Smart working ed emergenza sanitaria: una lettura prospettica a partire dall’esperienza dell’Invalsi del Covid-19

Abstract

Beginning with the concept of crisis management, and specifically from the integrated organizational learning model for crisis management, our aim is to analyse whether the changes induced by employment with flexible hours and location (defined by Italian law as “lavoro agile”) during the emergency phase can endure beyond the health crisis to become part of the organizational culture of companies, and what these changes are. To achieve this goal, we will present the path followed by the Invalsi (National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education and Training System) public research institute. More specifically, the analysis will compare the lavoro agile methods activated during the health emergency and the lavoro agile pilot phase, which Invalsi initiated in 2018. The data used for the analysis was collected with a questionnaire administered to employees in late May 2020. While acknowledging that the results of the analysis may be generalized only to a certain point, the issues highlighted by the case study resonate with the existing literatures on labour law and organizational well-being. The key result of the analysis indicates that long-lasting effects of lavoro agile might be seen in such areas as autonomy, trust relationships, and empowerment.