Fostering quality and well-being: remote work strategies in italian SMEs

Titolo Rivista STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Autori/Curatori Marino Pezzolo, Ugo Ascoli
Anno di pubblicazione 2025 Fascicolo 2025/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 31 P. 59-89 Dimensione file 941 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2025-002003
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This study explores how remote work is interpreted and practiced in Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), drawing on 90 semi-structured interviews across 30 organizations. Adopting an exploratory and interpretive approach, the study investigates how employees experience remote work in relation to well-being, spatial flexibility, and non-remoteable tasks. Rather than a uniform model, remote work in SMEs emerges as a situated and negotiated practice, shaped by organizational culture, life trajectories, and structural constraints. The findings identify three interrelated patterns: remote work as a fragile resource for well-being, spatial autonomy as both empowerment and pressure, and hybrid models developed through relational adaptation rather than formal strategy. The study contributes to current debates on remote work by highlighting how flexibility and autonomy in SMEs are contingent upon informal practices, interpersonal trust, and uneven domestic infrastructures. The paper concludes with implications for policy and organizational practice, calling for context-sensitive approaches to remote and hybrid work that recognize the diversity of roles, biographies, and spatial arrangements.

Questo studio esplora come il lavoro a distanza viene interpretato e praticato nelle piccole e medie imprese (PMI) italiane, attingendo a 90 interviste semi-strutturate in 30 organizzazioni. Adottando un approccio esplorativo e interpretativo, lo studio indaga come i dipendenti vivono il lavoro a distanza in relazione al benessere, alla flessibilità spaziale e alle mansioni non remotizzabili. Piuttosto che un modello uniforme, il lavoro a distanza nelle PMI emerge come una pratica situata e negoziata, plasmata dalla cultura organizzativa, dalle traiettorie di vita e dai vincoli strutturali. I risultati identificano tre modelli correlati: il lavoro a distanza come risorsa fragile per il benessere, l’autonomia spaziale come empowerment e allo stesso tempo pressione, e modelli ibridi sviluppati attraverso l’adattamento relazionale piuttosto che strategie formali. Lo studio contribuisce agli attuali dibattiti sul lavoro a distanza evidenziando come la flessibilità e l’autonomia nelle PMI dipendano da pratiche informali, fiducia interpersonale e infrastrutture domestiche disuguali. L’articolo si conclude con implicazioni per le policy e la pratica organizzativa, richiedendo approcci sensibili al contesto per il lavoro ibrido e a distanza, che riconoscano la diversità dei ruoli, delle biografie e delle configurazioni spaziali.

Parole chiave:PMI italiane; lavoro a distanza; lavoro ibrido; benessere dei dipendenti; pratiche organizzative.

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Marino Pezzolo, Ugo Ascoli, Fostering quality and well-being: remote work strategies in italian SMEs in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 2/2025, pp 59-89, DOI: 10.3280/SO2025-002003