Appunti del direttore
Gender in Professions: When Can We Talk About Balance?
From fashion to construction, through education: when can a sector be considered "balanced" in terms of gender? The question is more complex than current discourse suggests: if a discussion crystallizes around a few ill-defined concepts, there is a risk of yielding to the emotion of the moment and not seeing the interplay of the many dimensions that characterize this relationship. Navigating between psychology, sociology, and management, between people's desires, the structure of society, and power dynamics, is not a simple challenge, but it is a necessary step to try to truly reach clarity. On ...
Psychiatric Disability: This Unknown
Despite the growing attention of businesses to the theme of inclusion in the world of work, the stigma towards people living with various forms of psychiatric disabilities persists. In a long and passionate interview, Lucia Borso, the director of the Pino Cova Foundation, actively involved in the Job Station project sponsored by the Italian Accenture Foundation and Project Itaca, helps us shed some light on the topic of psychiatric disability and its relationship with the job market and organizations in Italy. The AMBA, Association of MBAs, has recently named Sda Bocconi School of Management ...
Education for Gender Equity: What Implications for Businesses?
To bridge the gender gap, an educational degree plays a pivotal role, as it ensures the economic (and emotional) independence of women. Recent studies highlight that not only do those with a university degree earn more, but education also acts as an empowering factor for motherhood and a valuable tool against violence. However, access to education remains a privilege for a minority of women. To truly be inclusive, businesses should broaden their perspective and implement programs aimed not only at advancing the careers of women who are likely the few already holding degrees. In a country like ...
Companies and Inclusion: You Can Call It "Illusion"
According to the data from The Future of Jobs Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum, most of the companies surveyed have implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. While from one standpoint, data like these are reassuring, on the other hand, they do not reveal anything about the effectiveness of the measures taken, nor about the climate and employees' experiences in the workplace One of the latest surveys published by the World Economic Forum - The Future of Jobs Report 2023[1] - presents an interesting and seemingly reassuring finding. A significant portion of the companies surveyed ...
Pride Made in Italy
The Pride parades - 53 of them this year, in as many Italian cities - are always important, especially when those who should protect, enhance, and expand the rights of the LGBTQI+ community launch a campaign to restore oppressive models. While these diverse parades seem to unite the most advanced and progressive part of society and politics, we must be cautious of utilitarian exploitation. The issue of rights should not be viewed through the lenses of money and convenience, but through those of ethics and justice. The period that goes from May to June - with some extensions until September ...
Gender Gap: The Role of Financial Education
In an increasingly complex world where governments have transferred the responsibility of savings to citizens, financial literacy can heavily impact the fate and independence of an individual. Unfortunately, international data, data from Italy as well, still shows a significant gap in skills between men and women. This is a legacy of a past that continues to influence the family educational context and the sociocultural environment. Financial education aims to provide useful tools for understanding the functioning of "money" in order to make informed and conscious decisions regarding one's ...
Social Class and Organizations: A Strange Combination?
It's useless to deny it: being rich or poor matters in the workplace as well. When an individual enters a company's door, they bring along their entire history, including their social position. Based on the policies they adopt and the organizational climate they build day by day, organizations can either dilute or amplify these differences, which intersect with other aspects of identity, increasing or diminishing the potential stigma that weighs on the individual. The new issue of Economia & Management dedicated to the theme of poverty has recently been published.[1] The current geopolitical ...
Work, Private Life, and Parenthood: A Paradigm Shift is Urgently Needed
Beyond the formal declarations of companies and the gradual spread of more agile models, the problems related to the conflict between work and private life remain numerous. Just as numerous changes are necessary to address the issue adequately. While some changes concern companies (reduction of workload, increase in workforce, adoption of flexible space-time solutions), others concern individuals and society. Above all, there is a need to no longer perceive women solely as mothers or solely responsible for all caregiving activities for others. Kramer vs. Kramer, a film from 1979 based on the ...
Short Workweek and Smart Work: Let's Listen to Workers
In the current debate on the short workweek, some crucial aspects for its effective implementation are not being addressed, except in a residual way. The main risk is that of a lack of integration with smart work, resulting in a return to a traditional model where space and time - and not results - are the reference units of measurement. To choose which model to adopt (short workweek in its different variants, smart work or a mix of the two), it will be necessary to listen to workers on a case-by-case basis, in order to build a project that meets their actual needs in a specific company. There ...
Short Workweek: Work Less and in More Inclusive Contexts
The first experiments with the four-day work week have yielded positive results in terms of productivity, revenue, and satisfaction. However, beyond the difficulties of implementing this proposal on a larger scale, there are still some factors to consider. It will be important to address the issue as a whole to truly allow people to recover time for themselves and achieve a better balance between work and private life, while also creating open and inclusive work environments. In recent months, there has been a debate on the topic of the "short work week," which involves working four days a ...