Tommaso Fabbri

Revising the past (while thinking in the future perfect tense)

Accounting for organizational history is essential to any change process. We argue, however, that the intentional revision of that history also can be important. We treat history as malleable, because events and actions from the past are susceptible to reinterpretation as organizations try to align with the way they see themselves in the present and want to see themselves in the future. Because change is a prospective, future‐oriented process, whereas sensemaking is a retrospective, past‐oriented process, making sense of the future requires an ability to envision the future as having already occurred, i.e. to think in the future perfect tense. We offer an initial conceptual exploration of organizational change from a revisionist history perspective that turns on future perfect thinking, a view that enlarges our conceptualization of the ways in which history affects organizational adaptation and change.

Digital Work: An Organizational Perspective

This essay focuses on the relationship between organization and digitalization, interpreted as the partial or total substitution of analog rules with digital rules for decision and action. The notion of digital work is then introduced, as the outcome of the digitalization of work organization, and its equalization to smart work is shown as problematic. Finally, the controversial relationships between the digital transformation of work and workers’ autonomy and well-being are discussed, still drawing fully from organizational theory and research.

DigitAgile: The Office in a Mobile Device. Threats and Opportunities for Workers and Companies

This chapter focuses on “smart working”, also known as “agile work”, which is work based on the intensive use of digital devices and increasing spatial and temporal “disembedding” from the formal organization. The chapter first examines the spread of the phenomenon at the international and national levels. Through a meta-analysis of existing qualitative and quantitative research, it then addresses the following research questions: Organizational autonomy, discretion, and control in the regulation of work. The relationship between digitalization, employment, and individual and organizational productivity. The reconciliation of work with extra-work life.