Abstract

The aim of the paper is to discuss work organization characteristics and models of human resource management adopted in firms with different employee involvement practices, industrial relations, and firm performances. The paper presents the main results of a research on a representative set of manufacturing firms localized in the Italian province of Reggio Emilia, in Emilia-Romagna. In accordance with the recent theoretical and empirical literature on organizational changes at the firm level - which distinguishes between different typologies of firm organization, "ford-taylorist" vs. "learning organization" -, our empirical findings identify techno-organizational changes, adoption of best work practices, and co-operative industrial relations as strategic factors for superior firm performances.