Reconceptualising Work and Employment in Complex Productive Configurations

Area of Science:

• Sociology of work
• Organizational studies
• Economic sociology

Background:

• Work increasingly occurs in network firms and value chains, extending control beyond legal boundaries.
• Traditional firm-level analysis is insufficient for understanding these extended organizational forms.
• Sociological concepts of work organization, control, and risk are crucial for analyzing new employment structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a model for analyzing social relations of work and employment in networked organizational forms.
• To understand how inequalities are manufactured within these extended structures.
• To provide a framework for institutional renewal by reconnecting control and responsibility.

Main Methods:

• Shifting the level of analysis from the firm to the productive configuration.
• Introducing the concept of social labor relations to define worker relationships with controlling entities.
• Analyzing the dimensions of control exercised by entities over social labor relations.

Main Results:

• Social labor relations offer a framework to compare worker groups within the same configuration.
• Identifies how control is exercised by various entities across different dimensions of social labor relations.
• Highlights the fragmentation of control and responsibility in networked work.

Conclusions:

• The proposed model provides a sociological lens to understand work and inequality in contemporary organizational forms.
• Understanding the exercise of control is essential for addressing inequalities and fostering institutional renewal.
• Reconnecting control and responsibility is key to navigating the complexities of modern employment structures.