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Exploring the diversity of small firms, this contributed volume focuses on the crucial topic of work and the ways in which it is regulated, and offers reflections on the future of labour more generally. Traditionally managed through informal and adaptive processes, small firms allow us to understand the challenges and opportunities facing larger companies within an increasingly fragmented global production system. Analysing the case of Italy, a country characterised by a high number and wide variety of small firms, the authors draw on the results of a survey involving over 2,300 firms and face-to-face interviews with owner-managers working in 60 small and micro firms across several different sectors. Providing detailed analysis which will be useful for scholars of human resource management and small business, as well as managers, practitioners and policy-makers, the book enables a better understanding of the world of work in a globalised economy.
List of contents
Part I. Introduction.- 1. Regulating Work in Times of Productive Fragmentation; Ida Regalia.- Part II. An Empirical Exploration.- 2. Employment Relations in Small Italian Firms: An Overview; Monia Anzivino and Ida Regalia.- 3. Small Firms and the Labour Market; Rossella di Federico and Lisa Dorigatti.- 4. The Regulation of Employment Relationships at the Enterprise; Marcello Pedaci and Marco Betti.- 5. Small Firms and the External Context: Embeddedness Versus Dependency; Andrea Bellini and Vincenzo Fortunato.- Part III. Conclusions.- 6. Prospects for Employment Relations: Between Informal and Formal and Inside and Outside; Ida Regalia.
About the author
Ida Regalia is a Professor of Economic Sociology and Comparative Industrial Relations at the University of Milan, Italy.
Summary
Exploring the diversity of small firms, this contributed volume focuses on the crucial topic of work and the ways in which it is regulated, and offers reflections on the future of labour more generally. Traditionally managed through informal and adaptive processes, small firms allow us to understand the challenges and opportunities facing larger companies within an increasingly
fragmented global production system. Analysing the case of Italy, a country characterised by a high number and wide variety of small firms, the authors draw on the results of a survey involving over 2,300 firms and face-to-face interviews with owner-managers working in 60 small and micro firms across several different sectors. Providing detailed analysis which will be useful for scholars of human resource management and small business, as well as managers, practitioners and policy-makers, the book enables a better understanding of the world of work in a globalised economy.
