Towards new scenarios of public communication. Considerations on the Italian case

In recent years, the Italian public communication has gone through a period of great ferment that involved actors, regulations, tools and technologies, skills and expertise. The article focuses on the development of public communication in little more than ten years after the law 150/2000, in order to identify new challenges and solicitations. In fact, tracing the path of change provide some remarks upon development of communication of public administration and the many professional competence that today move around it and contribute to its re-definition, urging some changes and especially highlighting the need to develop reflexivity and high awareness in acting communicative, more and more called upon to combine transparence, visibility and accountability.En los últimos años, la comunicación pública italiana ha pasado por un período de gran agitación donde se han involucrado actores, regulaciones, herramientas y tecnologías, habilidades y experiencia. Este artículo se centra en el desarrollo de la comunicación pública en poco más de diez años, tras la ley 150/2000, con el fin de identificar nuevos retos y requerimientos. De hecho, el rastreo del camino del cambio proporciona algunas observaciones sobre el desarrollo de la comunicación de la administración pública y la gran competencia profesional que hoy la rodea. Además, contribuye a su redefinición, impulsando algunos cambios y destacando especialmente la necesidad de desarrollar reflexividad y alta conciencia para la actuación comunicativa, a la que cada vez más se les pide combinar transparencia, visibilidad y rendición de cuentas

The flex consulting project business plan and value proposition

JEL Classification: Startups (M13), IT Management (M15)This study presents the business plan and value proposition for the startup company named Flex Consulting. The project explains the strategic vision and creation process of this new business venture in IT management consulting. The main goal of the Flex Consulting company is to create integrated business solution to compete in the global market. The most important concept is based in the innovative philosophy in business consulting: proper methods to work with the corporate core knowledge resources and the use of essential tools to promote the collaborative work. Another important aspect is the creation of a multidisciplinary corporate knowledge base to operate in multiplatform: global solutions for vertical requirements. The author firmly believes that the adoption of business consulting solutions oriented to the problem solving, the regular focus on multidisciplinary knowledge embodied with organic flexibility and agile tools practice for new situations will provide a solid source of competitive advantage. It is also considered the creation of business solutions based on crowdsourcing systems, as it will allow the build up of a knowledge platform, public and internal, able to accelerate decision process, research and development of new applications. Flex Consulting intends to address a new vision of business management, using the “open source” approach in business consulting and a very attentive posture to the progress of global economy. Thus, it focus on a new paradigm of development reinforced by the increased instability of markets which requires fast return on investment, as this implies a greater control, efficiency, and intelligence in business administration. Therefore, the future company aims to support the continuous monitoring of performance to optimize resource management and the consequent business efficiency of its partners to excel on the very competitive global market.Este estudo apresenta a concepção do plano de negócio e conceito subjacente à criação da empresa Flex Consulting. O presente trabalho, objectiva-se no desenho da estratégia e desenvolve o processo para a operacionalização da empresa vocacionada em consultoria de sistemas de gestão empresarial. O objectivo da Flex Consulting é a criação de soluções para integração de negócios no mercado global. O conceito mais importante assenta na inovadora filosofia em consultoria: métodos próprios com recurso ao corporate core knowledge e aplicação de instrumentos essenciais de trabalho colaborativo no sentido de melhor promover conhecimentos multidisciplinares e operar em multiplataforma; construir, pois, soluções globais para exigências verticais. São, portanto, novas abordagens na concepção e desenvolvimento de soluções de negócio. O autor considera, assim, que a consultoria de soluções de negócio orientada ao problem solving, o conhecimento multidisciplinar, a flexibilidade de ferramentas e agilidade perante novas situações criam, por si, sólida vantagem competitiva. Defende ainda a construção de soluções baseadas no sistema crowdsourcing empresarial, pois através da criação de plataforma de conhecimento interna e pública é possível acelerar decisões, investigação e desenvolvimento de novas aplicações. A Flex Consulting pretende apresentar-se no mercado com uma nova visão da gestão de negócios com recurso a uma abordagem “open source” em actividade de consultoria e uma postura de elevado acompanhamento do desenvolvimento global da economia. Com efeito, hoje, vive-se um paradigma que proclama que dada a elevada instabilidade dos mercados, exige-se um rápido retorno do investimento. Deste modo é necessário um maior controlo e eficiência, e inteligência na gestão de negócios. Por conseguinte, a futura empresa tem por objectivo apoioar a constante monitorização de desempenho para obter a melhor gestão de recursos e a consequente eficiência nas parcerias de negócio no mercado global

Development of a Theoretical Framework of Distributed Cognition Phenomena in Control Centers During Crisis Conditions

The purpose of this research is to develop and partially validate a theoretical framework describing distributed cognition phenomena occurring in organizational control centers functioning in crisis environments. Using a systems approach, the work synthesizes existing constructs relating to distributed cognition then supplements this knowledge with review of crisis management literature. The goal of this effort is the development of a framework for understanding the impact of crisis conditions on such phenomena occurring within the specified setting. An exploratory case study approach was used to partially validate and refine the framework by gauging its ability to interpret the impact of crisis conditions on control center performance. The researcher identifies a gap in crisis management literature relating to the study of distributed cognition within organizational control centers. The prevalence of and importance of institutionalized control centers to large organizations expecting to experience environments requiring more rapid processing of information and expedient reaction than usual is recognized within crisis management literature. A primary purpose of such control centers is to facilitate distributed cognition. Frameworks describing such phenomena in more general organizational settings can be found within distributed cognition literature; organizational learning literature, and in military science. In some cases the specific setting of control centers is addressed but not to the extent of conceptually framing or applying a framework to the more specific setting. The basic research, questions explored are: (1) what are the key constructs and interrelationships that structurally frame distributed cognition phenomena within control centers? and (2) what are the structural impacts of crisis conditions on the phenomena in such settings? Results of this research could, (1) aid in the implementation of new strategies, designs, training plans, methodologies, and technologies in crisis control centers for complex, technically oriented organizations, (2) improve the systemic design of and confidence in the assessment of mechanisms and subsystems designed to facilitate distributed cognition within organizations, (3) improve the general understanding of how distributed cognition takes place within organizational control centers, and (4) lead to a better understanding of the systemic effects crisis conditions have on the structures within control centers designed to facilitate distributed cognition

Institutional Adaptation to Changing Risk of Water Scarcity in the Lower Guadalquivir Basin

Historically, the Spanish water management model's predominate goal has been resource augmentation. This mindset has had important consequences for the system's capacity to cope with droughts. It has impacted the system's overall vulnerability, the discourse of scarcity, the conceptualisation of risk and the stakeholders' interests and their approach to risk. The aim of this article is to present the traditional hydraulic paradigm, its current crisis and implications for present and future risk management, and to explore stakeholder and institutional reactions and adaptation to changing risk scenarios. The adaptation process will be framed within the wider context of macro-trends, such as marketisation and re-scaling of institutions and global warming

Towards an analytics and an ethics of expertise: Learning from decision aiding experiences in public risk assessment and risk management

Public expertise in safety, security and environment is a process that is increasingly submitted to control and transparency. It therefore requires an oversight, a monitoring and an aiding approach on its conduct and its governance. Difficulties learned from experiences in framing risk problems and sharing expertise conclusions and recommendations are pointed. Our practice of expertise has made clear to us that "expertise is a decision aiding process for a decision-maker which contains other decision aiding processes for the experts involved. To overcome this paradox, we argue on the need of a generic integrated framework for expertise that allows framing a valid and a legitimate expertise process and conclusions. Public expertise is then defined and mai

Advancing the study of driving forces of landscape change

Over the past 25 years, the study of driving forces of landscape change has developed into a central theme in land change science by contributing to theory development, promoting the analysis of causation of change and gaining insights into how landscape development could be steered into a societally more desirable direction. Based on this progress, we designate important research avenues, reviewing critical challenges forming the base for advancing the study of driving forces of landscape change and addressing the question on how the study of driving forces can contribute to system transformative research. For each of the research avenues, we describe the current dominant approach and provide some specific ways of advancing both the conceptualization and the research methods. Together, advancing on these research avenues will promote a more social-ecological systems perspective to the study of driving forces of landscape change.ISSN:1747-4248ISSN:1747-423

Keeping the Initiative through disruptions – Developing a Business Continuity

Background: Historically, the risk management activities in Gambro have been focused to ensure safety for patients and users of the company’s products where Regulatory and legal demands have driven the development. Lately, the need for a similar approach to assess and manage business risks has risen. When an earthquake hit the company’s facilities in northern Italy in 2012, the company did not have a predetermined plan for how to solve the crisis. Through good management and a dedicated workforce, production was quickly recovered and no patient harm occurred. After the experience the company realised the potential benefits of proactive assessment and management of risks for business interruptions. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to develop a model for assessment of risks that affects Gambro’s ability to deliver their products, i.e. operational disruption risks. The model should capture different types and levels of risks and be applicable and easy to use throughout the company. The harmonised model should enable Gambro to identify and mitigate risks in a structured and analytical manner. Method: A constructive research approach is used where a practical solution to the proposed problem is suggested. Academic literature, benchmarking, and Gambro’s current organisation is the basis for the development of a framework and governance for business risk management. Conclusions: A model for assessing disruption risks was developed. The model is divided into two general areas: the organisation and the procedure. An organisation with three different levels with different responsibilities of the process was developed. The three step procedure consists of the methodologies and tools required for identification of critical activities and resources, analyse and quantification of risks in terms of likelihood and business interruption value, and evaluate possible the risk responses

User selection and engagement for climate services coproduction

Climate services are high on the international agenda for their potential to help combat the effects of climate change. However, climate science is rarely directly incorporated into the decision-making processes of societal actors, due to what has been identified as the usability gap. This gap is partially due to a failure to timely and meaningfully engage users in the production of climate services, as well as misperceptions as to which users can best benefit from climate service uptake. In this article, we propose user selection and engagement guidelines that integrate important values from participatory science such as those of legitimacy, representativity, and agency. The guidelines consist of 5 + 1 steps: defining why, where, whom, which attributes, and which intensity and how to select and engage with stakeholders. While these steps may be initially implemented by an ideally interdisciplinary team of scientists and service designers, the final step consists of an iterative process by which each decision is agreed on together with the identified users and stakeholders under a coproduction approach. We believe this systematic user selection and engagement practice is key to support the design of climate services aligned to the actual needs of a wide and inclusive range of empowered societal agents.This work has been funded under the projects NextGEMS (101003470) and FOCUS-Africa (GA869575).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version