Lean HRM practices in work integration social enterprises: Moving towards social lean production. Evidence from Italian case studies

Lean production human resource management (HRM) practices, which are deemed to increase firms’ competitiveness through a skilled and empowered workforce, have arisen in the context of for‐profit companies. The same attention to lean HRM practices has not been paid in non‐profit organizations. In turn, few studies have looked into the adoption of for‐profit HRM practices within such organizations or focused on single practices and ordinary workers. Within this research, dichotomous positions between advocates and opponents have emerged, but with an underlying universalistic perspective considering HRM practices as detached from context. We consider HRM practices as context dependent and conduct a new study concerning lean production HRM practices in work integration social enterprises (WISEs), a particular type of NPO and social enterprise that focuses on building employability and jobs for vulnerable workers. We rely on three case studies involving multiple actors. Our exploratory results suggest that WISEs realize social lean production. They implement lean HRM practices by adapting them to their specific context and integrating both social and economic goals.