How to expand the role of employers in firm networks?: Lessons from collective bargaining with the property of outlet malls in Italy

Gasparri, Stefano

Abstract

This chapter examines the role employers play in firm networks and with which implications for the management of the employment relationship. It acknowledges the main challenge as the extent to which the reconfiguration of business activities along firm networks reduces employers' responsibility for their workforce. At the same time, it explores the opportunities for expanding such responsibility across firm networks. The analysis contributes to the employment relations literature in three ways: science-building, problem-solving, ethics/ideological. First, it proposes a concise review of key theories on firm networks in employment relations, framing corresponding challenges as organisational, industrial and financial. Second, it identifies innovative solutions to issues related to the diffusion of firm networks in employment relations, with evidence based on an unexplored setting such as outlet malls in Italy and consisting of collective bargaining agreements that retail trade unions signed with the property of outlet malls, rather than the tenant retailers. Third, it discusses assumptions and principles in employment relations, comprehending the novelties brought by firm networks within a conventional understanding of the subject. The argument which is advanced throughout the chapter is that firm networks allow for the reproduction of employment relations if the role of employers in the management of the employment relationship is extended to other business agents, possibly the “real boss”, such as the property owning the workplace.

Citation

Gasparri, S. (2022). How to expand the role of employers in firm networks?: Lessons from collective bargaining with the property of outlet malls in Italy. In B. Brandl, B. Larsson, A. Lehr, & O. Molina (Eds.), Employment Relations as Networks: Methods and Theory (195-216). Taylor & Francis (Routledge). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003125730-14

• Online Publication Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 15, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 6, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 2, 2023
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Pages: 195-216
• Book Title: Employment Relations as Networks: Methods and Theory
• Chapter Number: 12
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003125730-14
• Keywords: employers; firm networks; Lessons; collective bargaining; outlet malls; Italy
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9612403
• Publisher URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003125730-13/international-networks-activities-peak-employers-associations-bernd-brandl-alex-lehr?context=ubx&refId=7484248f-19aa-4bbe-abcd-0005bec8aa21