Organizational learning and systems of labor market regulation in Europe

This article establishes a link between international differences in the organization of work and modes of regulation of labor markets within Europe. The article operates with four forms of work organization (discretionary learning, lean production, Taylorism, and simple or traditional). Through a factor analysis three dimensions of national labor market systems (flexible security, passive security, and job support) are defined. Using a multi-level logistic regression model that takes into account both characteristics of individuals and of national labor market systems it is shown that there is a significant positive correlation between flexible security and the prevalence of discretionary learning. On this basis we point to an extension of flexible security in Europe's labor markets as an adequate response to the current crisis. Copyright 2010 The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.