Innovation and labour organisation: A comparison of foreign and domestic firms in the Reggio Emilia industrial district

Abstract – The most recent developments in the capitalism system, greatly affected by the information and communications technology (ICT) mode of competencies accumulation, has promoted new heterarchical forms of corporate organisation replacing the Chandlerian M-form (of multiple division) (Hedlund, 1992; Ridderstråle, 1992). The heterarchical logic promotes an efficient intra-firm organisational form rooted on flexible managerial roles and developing an interdependent intra-firm network. This tendency towards a more heterarchical relationship between headquarter and subsidiaries seems to have been combined with a flatter organisation where interactions between firm divisions and top management become stronger (Mazzanti et al., 1992). In the sphere of production, this has been reflected in the shift from old models of production organisation to new models centred on the conception of the firm as a learning organisation (Penrose, 1958). Post-fordist models of production organisation (such as the Swedish (Berggren, 1992) and Japanese (Aoki, 1988) model) are based upon functional flexibility made operational through the active involvement of workers in production activity. Similarly, in the development of new technology, increasing complexity calls for an in-depth understanding of the innovation process, which can effectively take place through an active participation of workers in the learning path (Coriat, 2002). I