The present work finds its collocation within a recent and lively literature on the relations between organizational changes and working conditions. Given the increasing concern about the effects of "new work practices" or "high performance work practices" on the workers well being, we aim at investigating such effects for a Northern Italy local production system. If during the 90s several economists and managerial scholars pointed out the positive effects generated on the workers by the introduction of new forms of work and production organization, more recently several studies have shown their potential negative effects. Furthermore, it is worth not neglecting the importance of other aspects of firm innovation activity and industrial relations on working conditions. Cooperative relationship at firm level between union delegates and management are likely to be linked with good quality working conditions.
Our empirical aim is twofold. At first, we disentangle the role of innovation intensity, in four different innovation areas (technology, organization, training and ICT), on working conditions. Secondly, we verify the relations between cooperative industrial relations, at firm level, and working conditions.
The evidence provided is mixed. On the one hand, innovations exert an overall positive effect on working conditions. However, such effect is somehow weak and it is also negative for specific organizational aspects. On the other, cooperative industrial relations are always positively and robustly linked with workers well being.