Article 3
LGBT Inclusion Beyond Enclave Cities and Large Companies
A recent conference dedicated to LGBT inclusion organized by the University of Bergamo with Parks - Liberi e Uguali and the In Ca’Pacis TdO Theater of the Oppressed offers us a opportunity to reflect on two aspects linked to the management of diversity in Italian companies. A first aspect regards the fact that still today, more than four years after the approval of the law on civil unions, LGBT inclusion regards a minority of businesses, principally large ones, with a global perspective. In this regard, it is important to cite the case of two companies that recounted their experiences during ...
The Specter of "Generationalism"
Generations in companies: the issue now occupies a place in the agenda of the media, and obviously of organizations as well. Researchers, consultants, gurus, and journalists question how to manage and favor coexistence between different generations at work. Who are the members of the various generations, and what do they want? What Do Millennials Want at Work? is the title of an August 20, 2019 blog post at Great Place To Work. Reality Bites Back: To Really Get Gen Z, Look at the Parents claimed a Bloomberg journalist in a recent article. "The Reconstruction generation" (1928-1945), "Baby boomers" ...
More Women on Boards of Directors: Why Has Nothing Changed for the Others?
It's time to take stock of the results of the Golfo-Mosca law (Law 120/2011), that introduced gender quotas in the Boards of Directors of listed and publicly-controlled companies, dictating that at least one-third of members of the corporate bodies must belong to the less-represented sex. The provisions of the law applied to the three renewals of BoDs after August 2012 (a period usually equal to nine years), and at the end of 2018 it ceased being active for 34 listed companies. Numerous statistics and monitoring show its undoubtedly positive effects. First, the percentage of women board members ...
The First Time Was a Revolt; What Now?
On June 28, 2019 we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the so-called Stonewall revolt that marked the beginning of the “modern” homosexual liberation movement[1]. This, despite the fact that the first public Italian homosexual demonstration was the one against the psychiatric congress on sexual deviations of April 5, 1972. The demonstration was organized by the Fuori! group of Turin, led by Angelo Pezzana. Fifty years on from 1969, and forty-seven years after 1972, there will be as many as 40 parades in Italy from May to September (there were 28 in 2018 and 5 in 2013) celebrating LGBTI ...
“Smart Working”: I’d Like to, but Can’t?
Every year, the Diversity, Inclusion & Smart Working (DIS) Observatory of the Sda Bocconi conducts research aiming at analyzing the way organizations conceptualize, implement, and promote “smart working,” highlighting the costs and benefits perceived by the workers and the organization itself. These studies have shown that the practice is still not very widespread, although it’s growing. The companies that adopt it are attentive to the issues of diversity management – at least formally – but their adoption of the practice is often conditioned by a series of restrictions that stiffen ...
When a Joke Becomes Discrimination
Last February, the Court of Cassation[1] rejected the appeal by the pasta company Pastificio Rana of a judgment issued by the Venice Court of Appeals[2]. The Court reaffirmed the conviction against the company for harassing conduct towards a manager who had been fired (the conduct is said to have occurred during 2001 and 2007, the year of the dismissal). Among the elements of this conduct, was that the employee was systematically addressed with the term “fag”. The company criticized the judgment by arguing that the appeals judges had not recognized the playful nature of the epithets, the ...