I COSTI AZIENDALI PER LA GESTIONE DELLA MATERNITÀ: REALTÀ, PERCEZIONI E LEVE DI INTERVENTO.

Maternity is often conceived as a cost within organizations, rather than a neutral o positive fact. Drawing on organizational support, SHRM and diversity management theories, this study investigates the impact of the organizational environment and of leaders-coworkers relationship on the perception of maternity leave as a cost for a company. Through a survey involving a sample of 41 managers and 146 working mothers from 4 companies, our findings illustrate that organizational and manager support, along with a negotiation style oriented to integration of interests, decrease the perception of maternity as an organizational problem. Managerial implications are drawn in terms of a list of actions that could be implemented at different levels in the organization to cope with this so called ‘problem’