Can democracy at work deliver mutual gains in the digital economy?

Titolo Rivista STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Autori/Curatori Virginia Doellgast
Anno di pubblicazione 2024 Fascicolo 2023/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 17 P. 213-229 Dimensione file 249 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2023-002009
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Digital and AI-based technologies provide new tools to discipline workers, intensify monitoring, and deskill jobs. This article asks under what conditions these technologies can instead be used to generate mutual gains for employers, workers, and the broader public. Two developments are discussed, which provide opportunities for new coalitions in support of strengthened collective worker voice in technology adoption and deployment. First, the growing use of these tools in a range of service occupations provides opportunities for coalitions with customers or service users focusing on technologies’ impact on service quality. Second, the importance of worker knowledge and skills as both inputs to and output of new AI-based technologies provides opportunities for a more collaborative approach to improving their accuracy and performance. To realize these opportunities for mutual gains, governments and labor unions first need to place institutional constraints on employers that strengthen bargaining rights and that protect minimum employment standards, workers’ privacy and control over data, and job security.

Le tecnologie digitali e basate sull’intelligenza artificiale forniscono nuovi strumenti per disciplinare i lavoratori, intensificare il controllo, e ridurre le competenze richieste. Questo articolo si chiede a quali condizioni queste tecnologie possano invece essere utilizzate per generare benefici reciproci per i datori di lavoro, i lavoratori e la società in generale. Vengono discusse due tendenze recenti, che offrono opportunità per nuove coalizioni a sostegno di una maggiore voce collettiva dei lavoratori nell’adozione e nella diffusione della tecnologia. In primo luogo, il crescente utilizzo di questi strumenti in una serie di occupazioni dei servizi offre opportunità di coalizioni con i clienti e gli utenti che si focalizzano sull’impatto delle tecnologie sulla qualità del servizio. In secondo luogo, l’importanza delle conoscenze e delle competenze dei lavoratori, sia come input che come output delle nuove tecnologie basate sull’intelligenza artificiale, offre opportunità per un approccio più collaborativo per migliorarne l’accuratezza e le prestazioni. Per realizzare queste opportunità di benefici reciproci per lavoratori e imprese, i governi e i sindacati devono prima imporre vincoli istituzionali ai datori di lavoro che rafforzino i diritti di contrattazione e tutelino gli standard minimi occupazionali, la privacy dei lavoratori, il controllo sui dati e la sicurezza del lavoro.

Keywords:digitalizzazione, intelligenza artificiale, benefici reciproci, sindacati, voce dei lavoratori

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Virginia Doellgast, Can democracy at work deliver mutual gains in the digital economy? in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 2/2023, pp 213-229, DOI: 10.3280/SO2023-002009