ABSTRACT
The chapter presents the analytical framework that guided the research and illustrates how the main pieces of the analysis are intertwined. The analytical framework aims at considering jointly the role of the institutions, the labor market conditions, and the labor supply, on the one hand, and their impact on the workers’ lived experiences, on the other. The approach has two peculiar and innovative features. First, the institutions’ impact is usually studied by adopting a macro-perspective and focusing on objective dimensions of job quality, whereas this research aims at enriching this analysis with the investigation of workers’ lived experiences in their jobs. The second specificity is the attention devoted to the role played by the labor supply available for specific jobs, which, together with the institutional setting, affect and partially shape companies’ human resources management strategies.
The chapter also presents the theoretical framework of the book, combining the references to three literature streams: the studies on job quality and dignity at work, the sociological literature on worker–customer interaction and emotional labor, and the debate concerning the convergence and divergence trends between countries.
