tra cambiamento tecnologico e organizzativo nell’ambito della progettazione industriale o con riferimento agli strumenti e alle tecniche di intelligenza artificiale e di supporto alle decisioni; il rapporto tra formazione e analisi del lavoro con riferimento al mestiere degli insegnanti; il contributo della contrattazione collettiva del tempo di lavoro alla strutturazione delle imprese, ecc. La coerenza interna è un’importante caratteristica dell’opera. Le teorie presentate convergono verso un comune modo di intendere l’azione e l’attività, che riconosce i soggetti agenti come protagonisti della propria storia, individuale e collettiva. I processi di azione e decisione intenzionali e (limitatamente) razionali rappresentano quindi il centro delle analisi, che portano così a comprendere, e forse a governare, l’incessante mutamento sociale.
2011
- A Study in an Italian University: Determinants of Job Satisfaction
[Poster]
M., Zito; L., Colombo; C., Ghislieri; Fabbri, Tommaso; F., Emanuel; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Several organizational studies analyze the determinants of job satisfaction, as an indicator of cognitive well-being at work (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985). Instead, the studies concerning well-being (and discomfort) in the academic context are poorly treated, particularly in Italy. Referring to international literature, researches about academic staff working in different countries highlight that the occupational stress in universities is increasing and the psychological discomfort is higher than similar professional groups (Kinman, Jones, 2008).The aim of this study is to inquire the principal determinants of job satisfaction among a north Italian university’s teachers and researchers. Data were collected through a questionnaire filled out individually by 279 respondents. The questionnaire gathers information about different variables: job satisfaction (24 items, 6-point agreement scale, α .93); workhaolism (8 items, 4-point frequency scale , α. 80); career advancement orientation (6 items, 4-point importance scale, α .82); supervisors support (4 items, 6-point agreement scale, α .90); co-workers support (4 items, 6-point agreement scale, α .91); work-life conflict (5 items, 6-point frequency scale, α .90); emotional dissonance (3 items, 6-point frequency scale, α .92); workload (6 items, 6-point agreement scale, α .86); job autonomy (7 items, 6-point agreement scale, α .91); commitment (4 items, 6-point agreement scale, α .85).Data analysis (Pasw 18) was performed as: means, standard deviations and alpha reliabilities (α) for each scale; one-way analysis of variance; correlations and multiple regressions. Multiple regression analysis shows that job satisfaction is influenced (42% explained variance) as follows: positively by supervisors support, commitment and job autonomy and negatively by work-family conflict.Findings highlight the variables that can support the job satisfaction in the specific academic context: the role of supervisors support is prominent but is also useful to promote commitment and job autonomy. Moreover findings suggest that work-family conflict can negatively influence the cognitive well-being: intervention projects supporting the work-family balance can be helpful to deeper understand the dynamics of promoting well-being in organizations.
2011
- Apprendimento organizzativo e ricerca-intervento. L'organizzazione degli individui
[Articolo su rivista]
R., Albano; Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
L'articolo conduce una critica delle concezioni di mainstream dell'apprendimento orgaizzativo e lo definisce invece come sviluppo della conoscenza organizzativa stricto sensu e cioè lo sviluppo della capacità di un processo di regolare il proprio (continuo) mutamento. Conseguentemente, la lezione per quanto concerne gli interventi a supporto dell'apprendimento organizzativo è in radicale opposizione rispetto alle indicazioni del mainstream: la consulenza esterna non solo è inutile ma può anche risultare dannosa qualora venga usata come mezzo di legittimazione di scelte totalmente eteronome rispetto alle esigenze di regolazione espresse dal processo. La nostra proposta di ricerca-intervento rifiuta l'idea di un ricercatore/consulente esterno che sarebbe dotato di una razionalità superiore a quella dei soggetti che danno vita quotidianamente ai processi. Allo stesso tempo non nega l'importanza dei saperi disciplinari rispetto alle competenze prodotte nei processi. L'incontro tra le diverse forme di sapere può essere favorito attraverso l'acquisizione di un metodo di analisi da parte dei soggetti che danno vita ai processi; metodo che permetta di acquisire una diversa forma di consapevolezza dei bisogni espressi (non ultimo il bisogno di ben-essere), né superiore né inferiore, bensì complementare a quella che esplicitamente o tacitamente appartiene al loro quotidiano act meaning. Nella seconda parte del saggio si propone una sintetica illustrazione di un caso empirico di ricerca-intervento avviato nel 2006 nell'Ateneo di Modena e Reggio Emilia e tuttora in corso. Nelle conclusioni interpretiamo tale esperienza e valutiamo la sua congruenza rispetto alle varie dimensioni della precedente proposta teorica.
2011
- Autonomy and well-being at work: old hypotheses and new preliminary findings
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia; L., Colombo
abstract
Does job autonomy/discretion positively affect people wellbeing at work? Or, contrarily, does it impact negatively? Or does the former both increase and decrease the latter?Mainstream psychosocial organization research posits that the greater is the autonomy at work, the greater is the wellbeing in the workplace. At least implicitly, the hypothesis was first put forward in the late thirties. Since then, it has been almost uninterruptedly developed until today.After a brief review of the mainstream hypotheses, the present paper focuses attention on some attempts to challenge them. More specifically, the hypothesis by Thompson (1967) thatorganizational members not always perceive the opportunity of exercising discretion as a positive factor, and the researches and studies on the organizational antecedents of workaholism.The resulting overall picture suggests to further reflect on the impact of job autonomy/discretion on people wellbeing at work. The present paper tries to make a contribution in this direction by testing whether and how job autonomy increases and/or reduces psychological-emotional discomfort at work of the university and technical-administrative staff of a medium-sized Italian university. The preliminary findings show that in the work setting under investigation, job autonomy affects people wellbeing at work in a way that is more complex than that was to be expected on the basis of mainstream hypotheses.
2011
- Deconstructing Human Resource Development: towards an alternative anthropocentric approach
[Working paper]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
HRD practice has its conceptual roots in Human Relations, socio-technical and motivational theories. The central hypothesis of these theories is that the economic purposes of the organization and organizational members’ needs, preferences, interests might be recombined through practices of work such as teamwork, personnel empowerment, workers’ participation in the organization decision making processes, individual skill development, and so forth. In so much as HRD tools and techniques are purposely designed, adopted and used to support such practices, they should serve both the organizational logic of cost and efficiency, and that of the moral, social and intellectual development of people at work. The present paper aims at challenging this conclusion, by critically reflecting on the concepts and hypotheses of the above theories. In so doing, the analysis comes to a paradox which expresses the difficulties that the mentioned theories meet in reconnecting what they have previously separated, i.e. individuals and the organization. Starting from that, the paper highlights some building blocks of a person-centred approach to recruitment, selections, training, evaluation, rewards, and career paths.
2011
- Determinants of work-family conflict in academic work context. Differences between teaching and technical-administrative staff.
[Poster]
M., Molino; C., Ghislieri; L., Colombo; S., Ricotta; Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Work family conflict (wfc) is a widely discussed topic in organizational studies, since it has a central role in psychological well-being and malaise at work. This study takes account of principal determinants of wfc (Netemeyer et. al, 1996) in the specific academic work context (Kinman & Jones, 2008; Winefield et al., 2003).This research was carried out among the teaching and the technical-administrative staff of an Italian University. A total of 607 respondents filled out the on-line self-report questionnaire (279 teaching staff; 328 technical-administrative staff). The questionnaire consisted in different measures: compulsive tendencies to work (workaholism), 8 items, 4-point scale (alpha .80); wfc, 5 items, 6-point scale (alpha .90); colleagues support, 4 items, 6-point scale (alpha .91); supervisors support, 4 items, 6-point scale (alpha .90); emotional dissonance, 3 items, 6-point scale (alpha .92); workload, 6 items, 6-point scale (alpha .86); job autonomy, 7 items, 6-point scale (alpha .91); commitment, 4 items, 6-point scale (alpha .85).Data analysis (PASW 18) included: analysis of variance, correlation analysis, analysis of multiple regression. Results revealed higher level of wfc in teaching staff than in technical-administrative staff [t (603) = 6.30, p<.00]. Multiple regression analysis performed in teaching staff sample (explained variance 37%) revealed that wfc is influenced by workaholism and, secondly, by workload and, to a small degree, by lack in autonomy. Multiple regression analysis performed in technical-administrative staff sample (explained variance 36%) revealed the main influence of workaholism, as it was also for teaching staff. Colleagues support and workload had a lower influence on wfc, the former reducing wfc and the latter increasing wfc.In particular, this contribute identifies in the specific studied organizational context the importance of compulsive tendencies in determining wfc, and suggest to deepen this topic. Our research contributes to the comprehension of processes influencing wfc in a specific organizational context and offers suggestions to project actions aiming to improve work-family balance.
2011
- Knowledge Integration in the Creative Process of Globally Distributed Teams
[Capitolo/Saggio]
R. S., Reis; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The aim of the chapter is to analyse knowledge integration in the creative process of globally distributed teams as they develop new products. Mainstream researches and studies focus on knowledge integration in terms of transference of knowledge; they highlight its relevance with respect to innovation and creativity, and investigate the conditions that assure or inhibit it. The creative process in globally distributed teams is fairly unexplored by academic literature. With only a few exceptions, the literature focuses on virtual teams (i.e., distributed teams where factors such as culture, time zone and language are irrelevant to the development of the activities carried out by team members). The authors concentrate their efforts in looking for how knowledge integration happens in the creative process in globally distributed teams. For this reason, they shall rely on a research method founded on the notions of adequate causation and objective possibility. On this basis, they have compared two empirical cases in order to answer their research question. The authors have thus analysed six global product development projects carried out by globally distributed teams belonging to a Swedish company working with teams in France and Brazil,
and to an Italian company working with teams in Tunisia. Data have been gathered through participant observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis from 2007 to 2009. The contribution is grounded in the analysis of existing literature and in data collected on the field.
2011
- Recensione di "T.M. Fabbri (a cura di), L'organizzazione: concetti e metodi, Roma: Carocci, 2010"
[Recensione in Rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
La recensione presenta e discute il volume curato da T. M. Fabbri, dedicato a una ricca e rappresentativa selezione di teorie e metodi per lo studio e il cambiamento dell’organizzazione. Questa è vista come fenomeno multidisciplinare; perciò, teorie, metodi e procedure proposti attingono a vari campi di sapere disciplinare, ad esempio: discipline politecniche, ricerca sociale e psicologica, scienze della cognizione, studi sociali dei sistemi informativi, economia dell’organizzazione. L’architettura dell'opera deriva da un assunto esplicito: metodi e tecniche, da un lato, e teorie dall'altro sono sempre collegati tra loro; i metodi e le tecniche, più precisamente, non sono neutrali, ma, come le teorie, inevitabilmente esprimono, in modo a volte implicito, un modo prevalente di considerare l’organizzazione e la conoscenza attorno ad essa. Il principale merito che va riconosciuto al curatore è quello di fornire al lettore un'ampia rassegna della varietà di approcci all'analisi organizzativa e una sorta di 'bussola' per orientarsi in questo panorama variegato. E' un buon esempio di pluralismo teorico e metodologico che non cade nel relativismo assoluto.
2010
- Action Research for Organizational Learning
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Curzi, Ylenia; Fabbri, Tommaso
abstract
This position paper deals with a case of action research concerning the organization of administrative work processes in an Italian medium sized athenaeum. First, we briefly outline how action research is actually conducted in the case in question. Then, we discuss the particular approach to action research, by highlighting the underlying idea of personnel’s participation, organizational choices and rationality. On this basis, we suggest that the idea of organizational learning developed by Fabbri (2003, 2004) underlies the action research under discussion. We conclude by highlighting the main concepts of this theoretical framework and the hypothesis it suggests in respect to the effectiveness of the action research taken into consideration here.
2010
- Assembling knowledge and people over time and space
[Working paper]
R. S., Reis; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse knowledge integration in the creative process of globally distributed teams as they develop new products. Mainstream researches and studies focus on knowledge integration in terms of transfer of knowledge; they highlight its relevance with respect to innovation and creativity and investigate the conditions that assure or inhibit it. The creative process in globally distributed teams is fairly unexplored by academic literature. With only a few exceptions, the literature focuses on virtual teams: i.e., distributed teams where factors such as culture, time zone and language are irrelevant to the development of the activities carried out by team members. We concentrate our efforts in looking for how knowledge integration happens in the creative process in globally distributed teams. For this reason, we shall rely on a research method founded on the notions of adequate causation and objective possibility. On this basis, we have compared two empirical cases in order to answer our research question. We have thus analysed six global product development projects carried out by globally distributed teams belonging to a Swedish company working with teams in France and Brazil; and an Italian company working with teams in Tunisia. The data has been gathered through participant observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis from 2007 to 2009. This contribution is founded on the analysis of the existing literature and in the data collected on the field.
2010
- The actual ongoing process of coordinating cooperation in globally distributed teams
[Working paper]
Curzi, Ylenia; R. S., Reis
abstract
This paper aims to investigate how and why auto-coordination occurs in the creative process of globally distributed teams as they develop new products. Using a qualitative approach, two case studies have been developed and compared. Our empirical evidence shows that when interactions among team members expand over time and space, information and communication technologies may be relevant for the occurrence of auto-coordination based on a continuous flow of information, and on mutual adjustment among globally dispersed team members during the joint accomplishment of the task. The relevance of information technologies depends on the meaningful human actions and decisions concerning the particular artefact that should be adopted and used to communicate. In contrast to the existing literature, this study also highlights that information and communication technologies are means to transfer information concerning the task to be accomplished.
2010
- Understanding knowledge integration over time and space
[Working paper]
R. S., Reis; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse knowledge integration in the creative process of globally distributed teams, while they develop new products. Mainstream researches and studies focus on knowledge integration in terms of transfer of knowledge; they highlight its relevance with respect to innovation and creativity and investigate the conditions that assure or inhibit it. The creative process of globally distributed teams is fairly unexplored by the literature. With only few exceptions, the literature focuses on virtual teams, that is distributed teams where factors such as culture, time zone and language do not have relevance with respect to the development of the activities by team members. We concentrate our efforts in looking for “how” and “why” knowledge integration happens within the creative process in new product development projects of globally distributed teams. For this reason, we shall rely on a research method founded on the notions of adequate causation and objective possibility. This approach overcomes the limits of relativism and at the same time enhances the plurality of accounts that can be given in understanding individual social phenomena.
2010
- Variabilità strutturale: varietà di proposte teoriche e metodologiche e loro apprendimento
[Recensione in Rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
La recensione attira l’attenzione sui diversi punti di vista con cui i capitoli della curatela recensita affrontano alcuni importanti concetti e questioni nello studio dell’organizzazione: il rapporto tra potere e cambiamento organizzativo, tra struttura e azione, tra sistema sociale e sistema tecnico, la razionalità delle scelte organizzative e del loro cambiamento, il ruolo della consulenza nell’analisi e nel cambiamento della struttura organizzativa. A questo proposito, la nota critica evidenzia le difficoltà che, a dispetto delle sue ambizioni, l’approccio dei sistemi socio-tecnici allo studio delle organizzazioni incontra nel ‘risolvere’ la questione di come collegare il sistema tecnico e quello sociale. Inoltre, invita a riflettere, da un lato, sulla capacità delle teorie che esprimono una concezione soggettivista di organizzazione a tematizzare compiutamente il cambiamento organizzativo come fenomeno non transitorio e contingente, e, dall’altro lato, sull’adeguatezza di utilizzare un metodo di ricerca di orientamento soggettivista se l’aspettativa è di trarre delle indicazioni previe utili a guidare il cambiamento strutturale verso un certo risultato atteso. Il fine del volume recensito è di supportare il lettore a sviluppare una propria consapevole scelta interpretativa e di ricerca (e/o intervento) sulla variabilità strutturale. Il curatore invita il lettore “a rendersi conto del significato ultimo” dei vari modi di fare ricerca e ricerca intervento, aiutandolo a far chiarezza sulle teorie e i metodi che sarebbero adeguati per dare attuazione pratica a una certa (e non diversa) posizione di valore, nonché sulle conseguenze pratiche di una presa di posizione corrispondente a una certa (e non un’altra) concezione del mondo. L’indicazione che offre a questo fine è di valutare la coerenza interna tra le componenti (teoria e metodi) dei vari approcci proposti. A questo proposito, la nota critica suggerisce che un ulteriore invito implicito sia rivolto al lettore: quello di misurarsi con gli approcci presentati con il fine di sviluppare, prima ancora che una capacità di valutazione della loro coerenza interna, una capacità di analisi dei medesimi. E questo è certo un passo essenziale del percorso di auto-formazione consapevole agli approcci all’organizzazione.
2009
- Afterword
[Capitolo/Saggio]
G. M., Campagnolo; Curzi, Ylenia; G., Viscusi
abstract
In his contribution to this book, Kenneth Liberman furnishes a series of concepts and hypotheses for the interpretation of concrete social phenomena. He also puts forward a number of suggestions concerning the strategy that may underlie research that seeks to support social and organizational practices in the solution of real and concrete problems. The afterword proceeds in three directions in analysing the concepts, hypotheses, and research strategy put forward by Liberman. The first direction of analysis draws attention to the way in which the concepts proposed by Liberman make it possible to recast the idea and the use of formal representations in a manner consistent with an approach to the study and design of information systems based on emotionally situated understanding. The second direction of analysis concentrates on ‘action research’ in social and organizational systems – namely that form of empirical research which seeks to combine theory and practice, research and action for change – and it investigates the consequences of the orientation of such research to the cognitive strategy proposed by Liberman. Finally, the third direction of analysis highlights the changes that have taken place in the practices of producing information systems for organizations. It argues that, although these changes do not challenge the validity of Liberman’s phenomenological theory with respect to the interpretation of software production practices, they nevertheless require its integration when such practices are viewed as contemporary and post-local social phenomena.
2009
- Intervention Research in Organizations: some Reflections upon an Empirical Case - Proceedings of Alpis itAIS, Italy.
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
In this paper, we will describe and discuss an intervention research currently carried out in an Italian medium sized athenaeum. In addition, we will try to identify the appropriate path to assess it. The intervention research at hand aims at changing the existing ways of organizing the administrative work processes of the athenaeum, in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the administrative action which supports the implementation of the political decisions made by the athenaeum’s academic bodies. We will first draw on the existing organizational literature in order to identify the main features which distinctively characterize intervention research, and differentiate it from other forms of research in organizations. After having described the implications of the recourse to the epistemological choice, and ontological standpoint put forward by Weber for intervention research in organizations, we will describe the empirical case of intervention research at hand. We will highlight the main points that mean it can be regarded as an intervention research prevailingly directed by the epistemological choice put forward by Weber, and the related ontological standpoint according to which the organized work situation is seen as a process of meaningful social action. Finally, we will address the issue concerning the most appropriate criterion which should be used to assess intervention research prevailingly directed by Weber’s epistemological choice and ontological standpoint.
2008
- Flexicurity : possibilità di attuazione di un rinnovato schema di scambio tra economia e società
[Working paper]
Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Il paper inquadra il valore-obiettivo della salute e sicurezza sul lavoro negli orientamenti assiologici delle norme hard e soft italiane ed europee e mostra, utilizzando le sbobinature delle audizioni condotte dalla Commissione del Senato a seguito della tragedia ThyssenKrupp di Torino, come le procedure consolidate di valutazione dei rischi siano inadeguate a realizzare la prevenzione primaria.
2008
- Understanding Social Practice Design and confronting it with an alternative approach to action research
[Working paper]
Fabbri, Tommaso; Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
The main features of Social Practice Design (SPD) approach (Cattani et al 2007, Jacucci 2007, Jacucci et al 2007, Jacucci et al 2006), are the starting point of this paper which has a twofold purpose: on one hand, to deepen our understanding of SPD; on the other hand, to confront SPD with an alternative approach on which is based an intervention research currently deployed in an Italian medium-sized athenaeum with the aim of re-configuring administrative work processes.We follow Weber’s methodological approach in order to reach these aims; therefore, we confront both SPD and the alternative approach with intervention research ideal types. In this way, we come to state our position with respect to the opportunity of regarding SPD as a “person centred approach to participative interventions”; on the other hand, we come to point up main elements featuring the alternative approach and differentiating it from SPD.
2007
- L’introduzione delle ICT nelle piccole-medie imprese: il rapporto tra cambiamento tecnologico e cambiamento organizzativo
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Curzi, Ylenia; M., Marchiori
abstract
Scopo: il contributo illustra i risultati di una ricerca svolta in alcune piccole-medie imprese della provincia di Pesaro-Urbino avente come obiettivo l’analisi e l’interpretazione dei cambiamenti emergenti nei processi di lavoro organizzato a seguito dell’adozione e uso di tecnologie dell’informazione e della comunicazione (Information and communication technologies). Disegno/metodologia/approccio: metodologia di ricerca qualitativa. In due imprese, appartenenti al settore del mobile, ma diverse in relazione ai prodotti e servizi offerti, clienti serviti, all'ampiezza geografica del mercato di sbocco, sono stati selezionati uno o più processi di lavoro in riferimento ai quali, attraverso una ‘griglia di lettura’ previa, sono stati analizzati: il rapporto tra gli obiettivi del processo di lavoro in analisi e quelli complessivi d’impresa, le scelte di adozione e uso di nuovi strumenti informatici e le relative motivazioni, il cambiamento delle scelte d’organizzazione del processo a seguito dell’adozione e uso dei nuovi strumenti. All’analisi/riflessione hanno partecipato i soggetti che hanno assunto le decisioni d’adozione dei nuovi strumenti (imprenditori e manager di line e staff) e coloro che effettivamente li utilizzano nello svolgimento quotidiano del loro lavoro. Principali risultati: L’analisi dei casi empirici attira l’attenzione sull’impossibilità di determinare a priori il cambiamento che ha luogo nei processi di lavoro organizzato interessati dall’introduzione di tecnologie informatiche e della comunicazione, e sulla sua natura contestuale, evidenziando che i cambiamenti variano da azienda a azienda, e da processo a processo, in funzione del modo in cui uno strumento informatico è concretamente adottato ed effettivamente utilizzato nello specifico processo di lavoro analizzato. Il cambiamento è multidimensionale, potendo interessare non solo la struttura, ma anche gli obiettivi del processo e le conoscenze richieste per raggiungerli. L’analisi evidenzia inoltre che il governo del processo di cambiamento si basa sulla capacità di distinguere le molteplici dimensioni di cambiamento implicate dall’adozione e uso di strumenti informatici nei processi di lavoro organizzato, e di gestirne la reciproca coerenza. Originalità/valore: per i soggetti che operano nelle piccole-medie imprese, la decisione di acquistare e adottare tecnologie informatiche e della comunicazione presenta una complessità maggiore rispetto ad altre forme di investimento: tali soggetti, infatti, normalmente hanno una formazione prevalentemente tecnica e ingegneristica e non possiedono conoscenze utili a valutare in modo adeguato i mutamenti che hanno luogo nei processi di lavoro organizzato a seguito dell’uso dei nuovi strumenti. Le problematiche di cambiamento implicate dall’uso dei nuovi strumenti di lavoro sono, cioè, spesso affrontate in condizioni di informazioni e conoscenze inadeguate e/o carenti. In relazione a ciò, attingendo ad adeguate proposte teoriche sviluppate nell’ambito della riflessione organizzativa, il contributo illustra criteri di analisi, presenta elementi conoscitivi e offre spunti di riflessione e discussione utili a migliorare la comprensione, da parte dei soggetti deputati all’assunzione delle decisioni di investimento informatico e al governo dei processi di cambiamento nelle piccole e medie imprese, delle complesse relazioni che intercorrono tra cambiamento tecnologico e organizzativo. Il contributo fornisce inoltre un’originale interpretazione del fenomeno della ‘resistenza al cambiamento’: a questo proposito, l’analisi svolta mostra che gli utilizzatori si oppongono all’uso di strumenti informatici secondo le modalità prescritte dalle scelte di adozione quando, in base alle conoscenze sviluppate utilizzando lo strumento e/o nello svolgimento quotidiano del proprio lavoro, valutano che quelle scelte siano di ostacolo all’efficacia e efficienza del loro lavoro.
2003
- ICT e PMI: un modello per l’analisi dei processi di adozione e implementazione dei nuovi sistemi informativi nelle imprese minori
[Articolo su rivista]
A., Caruso; Curzi, Ylenia; M., Marchiori
abstract
Questo articolo si inquadra nell’ambito di un progetto di ricerca avviato dagli autori su un campione di piccole e medie imprese (PMI) appartenenti al distretto pesarese del mobile e volto ad identificare fattori e condizioni organizzative e culturali in grado di influenzare l’efficace introduzione delle tecnologie informatiche e della comunicazione (TIC) nelle PMI. Dopo un’analisi preliminare dei contributi sviluppati nell’ambito della letteratura che indaga i rapporti tra TIC e Organizzazione, gli autori propongono e illustrano un modello finalizzato a migliorare la comprensione dei fenomeni che caratterizzano i processi di adozione delle TIC e a fornire alcune indicazioni normative al management. Il modello viene, poi, posto a confronto con quelli già elaborati in letteratura al fine di identificarne similitudini e differenze. Infine, sono discusse le principali considerazioni che emergono dalla prime applicazioni del modello ad alcuni casi di PMI analizzati dagli autori nel corso della ricerca sul campo.
2003
- L’incontro tra la domanda e l’offerta di ICT: temi emersi dalla tavola rotonda
[Articolo su rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Il contributo affronta la questione della scarsa diffusione di tecnologie informatiche e della comunicazione (ICT) presso le piccole-medie imprese italiane, passa in rassegna alcune delle principali ragioni di questo ritardo (grado di coerenza tra le tecnologie offerte rispetto alle caratteristiche dei prodotti e processi delle imprese utilizzatrici; capacità di queste ultime di comprendere le implicazioni delle tecnologie sull’organizzazione), quali emergono dalle percezioni di alcuni dei principali soggetti coinvolti nel processo di introduzione delle ICT (imprese utilizzatrici e software house), e concentra l’attenzione su alcune leve di intervento utilizzabili per favorire il superamento degli ostacoli. Il contributo, infine, descrive alcune esperienze di utilizzo di ICT particolarmente innovative realizzate da piccole-medie imprese e software house localizzate nella provincia di Pesaro-Urbino.
2002
- Recensione di “Ente Bilaterale Nazionale Artigianato (a cura di), Indagine Nazionale sui Fabbisogni Formativi nell’Artigianato, Roma: EBNA, 2000”
[Recensione in Rivista]
Curzi, Ylenia
abstract
Gli Enti Bilaterali sono strutture paritetiche istituite a livello interconfederale dai sindacati dei lavoratori e dalle associazioni dei datori di lavoro con il compito, tra gli altri, di svolgere attività di rilevazione e analisi dei fabbisogni formativi allo scopo di fornire una valida e aggiornata base informativa che possa favorire il dialogo e il raccordo operativo tra sistema produttivo e sistema formativo e tra i vari enti che operano all’interno di quest’ultimo. Ottemperando a uno dei suoi compiti istituzionali, l’Ente Bilaterale Nazionale Artigianato ha promosso, con il contributo del Ministero del Lavoro, un’indagine nazionale sui fabbisogni formativi nell’artigianato, i cui contenuti e risultati sono presentati in una pubblicazione composta di 23 volumi. Il primo volume illustra le finalità operative e il disegno complessivo della ricerca (schemi concettuali e scelte metodologiche adottate). La finalità della ricerca è di contribuire ad una programmazione della formazione che sia svolta in ottica anticipatoria e perciò diretta ad aumentare l’occupabilità delle persone in tutte le fasi della loro vita e quindi a proporre percorsi di formazione continua. Al centro dell’indagine sono la rilevazione, valutazione e descrizione delle competenze e dei saperi professionali di imprenditori e lavoratori nell’artigianato con il fine di fornire elementi utili per arrivare alla definizione di norme dirette al riconoscimento e alla certificazione delle competenze realmente acquisite sul lavoro, questi ultimi considerati quali condizioni imprescindibili per regolare il funzionamento della formazione continua. La competenza professionale è intesa come concetto multidimensionale: individuale, sociale e contestuale. I volumi dal secondo al ventunesimo sono dedicati all’analisi della struttura socio-economica del comparto dell’artigianato (struttura occupazionale, profilo professionale dell’imprenditore, evoluzione del mercato). Il volume ventidue presenta l’analisi delle modalità specifiche con cui il lavoro e la produzione sono organizzati nelle aziende artigiane; il volume ventitré, infine, è dedicato all’analisi delle competenze e dei percorsi di professionalizzazione di imprenditori e lavoratori artigiani. Nel complesso, i risultati dell’indagine evidenziano che la competenza posseduta dipende dalla qualità del contesto lavorativo e dalla possibilità di socializzare le proprie conoscenze; prefigurano inoltre la necessità di un più forte legame tra istruzione formale e processi di formazione e apprendimento “sul campo”.