Rethinking Work: Pathways and Practices in Business and Society. Introduction to the Special Issue.

The focus of this special issue is the interplay between technological innovation and work practices. We have concentrated on work redesign in the various functions and activities carried out as part of innovation processes, and have discussed the fit between these practices and organizational strategies, structures, cultures and performance (Perlow and Kelly, 2014; Phillips and Lawrence, 2012). The emphasis is on the study of work practices (Gherardi, 2000; Orlikowski, 2007; Nicolini, 2012) at the individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis, and the impact of these practices on outcomes that are critical to both organizations and society. We believe that promoting theory and research development on this important substantive and methodological issue is essential, and that this view is confirmed by the growing number of contributions on this topic. This volume contains nine manuscripts: six research papers have emerged from the open competition and careful review process, and three are invited and non-refereed contributions. The papers analyse the issue of “Rethinking Work: Pathways and Practices in Business and Society” in different contexts, using different methodological and epistemological approaches. Taken together, they show an original and relevant snapshot of the complexity of work practice redesign processes in contemporary organizations.