Reflexivity in practice : tools and conditions for developing organizational authorship

In this article, we build on the results of a participatory action research project in healthcare to discuss a number of methods that can strengthen the link between reflexive work and authoring in organizational contexts. We argue that, from an organizational point of view, the challenge is to devise new ways to configure (and consider) people as the authors of their work. This means assuming responsibility for, and constructively contributing to, the goals of the organizations to which they belong. Combining insights from theoretical reflection and experience from the field, the article discusses the tools, process and material conditions for fostering practical reflexivity and organizational authorship. We conclude that much is to be gained if we distinguish between authorship and authoring. Authorship is the general process whereby managers and organizational members contribute to the reproduction of organizational realities. Authoring is constituted by the special circumstances whereby authorship is brought to critical consciousness and becomes open to deliberate reorientation

Translating Sustainability into Action : A Management Challenge in FabLabs

In recent years, the number of new organizations aiming to accomplish principles of sustainability has rapidly grown, leading analysts and scholars to announce almost a new industrial revolution. An example of this is the proliferation of the so-called fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) that nowadays are perceived as being forerunners in innovative and sustainable high-tech production through peer-to-peer collaborative practices and sharing. However, the challenges managers face in translating these promotional aims into organizational action is vastly understudied. To address this research gap, we have studied the management of two FabLabs, in Italy and Finland. In this study, we draw from a psycho-sociological framework applying cultural-historical activity theory, and especially from the concepts of activity system and contradiction. According to this perspective, a sustainable organization is based on promotion, enrichment, regeneration, and flexible change efforts, and it is related to the managerial and ability to bring internal and external stakeholders together to recognize and solve tensions and contradictions collectively. Through our case studies, we have provided new research knowledge on how managers make an effort to translate sustainability into action in the complex context of FabLabs, involving multiple, often competing stakeholders and activity systems. Our analysis reveals multiple tensions in the collective activity, stemming from system level contradictions, which represent a challenge for the daily work of the FabLab managers. In the paper we also suggest how an engaged management orientation towards sustainably can be promoted, and we discuss future research topics.Peer reviewe

Navigating the contradiction: balancing patient care and caregiver protection. From heroes to victims

The COVID emergency has accelerated professional and organizational transformations, prompting a re-signification of activity systems, routines, professional visions, concrete daily operations. An unforeseen scenario emerges, highlighting elements of uncertainty, fatigue, and discomfort, linked, on the one hand, to the challenge raised towards the professional identities of the various players, called to deal with the new organizational constraints, to reposition themselves in changing contexts. On the other hand, the challenge refers to the possibility to achieve a good balance between offering services aimed at the promotion and protection of health and, at the same time, to guarantee working safety and security conditions, in increasingly complex contexts in which tensions and contradictions coexist with reduction of resources and requests for more effective services. At risk is the possibility to cope with increasing situations of social conflicts (i.e. the no vax manifestations) and events such as those related to the aggressiveness of patients, the verbal and often physical aggression against the health professionals, exposed to the temptation to abandon work and devote oneself to something else. Tackling with patients taken in charge by the Services and with characteristics of aggressive behavior, decidedly above the sustainability thresholds (death threats; screams and insults; raids on the service; stalking; shadowing of operators, ... with situations of requesting emergency intervention by the police, which could only be limited to a light intervention in the absence of an explicit complaint against the person), generates understandable fears and dynamics of avoidance/expulsion. These are, more and more (even though not exclusively) at the basis of resignations and retirement from work. This is in evident contrast with the mission of the health service and therefore with the identification of personnel with the aim of taking care of every user with a need. Hence a situation of impasse (disenchantment/impotence/give up/avoidance), having to deal with balancing the threshold of the limit(boundary) and the limit(boundary) of the threshold, defining conditions of survival, of joint elaboration, of collective action agreed. The possibility of conceiving oneself as an emancipatory limit(boundary), avoiding fantasies of ‘expulsive killerage’ and ‘regulatory stiffening’, relies on a collective system alliance, capable of considering both realistic fears with respect to personal safety to be protected, and the elaboration of one's own defensive dynamics in the face of exposure to external aggression. At stake is the lacerating dilemma between the identification with a service that must take charge of the needs (whatever they may be) of a user/patient and, at the same time, with the need to protect one's own and others' (other patients) safety conditions to be able to fulfill the professional task to which one is called

Un sistema in evoluzione. Un'analisi sul sistema della formazione professionale in Valle d'Aosta

Il presente documento rappresenta la raccolta del patrimonio di informazioni disponibili riguardo alle attivit\ue0 che hanno scandito lo sviluppo del Programma Operativo Regionale Obiettivo 3 FSE della programmazione 2000-2006, al fine di acquisire una migliore comprensione degli scenari, delle strategie, delle letture e valenze attribuite al sistema di formazione professionale da parte dei diversi soggetti coinvolti, anche per disporre di elementi di conoscenza spendibili in funzione del nuovo periodo di programmazione 2007-2013. L\u2019articolazione del documento si sviluppa in tre parti, con l\u2019intento di offrire spaccati di conoscenza di tipo quantitativo e qualitativo, ricavati dai contesti d\u2019azione sopra richiamati, in grado di offrire contributi e stimoli per una riflessione ponderata sul sistema della formazione professionale in Valle d\u2019Aosta. La prima parte propone una serie di considerazioni, con un taglio prevalentemente descrittivo, che restituiscono un insieme di informazioni e dati riferiti al panorama degli organismi, delle figure professionali, dei volumi di attivit\ue0 realizzati, della partecipazione degli operatori, delle risorse gestite e del rapporto tra azioni formative e sistema attuale di accreditamento. La seconda parte offre una ricognizione delle principali rappresentazioni, letture ed interpretazioni che risultano diffuse e rilevanti tra i principali attori del sistema, organismi di formazione e formatori, in riferimento alla configurazione ed al funzionamento della formazione in Valle d\u2019Aosta. La terza parte cerca di riassumere le principali problematiche individuate, raccordandole da un lato al contesto di riferimento e, dall\u2019altro, precisando linee di sviluppo e implicazioni operative che sembrano suggerire indicazioni in termini di priorit\ue0 ed azioni operative conseguenti

A methodology of assessment based on the interaction between practice-based paths and standardized enquiring instruments

The object of this paper is to describe an intervention conducted using specific assessment tools created after an analysis of work practices and standardized instruments. The experience was carried out at a company managing the yard of an important commercial port in Italy, and in this paper the authors also present the reasons underlying the intervention request and a brief explanation of the specific context in which this company operates. After a description of the steps taken to enquire the work practices on the field, the article continues explaining how, starting from the results of the study about the practices, the authors created specific assessment techniques tailored for this particular situations. Such techniques consist of focus groups and role playing, expressly adapted to the context. A tool for evaluation, namely a grid containing different indicators was also created on the basis of the company needs. At the same time, the authors chose a set of standardized instruments with the aim of using them for integrating the qualitative results. These instruments were the M.P.P. test (Multidimensional Personality Profile) and some Organizational Citizenship scales. The set of the instruments was integrated to provide the company with a broader and more exhaustive set of information, in which the two types of tools gave a different contribution. The complexity of the problems at stake makes the choice of a qualitative approach necessary. As it is known, anyway, this is unique and non repeatable. For this reason it is important to make it sounder by adding objective data, in order to gain new and strong elements for sustaining the argumentations and making the conclusions usable and controllable by the company and the scientific community

Trade unions in neo-liberal times: Discourse variations on emerging identities

This paper focuses on how trade unions are redefining their organisational identity in response to the neoliberal changes that have affected the labour market, mainly as a result of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Such changes brought about a profound crisis of representation among workers in various sectors. Trade unions have had to redesign their identities to meet new demands from workers. Based on 30 interviews with unionists from one of Italy’s major unions, the study identifies four discursive variations and as many potential evolutions in the identity of trade unions. The respective positionings generated by these four discourses for the union and its members are examined. The study also highlights certain contradictions in these discursive variations, which may either encourage a redefinition of the union’s strategic objectives or, on the contrary, act as regulating mechanism that hampers change

J.D. Thompson’s Organizations in Action 50th anniversary: a reflection

At the 50th anniversary of James D. Thompson’s fundamental book, Organizations in Action, TAO Digital Library proposes a reflection on this great master’s legacy and the evolution of organizational studies. Twelve researchers, from different disciplinary fields, analyze both the texts utilized for teaching and the contribution of several important journals, particularly in recent decades. The outcome is an overall picture that may stimulate different, divergent evaluations and, even more importantly, desirable, deeper reflections

Beni comuni. Quarto rapporto sulla cooperazione sociale in Italia

A dieci anni dalla prima edizione, il quarto rapporto sulla cooperazione sociale aggiorna e amplia il quadro conoscitivo su uno dei più innovativi fenomeni imprenditoriali, che ha contribuito ad arricchire il panorama delle istituzioni sociali del paese.- Indice #5- Premessa di Marco Demarie #13- Presentazione di Corrado Passera #15- Prefazione di Vilma Mazzocco e Johnny Dotti #21- Cap.I La cooperazione sociale in Italia: tendenze evolutive e scenari di sviluppo, Flaviano Zandonai #33- Cap.II Un quadro teorico sull’impresa sociale, Carlo Borzaga #55- Cap.III Le traiettorie di sviluppo della cooperazione sociale, Gianfranco Marocchi #75- Cap.IV Imprenditorialità sociale tra innovazione e controllo dei mercati, Nereo Zamaro #107- Cap.V Cooperazione sociale e Mezzogiorno, Marco Musella #139- Cap.VI Le culture organizzative della cooperazione sociale: identità in movimento, Luca Fazzi e Sandro Stanzani #151- Cap.VII La cooperazione sociale nella rete del welfare locale, Sergio Pasquinelli #187- Cap.VIII I benefici individuali dei lavoratori svantaggiati nelle imprese sociali, Carlo Borzaga, Monica Loss e Domenico Zalla #207- Cap.IX Cooperazione sociale e qualità dei servizi, Giuseppe Scaratti #237- Cap.X La cooperazione sociale in una prospettiva di genere, Barbara Moreschi #265- Cap.XI Cooperativa sociale come impresa sociale? Le condizioni di imprenditorialità nel terzo settore, Michele Andreaus #285- Cap.XII Oltre il contracting out: nuove forme di relazione con le amministrazioni pubbliche, Franco Dalla Mura #319- Cap.XIII Finalità e organizzazione delle cooperative sociali: alcune indicazioni dal nuovo diritto societario, Antonio Fici #349- Cap.XIV L’impresa sociale in Italia: una quantificazione del fenomeno, Stefano Cima #377- Cap.XV Le condizioni di sviluppo delle imprese sociali nelle regioni del Centro-Nord, Carlo Borzaga e Mariangela Mongera #405- Cap.XVI Dal volontariato all’impresa sociale, Gabriella Bartolomeo e Flaviano Zandonai #439- Cap.XVII L’impresa sociale in Europa: alcuni spunti di comparazione, Paola Iamiceli #457- Cap.XVIII La nuova legge sull’impresa sociale, Felice Scalvini #485- Bibliografia #49