Lisa Dorigatti, Francesco E. Iannuzzi, Valeria Piro, Devi Sacchetto
{"title":"Job quality in worker cooperatives: Beyond degeneration and intrinsic rewards","authors":"Lisa Dorigatti, Francesco E. Iannuzzi, Valeria Piro, Devi Sacchetto","doi":"10.1111/bjir.12798","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":47846,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Industrial Relations","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjir.12798","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
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.
期刊介绍:
BJIR (British Journal of Industrial Relations) is an influential and authoritative journal which is essential reading for all academics and practitioners interested in work and employment relations. It is the highest ranked European journal in the Industrial Relations & Labour category of the Social Sciences Citation Index. BJIR aims to present the latest research on developments on employment and work from across the globe that appeal to an international readership. Contributions are drawn from all of the main social science disciplines, deal with a broad range of employment topics and express a range of viewpoints.