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The New Institutional Approach to Analyze the Italian Temporary Work Agencies’ Field

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Temporary Work Agencies in Italy

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Economics ((BRIEFSECONOMICS))

Abstract

This article analyses the process of evolution of an “organizational field”: from its emergence to nowadays. By an in-depth longitudinal analysis from 1986 to 2011 we study the emergence and evolution of the Italian Temporary Work Agencies field (TWA), analyzing the interaction between players in the field and the influence of the regulatory framework on the actors’ behavior. In particular, the article analyses the role of actors within the field and the institutional logics that characterize it. Our study contributes to the institutional logic perspective fitting into the discussion on the coexistence of competing logics in an organizational field. The peculiar aspect is that the regulatory frame strongly influences the strategic and organizational behavior of the actors within the Italian TWA’s field. Therefore, the actors face an institutional complexity to which they try to answer with a series of individual and collective actions aimed at influencing the same logics through a mutual conditioning that may be more or less direct.

Authored by Alessia Berni and Mariavittoria Cicellin.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Institutions also consist of “cognitive, normative and regulative structures that provide stability and meaning to social behavior. Institutions are transported by various carriers—cultures, structures and routines—and they operate at multiple levels of jusrisdiction” (Scott 1995, Italian translation 1998, op. cit. p. 55).

  2. 2.

    For details see Introduction and Research method section.

  3. 3.

    With regard to the role and institutional action of multinationals in the employment agency sector, see also Koene and Ansari (2011).

  4. 4.

    Although the murder of Professor Biagi by the Red Brigades was an extremely important event that shocked Italian political and social life, it did not have a direct impact on the organizational field of employment agencies in terms of the theoretical approach of this study, although it undoubtedly influenced future legislative decisions concerning the labour market. These decisions partly modified the general institutional logics of the labour market in Italy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Management and Institutions, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Stefano Consiglio

  2. Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy

    Luigi Moschera

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  1. Stefano Consiglio
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  2. Luigi Moschera
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Correspondence to Stefano Consiglio .

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Consiglio, S., Moschera, L. (2016). The New Institutional Approach to Analyze the Italian Temporary Work Agencies’ Field. In: Temporary Work Agencies in Italy. SpringerBriefs in Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44541-0_7

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