Riassunto analitico
Advances in ICT have forever transformed the way work is performed and one of the greatest challenges that company are facing is how to build an effective workforce in a technology-rich and dynamic business environment. One possibility is given by the adoption of Smart Working practices representing a new form of work characterized by an intensive use of ICT tools, flexible working time and workplaces, high mobility and a different degree of autonomy. Therefore, it’s a method based on the use of digital and portable devices which allow people to operate independently from space and time, working anywhere and anytime. Despite the increasing diffusion of this new kind of work practices, there are surprisingly few researches on how organization can evaluate the smart workers’ performance. Example are what the literature called modern methods: management by objectives (MBO), 360/720-degree feedback evaluations. This means that a correct judgment seems to be based on results or behaviours, and usually is done by the direct supervisor or, sometimes, by a system of multi-source-feedback. The present study is aimed at giving a theoretical background, and through an empirical analysis, studying the diffusion of MBO practices and its relationship with the perceived level of job satisfaction within the smart workers. In the academic literature few studies focus on the issue related to the performance evaluation methods used with smart workers. Therefore, due to the increasing interest in this new philosophy of work, this study tries to contribute to fill this gap through an analysis of secondary data coming from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), on a sample of nearly 44,000 workers in 35 countries. The first part of this master thesis is a literature review on Smart Working. After a brief introduction about the reasons and the driving forces of the phenomenon, SW is defined and deeply analysed, covering all its peculiarities and pillars. From the roots, such as freedom of employees, the autonomy and trust to its levers that are, according to the literature, the Behaviours, the Bytes and the Bricks. Then, being the object of studies, debates, and attention of many firms, organizations, and governments, in the last section I’m going to discuss which are the main issues in nowadays debates. In the second part of this study, I address the issues of the smart worker’s evaluation. It’s a key problem in nowadays discussion due to the fact that smart workers operate primarily through their knowledge and capabilities and, these aspects are difficult to be evaluated. Firstly, I give a brief description and explanation of the performance evaluation systems in order to highlight the main aspects; secondly I list all the possible methods used by company in order to evaluate their employees; finally, given the smart worker characteristics, the literature and the key aspect of the methods, I’m going to focus on MBO, 360/720-degree feedback because they seem to be the most appropriate methods. In the third part of the study, the research hypotheses are tested through the analysis of the secondary data of the 6th EWCS. Specifically, a sample consisting of only employees (not self-employed) is drawn from the whole sample. Then, based on specific conditions coming from the answers to the EWCS, proxy variables representing Smart Workers and MBO are created. Later in order to describe them, descriptive statistics are computed. Finally, using contingency tables, the degree of diffusion of MBO practices among Smart and Traditional workers is found, as well as, a possible relationship between the two variables of interests and between these and other control variables. Then, measures of association are used in order to better investigate the existence of the relationships among the variables. In the final part of the study, the results of the analysis, as well as limitations, are discussed and further researches are suggested.
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Abstract
Advances in ICT have forever transformed the way work is performed and one of the greatest challenges that company are facing is how to build an effective workforce in a technology-rich and dynamic business environment. One possibility is given by the adoption of Smart Working practices representing a new form of work characterized by an intensive use of ICT tools, flexible working time and workplaces, high mobility and a different degree of autonomy. Therefore, it’s a method based on the use of digital and portable devices which allow people to operate independently from space and time, working anywhere and anytime. Despite the increasing diffusion of this new kind of work practices, there are surprisingly few researches on how organization can evaluate the smart workers’ performance. Example are what the literature called modern methods: management by objectives (MBO), 360/720-degree feedback evaluations. This means that a correct judgment seems to be based on results or behaviours, and usually is done by the direct supervisor or, sometimes, by a system of multi-source-feedback. The present study is aimed at giving a theoretical background, and through an empirical analysis, studying the diffusion of MBO practices and its relationship with the perceived level of job satisfaction within the smart workers. In the academic literature few studies focus on the issue related to the performance evaluation methods used with smart workers. Therefore, due to the increasing interest in this new philosophy of work, this study tries to contribute to fill this gap through an analysis of secondary data coming from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), on a sample of nearly 44,000 workers in 35 countries. The first part of this master thesis is a literature review on Smart Working. After a brief introduction about the reasons and the driving forces of the phenomenon, SW is defined and deeply analysed, covering all its peculiarities and pillars. From the roots, such as freedom of employees, the autonomy and trust to its levers that are, according to the literature, the Behaviours, the Bytes and the Bricks. Then, being the object of studies, debates, and attention of many firms, organizations, and governments, in the last section I’m going to discuss which are the main issues in nowadays debates. In the second part of this study, I address the issues of the smart worker’s evaluation. It’s a key problem in nowadays discussion due to the fact that smart workers operate primarily through their knowledge and capabilities and, these aspects are difficult to be evaluated. Firstly, I give a brief description and explanation of the performance evaluation systems in order to highlight the main aspects; secondly I list all the possible methods used by company in order to evaluate their employees; finally, given the smart worker characteristics, the literature and the key aspect of the methods, I’m going to focus on MBO, 360/720-degree feedback because they seem to be the most appropriate methods. In the third part of the study, the research hypotheses are tested through the analysis of the secondary data of the 6th EWCS. Specifically, a sample consisting of only employees (not self-employed) is drawn from the whole sample. Then, based on specific conditions coming from the answers to the EWCS, proxy variables representing Smart Workers and MBO are created. Later in order to describe them, descriptive statistics are computed. Finally, using contingency tables, the degree of diffusion of MBO practices among Smart and Traditional workers is found, as well as, a possible relationship between the two variables of interests and between these and other control variables. Then, measures of association are used in order to better investigate the existence of the relationships among the variables. In the final part of the study, the results of the analysis, as well as limitations, are discussed and further researches are suggested.
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