Qualità del lavoro nell'industria digitalizzata. Risultati di una ricerca empirica

This essay discusses the results of a research on working conditions in “digital- ized” companies. Over a thousand workers employed in manufacturing companies and in the banking sector in the province of Modena were interviewed. The survey covered the different dimensions of the quality of work, favouring the comparison between “digitalized” and “classic” workers. The theoretical framework of the study is, to a large extent, the one originally proposed by Gallino. For the compa- nies referred to, the ongoing changes of organizational models and technologies lead to a strong intensification of workloads and the standardization of procedures and tasks. This phenomenon affects a large majority of workers. The digital setup has left the degrees of autonomy and control unchanged (if not worsened) without strengthening the participation of workers in the production process or making the corporate mission shared by the workers. For all dimensions, marked signs of gen- der discrimination emerge. Keyword: intensification, quality of work, digitalization, gender discrimination