From the neoliberal to the participatory firm: employee participation through industrial relations and governance in Australia and Italy

We take the organizational governance perspective with the aim of exploring the role of labour in the strategic organisational process. To this end, we consider the two extremes of the organizational spectrum, with corporations in neo liberal economies at one extreme, and worker owned enterprises or worker co-operatives at the other extreme. Studying these two extremes allows to better evidence the different features of different ownership and organizational models. We then treat Italy and Australia as intermediate cases in the spectrum, since the reality of economic systems shows hybrid more than pure forms, and advices a more nuanced approach in which intermediated cases need careful consideration. We carefully consider the macro-economic context and the institutional and legal systems in terms of the main arrangement that allow labour to be active participant in the development of the economy. The general expression of the ownership of enterprise, and of other institutions regulating industrial relations determines the degree of strategic involvement by labour. This is true both in Australia and in European countries, even if the two areas differ widely in the degree of the involvement of labour. In Australia this is restricted to limited forms of unionization and industrial action, while exclusionary governance and ownership arrangements corresponding to exclusionary relationship between labour and capital are dominant. The involvement of labour is wider in European CMEs, where it is often accompanied by the presence of work councils.