Research topics

What is “quality of work” and what does it mean in the context of residential care settings? What can we expect to affect the quality of care work??

“Quality of work” as a concept is designed to capture the relationship between workers’ needs and the organisation of (their) activities. QWoRe looks at both “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” dimensions of quality of work. Intrinsic quality refers to the distinctive features of the job: working conditions, ergonomics, social relations in the workplace, health and safety, control and autonomy, etc. Extrinsic quality refers to the quality of employment itself in terms of security, access to social protection, work life balance. In the context of work in long-term care facilities, there is a need to analyse their variability according to the profiles of workers - socio-economic, gender and migratory background -, on the one hand, and to the surrounding institutional features, on the other.

What does quality of work look like in Italian long-term care services?

There is a knowledge gap concerning working conditions in the Italian LTC system, notably in residential care, also due to its fragmentation. QWorRe will illuminate the main features and variations over time, space and sector of the quality of care work in Italy, thanks to a combination of secondary quantitative data analysis and of the analysis of regulations in the field of care, employment and migration.

What makes quality of care better or worse?

Given the strong territorial differentiation of LTC systems in Italy, we will dive into a more fine-grained analysis of the regional contexts, i.e. Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. Alongside the reconstruction of their specific regulation, we will investigate quality of work from the perspective of the residential care workers thanks to a qualitative survey. 
All we learned will be used to identify the configurations of conditions (e.g. the individual, organisational, regulative factors) that are associated with positive and negative outcomes in terms of quality of work. To do so we will use fuzzy-set/Qualitative comparative analysis. 
Finally, based on these new insights, the project will conduct six organisational case studies across the three regions to elicit the factors that responsible for “virtuous” vs “vicious” outcomes.

QWoRe’s network

QWoRe collaborates with many research projects and networks on topics and problems related to the quality of care work.

Publications

• Maurizio Falsone, “Integrazione socio-sanitaria e Pnrr: impatti sul lavoro e problemi regolativi" (Social-health integration and NRRP: impacts on labour and regulatory problems), DOI: 10.1441/114415
  The author discusses the impact of the healthcare model outlined by the NRRP on personnel management and protection, noting the absence of regulatory strategies for a sustainable transition to more personalized and community-based care. This gap is attributed to political decisions and regulatory fragmentation in healthcare work, particularly in social and healthcare services across public and private sectors. This situation raises doubts about achieving effective socio-health service integration through workplace regulation. The author also observes a convergence in public and private sector regulations, which reduces the protective disparity for public workers. However, this trend does not address job protection needs arising from the new socio-health integration model, which demands attention to work quality risks associated with proximity strateies, personalization, and private/informal sector involvement.
  Keywords: NRRP; Health care system; Socio-health integration; Protection of workers; Outsourcing; Private/public divide.