While there are normally positive expectations concerning job quality in cooperatives, many studies have described a more complex picture. The extant literature has, however, found it difficult to deal with evidence of poor working conditions in these organisations. Some contributions downplay the relevance of this issue, arguing that poor extrinsic aspects of job quality are compensated by intrinsic rewards, as confirmed by higher levels of job satisfaction. Others focus on external market pressure and interpret bad labour conditions as a form of degeneration of originally good employment practices. Through a qualitative analysis of job quality in cooperatives in three sectors of the Italian economy (social services, hotel cleaning and meat processing), we advance a different argument: we contend that employment practices associated with poor job quality are not the result of difficult market conditions but are rather the key explanation for the quantitative expansion of this form of economic organisation, which has moved from being an instrument for promoting good employment to a way of ensuring lower labour costs and higher flexibility within outsourcing relationships.

Job quality in worker cooperatives: Beyond degeneration and intrinsic rewards / L. Dorigatti, F.E. Iannuzzi, V. Piro, D. Sacchetto. - In: BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. - ISSN 0007-1080. - (2024), pp. 1-23. [Epub ahead of print] [10.1111/bjir.12798]

Job quality in worker cooperatives: Beyond degeneration and intrinsic rewards

L. Dorigatti
Primo
;
V. Piro
Penultimo
;
2024

Abstract

While there are normally positive expectations concerning job quality in cooperatives, many studies have described a more complex picture. The extant literature has, however, found it difficult to deal with evidence of poor working conditions in these organisations. Some contributions downplay the relevance of this issue, arguing that poor extrinsic aspects of job quality are compensated by intrinsic rewards, as confirmed by higher levels of job satisfaction. Others focus on external market pressure and interpret bad labour conditions as a form of degeneration of originally good employment practices. Through a qualitative analysis of job quality in cooperatives in three sectors of the Italian economy (social services, hotel cleaning and meat processing), we advance a different argument: we contend that employment practices associated with poor job quality are not the result of difficult market conditions but are rather the key explanation for the quantitative expansion of this form of economic organisation, which has moved from being an instrument for promoting good employment to a way of ensuring lower labour costs and higher flexibility within outsourcing relationships.
Settore SPS/09 - Sociologia dei Processi economici e del Lavoro
2024
12-mar-2024
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1040429
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