Work environment changes bring new risks, in particular an increase in certain diseases and illnesses caused by stress. The European Agreement of October 2004 defines stress as “a state accompanied by physical, psychological or social dysfunctions, due to the fact that people do not feel able to overcome the gap in relation to requests or expectations for them”. A new strategy aims to reduce accidents and occupational illnesses through a series of actions at European level. The approaches to prevent work related stress must specifically aim to face up organizational and social aspects, to provide training to managers and employees on management of stress, to reduce the impact and to develop suitable systems for rehabilitation and return to work for those who suffered health problems. The enterprises will have to carry out the obligations laid down by legislation, adopting detection systems customised on their size and on their specific interests. Currently manifold tools and methodologies are proposed from different subjects as employer associations, advisors for safety, psychologists etc., but none of these has been identified as a model to follow. After the reconstruction of the theoretical framework where the theme is placed in, the thesis, through a background analysis done by collecting the comments of experts who are involved in the management of occupational safety and the examination of a concrete assessment of work-related stress risk, carried out at a local health authority of Emilia-Romagna region, aims to highlight the main sociological implications related to the emergence of these new risks.

The present thesis investigates the issue of work-family conflict and facilitation in a sanitarian contest, using the DISC Model (De Jonge and Dormann, 2003, 2006). The general aim has been declined in two empirical studies reported in this dissertation chapters. Chapter 1 reporting the psychometric properties of the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire. Although the empirical evidence on the DISC Model has received a fair amount of attention in literature both for the theoretical principles and for the instrument developed to display them (DISQ; De Jonge, Dormann, Van Vegchel, Von Nordheim, Dollard, Cotton and Van den Tooren, 2007) there are no studies based solely on psychometric investigation of the instrument. In addition, no previous studies have ever used the DISC as a model or measurement instrument in an Italian context. Thus the first chapter of the present dissertation was based on psychometric investigation of the DISQ. Chapter 2 reporting a longitudinal study contribution. The purpose was to examine, using the DISC model, the relationship between emotional job characteristics, work-family interface and emotional exhaustion among a health care population. We started testing the Triple Match Principle of the DISC Model using solely the emotional dimension of the strain-stress process (i.e. emotional demands, emotional resources and emotional exhaustion). Then we investigated the mediator role played by w-f conflict and w-f facilitation in relation to emotional job characteristics and emotional exhaustion. Finally we compared the mediator model across workers involved in chronic illness home demands and workers who are not involved. Finally, a general conclusion, integrated and discussed the main findings of the studies reported in this dissertation.

The general theme of the present inquiry concerns the role of training and continuous updating of knowledge and skills in relation to the concept of employability and social vulnerability. The empirical research has affected the entire calendar year 2010, namely from 13 February 2010 to December 31, 2010: data refer to a very specific context or to the course funded by the Emilia Romagna region and targeted to employees in cassintegrazione notwithstanding domiciled in the region. The investigations were performed in a vocational training scheme accredited by the Emilia Romagna for the provision of publicly funded training courses. The quantitative data collected are limited to the region and distributed in all the provinces of Emilia Romagna; It addressed the issue of the role of continuing education throughout life and the importance of updating knowledge and skills, such as privileged instruments to address the instability of the labor market and what strategy to reduce the risk unemployment. Based on the different strategies that the employee puts in place during their professional careers, we introduce two concepts that are more common in the so-called knowledge society, namely the concept of social vulnerability and employability. In modern organizations becomes relevant knowledge they bring workers and the relationships that develop between people and allowing exponentially and disseminate such knowledge and skills. The knowledge thus becomes the first productive force, defined by Davenport and Prusak (1998) as "fluid combination of experience, values, contextual information and specialist knowledge that provides a framework for the evaluation and assimilation of new experience and new information ". Learning at work is a by stable explicit and conscious, and even enjoyable for everyone, especially outside of a training intervention. It then goes on to address the specific issue of training, under the current labor market increasingly deconstructed.

Scopo del presente lavoro di ricerca è quello di comparare due contesti metropolitani, valenciano e bolognese, sulle pratiche di accompagnamento al lavoro rivolte a fasce svantaggiate, in particolare persone con problemi di dipendenza da sostanze psicotrope. L’indagine propone un confronto su alcune tematiche trasversali (tipologia di azioni messe in campo, organizzazione territoriale e governance, profilo degli utenti, inserimento sociale, coinvolgimento del mondo produttivo) e pone in evidenza gli elementi che ci consentono di individuare e segnalare sia delle buone pratiche trasferibili sia delle linee progettuali, partendo dunque dal presupposto che capacitare una persona significa innanzitutto offrirle congrue opportunità di scelta, nel senso seniano e come spiegato dalla stessa Nussbaum, ma soprattutto accompagnarla e sostenerla nel percorso di inserimento lavorativo e, in parallelo, sociale. Il bisogno raccolto è quello di un sostegno, motivazionale e orientativo, che segua un approccio socio educativo capace di fornire, alla persona, una risposta integrata, di unicità, capace dunque di agire sull’autonomia, sull’autostima, sull’elaborazione delle proprie esperienze di vita e lavorative, nonché su elementi anche di contesto quali la casa, le reti amicali e familiari, spesso compromesse. L’elemento distintivo che consente di agire in questa direzione è il lavoro di collaborazione tra i diversi servizi e la co-progettazione del percorso con l’utente stesso. Il tema degli inserimenti lavorativi è un argomento molto complesso che chiama in causa diversi aspetti: i mutamenti sociali e le trasformazioni del lavoro; l’emergere di nuove fasce deboli e il rischio di aggravamento delle condizioni di esclusione per le fasce deboli “tradizionali”; l’importanza del lavoro per la costruzione di percorsi identitari e di riconoscimento; l’impatto delle politiche attive sulle fasce svantaggiate e i concetti di capitazione e attivazione; il ruolo del capitale sociale e l’emergere di nuovi welfare; la rete degli attori coinvolti dal processo di inserimento e il tema della governace territoriale. / The object of this research is a comparative study on the practices of coaching to employment of disadvantaged groups in Bologna and Valencia Cities, particularly people with addiction problems that comes from psychotropic substances. The survey propose a comparison of some transversal themes (type of actions undertaken, territorial organization and governance, user profiles, social inclusion, rule of world production) and highlights the elements that allow us to detect and report both, good transferable practices and the design lines. The need detected is a support, capable to give motivation and orientation, which follow an integrated approach. A social educational approach that providing to the person an integrated answer, able therefore to act on autonomy, on self-esteem, on the elaboration of their experiences of living and working, and also able to act on elements of context such as home, family and friendship networks, often compromised. The distinctive element that allows it to act in this direction is the work of collaboration between the different services and the co-design of the route with the user. The theme of the work placements is very complex and involves several aspects: the social changes and the transformation of work; the emergence of new vulnerable groups and the risk of exacerbation on the exclusion for disadvantaged ‘traditional’ groups; the importance of work for the construction of paths of identity and recognition; the impact of active policies on disadvantaged groups and the concepts of empowerment and activation; the role of social capital and the emergence of new social welfare; the network of actors involved in the integration process and the topic of territorial Governance.

Social networks are one of the “hot” themes in people’s life and contemporary social research. Considering our “embeddedness” in a thick web of social relations is a study perspective that could unveil a number of explanations of how people may manage their personal and social resources. Looking at people’s behaviors of building and managing their social networks, seems to be an effective way to find some possible rationalization about how to help people getting the best from their resources . The main aim of this dissertation is to give a closer look at the role of networking behaviors. Antecedents, motivations, different steps and measures about networking behaviors and outcomes are analyzed and discussed. Results seem to confirm, in a different setting and time perspective, that networking behaviors include different types and goals that change over time. Effects of networking behaviors seem to find empirical confirmation through social network analysis methods. Both personality and situational self-efficacy seem to predict networking behaviors. Different types of motivational drivers seem to be related to diverse networking behaviors.

The market’s challenges bring firms to collaborate with other organizations in order to create Joint Ventures, Alliances and Consortia that are defined as “Interorganizational Networks” (IONs) (Provan, Fish and Sydow; 2007). Some of these IONs are managed through a shared partecipant governance (Provan and Kenis, 2008): a team composed by entrepreneurs and/or directors of each firm of an ION. The research is focused on these kind of management teams and it is based on an input-process-output model: some input variables (work group’s diversity, intra-team's friendship network density) have a direct influence on the process (team identification, shared leadership, interorganizational trust, team trust and intra-team's communication network density), which influence some team outputs, individual innovation behaviors and team effectiveness (team performance, work group satisfaction and ION affective commitment). Data was collected on a sample of 101 entrepreneurs grouped in 28 ION’s government teams and the research hypotheses are tested trough the path analysis and the multilevel models. As expected trust in team and shared leadership are positively and directly related to team effectiveness while team identification and interorganizational trust are indirectly related to the team outputs. The friendship network density among the team’s members has got positive effects on the trust in team and on the communication network density, and also, through the communication network density it improves the level of the teammates ION affective commitment. The shared leadership and its effects on the team effectiveness are fostered from higher level of team identification and weakened from higher level of work group diversity, specifically gender diversity. Finally, the communication network density and shared leadership at the individual level are related to the frequency of individual innovative behaviors. The dissertation’s results give a wider and more precise indication about the management of interfirm network through “shared” form of governance.

Il tema generale del dottorato di ricerca è l'analisi delle politiche di attivazione in Italia durante la crisi economica. La combinazione di politiche attive e passive del lavoro viene interpretata ricorrendo al quadro teorico proposto da Amartya Sen e basato sul concetto di capability. Abbiamo considerato le misure nazionali e regionali nel quadro delle linee guida europee e analizzato le tendenze verso l'empowerment dei beneficiari di politiche del lavoro attraverso il concetto di capability proposto da Sen. La ricerca empirica ha utilizzato diversi strumenti per la raccolta dei dati: focus group, un questionario inviato ad un campione di 1.200 lavoratori, e interviste. / The general theme of the Ph.D. thesis is the analysis of activation policies in Italy during the current economic crises. The combination of active and passive labour policies is interpreted recurring to the theoretical framework proposed by Amartya Sen and based on the concept of capability. We have considered the design of the national and regional measures in the framework of European guidelines and we have analyzed trends towards the empowerment of the beneficiaries of labour policies in the sense proposed by Sen with the concept of capability. The empirical research has used different tools for data collection: focus group, a questionnaire sent to a sample of 1,200 workers, and interviews.

L’idea generale da cui parte l’attività di analisi e di ricerca della tesi è che l’identità non sia un dato acquisito ma un processo aperto. Processo che è portato avanti dall’interazione tra riconoscimento sociale del proprio ruolo lavorativo e rappresentazione soggettiva di sé. La categoria di lavoratori che è stata scelta è quella degli informatori scientifici del farmaco, in virtù del fatto che la loro identificazione con il ruolo professionale e la complessa costruzione identitaria è stata duramente messa alla prova negli ultimi anni a seguito di una profonda crisi che ha coinvolto la categoria. Per far fronte a questa crisi nel 2008 è stato creato un dispositivo, che ha visto il coinvolgimento di aziende, lavoratori, agenzie per il lavoro e organizzazioni sindacali, allo scopo di ricollocare il personale degli informatori scientifici del farmaco coinvolto in crisi e/o ristrutturazioni aziendali. / The general idea from which part of the analysis and research of the thesis is that identity is not an acquired but an open process. Process that is carried out by the interaction between social recognition of their work role and subjective representation of self. The category of workers that has been chosen is that of medical representatives, by virtue of the fact that their identification with the professional role and the complex construction of identity has been sorely tested in recent years as a result of a profound crisis that has involved the category. To cope with this crisis in 2008 was created a device, which has seen the involvement of companies, workers, employment agencies and labor organizations, in order to redeploy personnel of the medical representatives involved in crisis and / or renovations busines

La tesi si prefigge di ricostruire il quadro normativo e concettuale che si è venuto ad enucleare a seguito dell’abrogazione della legge n.1369/1960 in tema di interposizione di manodopera, nonché della contemporanea dilatazione della responsabilità solidale del committente di un appalto di opera o servizi in forza del disposto dell’art. 29, d.lgs. n. 276/2003. Nella prospettiva di attribuire al regime di solidarietà particolare attenzione l’Autore descrive, nel primo capitolo, tutte le ipotesi di responsabilità solidale presenti nel Codice civile con l’intento di individuare una base comune a tutte le fattispecie prese in esame. Nel capitolo secondo si analizzano le evoluzioni dell’art. 29, d.lgs. n. 276/2003 e le numerose modifiche che tale norma ha dovuto sopportare, estendendo l’analisi al regime contributivo e fiscale, nonché alla disciplina relativa alla salute e sicurezza dei lavoratori. Il terzo capitolo, infine, analizza gli aspetti critici della solidarietà negli appalti, dal tema della successione nel contratto di appalto da parte di un nuovo appaltatore a quello della compatibilità delle clausole sociali con il diritto europeo passando per la derogabilità al suddetto regime da parte della contrattazione collettiva, alle ipotesi di simulazione di contratti di appalto, senza tralasciare di analizzare l’ambito di applicazione della responsabilità solidale di cui all’art. 29, d.lgs. n. 276/2003 anche ad altre fattispecie negoziali attigue all’appalto. L’analisi si conclude, poi, con la confutazione dell’opinione dottrinale secondo la quale le esternalizzazioni d’impresa realizzate attraverso contratti di appalto porterebbero all’insorgenza di ipotesi di codatorialità. / The thesis aims to reconstruct the conceptual framework and that it has come to devise following the repeal of the law n.1369/1960 concerning the interposition of labor, as well as the contemporary expansion of joint liability of the buyer of a tender contract for work or services under the provisions of art. 29, Legislative Decree n. 276/2003. In the perspective of giving special attention to the system of joint and several liability in tender contracts the author describes, in the first chapter, all cases of joint and several liability in the Italian Civil Code with the intent to establish a common base in all cases examined. In the second chapter we analyze the evolution of the art. 29, Legislative Decree n. 276/2003 and the many changes that this standard has had to endure, extending the analysis to social insurance contribution and tax, as well as the rules on the health and safety of workers. The third chapter analyzes the critical aspects of joint and several liability in tender contracts, the issue of succession in the contract by a new contractor to that of the compatibility of social clauses with European law through the derogation to that scheme by the collective bargaining, the simulation assumptions of tender contracts, without neglecting to analyze the scope of joint liability in art. 29 , Legislative Decree n. 276/2003 also to other cases adjacent negotiating. The analysis concludes, then, with the refutation doctrinal opinion according to which the outsourcing business achieved through procurement contracts would lead to the onset of hypotheses of joint employment doctrine.

This dissertation focuses on “organizational efficacy”, in particular on employees’ beliefs of organizational capacity to be efficacious. Organizational efficacy is considered from two perspectives – competing values approach and collective efficacy, and evaluated in internationalized companies. The dissertation is composed of three studies. The data were collected in thirteen Italian companies on different stages of internationalization for a total number of respondents is 358. In the first study the factorial validity of the competing values instrument (Rohrbaugh, 1981) was investigated and confirmed. Two scales were used to measure collective efficacy: a general collective efficacy scale (Bohn, 2010), and a specific collective efficacy scale, developed following suggestions of Borgogni et al. (2001), it evaluates employees’ beliefs of efficacy of organizations in the international market. The findings suggest that competing values and collective organizational efficacy instruments may provide a multi-faceted measurement of employees’ beliefs of organizational efficacy. The second study examined the relationship between organizational efficacy and collective work engagement. To measure collective work engagement the UWES-9 (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003) was adapted at the group level; its factor structure and reliability were similar to the standard UWES-9. The findings suggest that organizational efficacy fully predicts collective work engagement. Also we investigated whether leadership moderates the relationship between organizational efficacy and collective work engagement. We operationalized leadership style with MLQ (Bass & Avolio, 1995); the results suggest that intellectual stimulation and idealized influence (transformational leadership) and contingent reward (transactional leadership) enhance the impact of organizational efficacy on collective work engagement. In the third study we investigated organizational efficacy and collective work engagement in internationalized companies. The findings show that beliefs of organizational efficacy vary across companies in different stages of internationalization, while no significant difference was found for collective work engagement. Limitations, practical implications and future studies are discussed in the conclusion.