XVI International Conference in Commemoration of Professor Marco Biagi

  • Federico Fusco (Presenter)

Activity: Participating in or organising an eventParticipation in conference

Description

Historic societal changes are taking place in the global scenario, and their impact on the world of work is clearly perceived by its actors and practitioners. Researchers and policy-makers are currently facing the task of devising effective analytical tools and providing solutions to the problems and the challenges arising from the new structural patterns taking shape.

Technological transformations, in particular the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, are producing far-reaching adaptations, if not a deep conversion, of models of production and work organization. These effects give rise to the need to rethink the relationship between the factors of production. As far as workers are concerned, the implications are uncertain, increasing their formal autonomy from standardized practices but also their dependency on digital processes with an impact on every phase of the performance of work, from the definition of tasks to monitoring and assessment. Due to the trends of downsizing, mergers, and decentralization, as well as the blurring of boundaries in employer-employee-customer relationships, new models for the organization and assessment of work performance have emerged (constant feedback; electronic performance monitoring and appraisal, ratings and rankings).

At the same time, a series of anthropological and geopolitical phenomena, including significant migratory flows, have increased the complexity of societies. This is mirrored in the changing patterns of internal labour markets and workplace organization, with ambiguous implications in terms of risks and opportunities. While it is widely acknowledged that diversity can serve as a factor generating innovation and wealth, multiculturalism entails the need to facilitate integration and prevent the segregation of minorities, against a background characterized by long-term issues relating to gender discrimination and disadvantaged employment. The workplace becomes the site of engagement between personal, cultural, religious, demographic, economic and social claims that need to be reconciled, without losing sight of the broader principles of citizenship within political communities.

The performance of work and the way it is assessed provide a useful perspective from which these patterns can be examined. Recent changes have had a significant impact on work performance, breaking down the previous, standardized, yet already problematic, models and categories and emphasizing the individual characteristics and personal implications for each worker involved in the production process.

The way work is organized and performed; the means to appraise its value; the guarantee of rights while assessing the fulfilment of the obligations on which the work performance is based; the integration of performance in complex and often dematerialized or virtual organizations, the interaction and interdependencies between individuals and groups within and outside organizations with a diverse workforce. All of these elements are part of the changing social environment, and each one calls for an effort to update the interpretative categories and the regulatory solutions, taking into account the web of manifold interests that converge on these issues, at times overlapping, at times conflicting.

Against this backdrop, there is a need to establish an integrated framework of knowledge, construct a sound taxonomy of the phenomena under examination, evaluate their impact, outline future perspectives and put forward a comprehensive set of policy proposals
Period2018 Mar 192018 Mar 21
Event typeConference
LocationModena, ItalyShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational

UKÄ subject classification

  • Law

Free keywords

  • labour law
  • privacy
  • italy
  • spain
  • sweden