Labour regulation in small firms : In search of a more comprehensive employment/industrial relations paradigm

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight a series of critical points in the traditional theory (and practice) of ER/IR, in search of a more comprehensive paradigm. Design/methodology/approach After an introduction based on a literature review, the paper draws on the results of recent empirical research, and particularly of a survey of employment relations in Italian small firms, in order to explore the extent to which practices conform to traditional expectations on the functioning of collectively mediated IR systems. Findings Through the combination of two dimensions – the representation of labour and the degree of workplace welfare – a typology of ER models in small firms is thus delineated unveiling the diffusion of “anomalous” configurations, in which labour organization and workplace welfare are disconnected from one another. Research limitations/implications The research results, which are here instrumentally used as an example of a much broader range of facts and behaviours that challenge the traditional wisdom, disclose a number of implications at theoretical level, that still need to be fully appreciated. They include the need to consider: the structure and composition of resources available to ER/IR actors both within and beyond workplaces; and the conditions for good labour relations also in absence of representation. Originality/value The paper contributes to the debate on the possibilities of positive and socially acceptable ways of setting the rules of work in the globalized scenario by focussing not on new, fashionable issues, but on an old problem often neglected by classic studies on industrial relations in the golden age.