Tra flessibilità e precarietà: una ricerca su lavoro atipico e imprese

The theme of “work flexibility” and the emergence of non-typical work regulations in Italy represent important topics in the Italian labour market.
In this paper the author summarizes the most significant evidences from research efforts on work flexibility within a group of Ligurian companies. The author finds that the attitudes of the interviewed enterprises towards non-typical work are neither definite, nor clear. There is a variety of theoretical approaches, management philosophies and strategic visions on the problem. It is quite impossible to generalize in this field, because Italian firms reject both a “fundamentally positive” approach and a “fundamentally negative” approach to the problem. The paper also highlights the characteristics of the firms that use non-typical work, particularly with respect to their organizational culture and strategic goals . The cultural heritage matters in explaining the firms’ attitude towards non-typical work.
The paper shows that there is a clear difference between the approach of the “old style” corporations and the approach of the “new generation” of entrepreneurs : the former seem to embody a “virtue stance” about flexibility, while the latter have an efficiency bias, which will not develop into a long term view of work and non-typical work.