Abstract
This chapter focuses on “smart working”, also known as “agile work”, which is work based on the intensive use of digital devices and increasing spatial and temporal “disembedding” from the formal organization. The chapter first examines the spread of the phenomenon at the international and national levels. Through a meta-analysis of existing qualitative and quantitative research, it then addresses the following research questions:
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Organizational autonomy, discretion, and control in the regulation of work.
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The relationship between digitalization, employment, and individual and organizational productivity.
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The reconciliation of work with extra-work life.
What emerges is a complex picture, including both opportunities and risks with respect to the development and circulation of new competences, work–life balance, and good practices of organizing work and productivity.
This chapter is the result of the joint work of the authors. However, sections were authored as follows: “Introduction” by Tania Parisi; “Smart Working: A Statistical Portrait” by Roberto Albano and Tania Parisi; “Organizational Autonomy, Discretion and Control in the Organizational Regulation of Work” and related subsections by Ylenia Curzi; “Digitalization, Occupation and Productivity” by Tommaso Fabbri and Tania Parisi; “Reconciling Work with Private Life” by Sonia Bertolini and Tania Parisi; and “Conclusions” by Roberto Albano and Tania Parisi.
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Notes
- 1.
Cloud technologies, collaboration tools (e.g. social networks, blogs and wikis), unified communication and collaboration services (e.g. instant messaging, videoconferencing and technologies for storing, co-authoring and sharing documents), big data software, mobile devices (e.g. palmtops, tablets and smartphones), and apps (e.g. dashboards and decision cockpits) that can be downloaded onto mobile devices, thereby allowing workers to have access to digital platforms anywhere and at any time (Smart Working Observatory 2012; Vendramin and Valenduc 2016).
- 2.
The use of the term “agile work ” is commonplace, especially in Italy, at least in reference to work carried out within the employment relationship . See chapter II, entitled “Agile Work”, of Italian Law No. 81/2017 “Measures for the protection of self-employed non-entrepreneurial work and measures to facilitate flexibility in the place and time of work within the employment relationship”.
- 3.
Many of the considerations we have made so far are drawn from Pratt (2013).
- 4.
Economic News Release: American Time Use Survey Summary, 24 June 2016. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm.
- 5.
A total of 90% of eWorkers use email, access intranet platforms and sometimes participate in web conferences during their working day (Gareis et al. 2006, p. 50). To become an eWorker , therefore, it is necessary to have a series of digital skills as well as suitable devices (e.g. laptops, smartphones and fast Internet connections) (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) 2015). Thus, digital inequalities in the access to the labour market, in addition to the traditional ones, are emerging.
- 6.
For example, the surveys carried out in 2002 and 2003 within the Statistical Indicators Benchmarking the Information Society project, the 2002 General Population Survey, the 2002 Decision Maker Survey and the 2003 General Population Survey (http://sibis-eu.org/about/about.htm).
- 7.
Home is excluded from the European Commission’s definition of eWorker.
- 8.
The format of the query changed in the sixth survey, so we were unable to display a trend as for the previous index.
- 9.
- 10.
In 2016, the sample of SMEs totalled 315 cases and there were 207 large companies (Smart Working Observatory 2016, pp. 28–29).
- 11.
According to the Observatory, the reorganization of physical workplaces and an objectives-based performance-management system are two other fundamental elements of a complete approach to smart working.
- 12.
The 2016 report clarified that “[t]his calculation leaves out those who carry out operative activities tied to their physical workstations such as artisans, qualified labourers, farmers, plant conductors, workmen of static and mobile machinery , and vehicle operators who, at the current state of technology, cannot adopt smart working or, at least, not in the forms we commonly consider … Also, freelance professionals, entrepreneurs, and workers of public or private organizations with less than 10 employees are not considered as potential smart workers because the way their work is organized is already characterized by high flexibility and autonomy ” (Smart Working Observatory 2016, p. 7, our translation).
- 13.
The 2016 and 2017 reports do not make absolute values and confidence intervals available.
- 14.
Roberto Albano put forward the present typology; then it was discussed at a seminar by the authors of the present paper.
- 15.
The empirical research examined below is mainly exploratory, in particular case studies based primarily on interviews.
- 16.
The consequences for individual and organizational productivity and for individuals’ work–life balance will be addressed in detail in later sections of this chapter.
- 17.
- 18.
Matt Black Systems is a case in point. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (2014) highlighted that in the company each engineering designer was responsible for the whole process of product development (i.e. processing customer orders and purchasing material, designing, manufacturing and testing, inspection, marketing, and dispatch). The work was supported by software that provided each operator with the overall framework for dealing with any aspect of the project but also allowed a degree of flexibility to adjust each template to the nature of each task. The software also contained information and training materials that were used by newcomers to develop their knowledge and skills within the real-time working environment.
- 19.
In other words, the ability to assess, according to the situation, whether it is better to follow the formally prescribed or another existing and available procedure (in digital organization memories) in order to carry out one’s own activities or whether it is necessary to develop new procedures.
- 20.
According to Keynes, technological unemployment is “unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses of labour” (Keynes 1930/1963, p. 358).
- 21.
We refer to employees who use ICT devices for at least three fourths of their working time.
- 22.
In Denmark and Great Britain, the difference between rigid and flexible workers is not statistically significant.
- 23.
We constructed the indexes through a mean-based dichotomous transformation of the scores resulting from a principal component analysis. The first index includes “… How often have you …”, “Kept worrying about work when you were not working?”, “Felt too tired after work to do some of the household jobs which need to be done?” and “Found that your job prevented you from giving the time you wanted to your family?”. Explained variance: Italy 61.95%; Spain 64.68%; France 58.70%; Great Britain 62.32%; Denmark 57.28%. The second index includes “… How often have you …”, “Found it difficult to concentrate on your job because of your family responsibilities?” and “Found that your family responsibilities prevented you from giving the time you should to your job?”. Explained variance: Italy 78.28%; Spain 77.37%; France 72.65%; Great Britain 78.56%; Denmark 70.03%.
- 24.
In Denmark, the differences are significant for p < 0.1.
- 25.
Law 2016–1088 of 8 Aug. 2016 relating to work, modernization of social dialogue and safeguarding of professional careers.
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Albano, R., Bertolini, S., Curzi, Y., Fabbri, T., Parisi, T. (2018). DigitAgile: The Office in a Mobile Device. Threats and Opportunities for Workers and Companies. In: Ales, E., Curzi, Y., Fabbri, T., Rymkevich, O., Senatori, I., Solinas, G. (eds) Working in Digital and Smart Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77329-2_10
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