No abstract

This research introduces a new concept of organizational climate, seen as a "mediator", namely a factor liable to produce positive effects on both individual performances and on work processes and relations, thereby creating a favorable relationship between work excellence and organizational innovation. Health systems have been called to promote sustainability, as actors who work for the health and well-being of their patients. Starting from these considerations, this work shows the main results of a longitudinal study conducted in the pediatric department of a large hospital in southern Italy, for a period of three years (May 2014–May 2017). The reference survey was very broad because in the first step of the research a general questionnaire was adopted which included various aspects. Subsequently, the analysis of the influence of the “climate” factor was carried out according to a 3-dimensional scheme: structural, interpersonal/relational and individual. The focus was therefore set—especially in the second survey—on those indicators responding to the objective of the research and that were consistent with the epistemological choice made. The main scope was to verify the conditions according to which the organizational climate can emerge as a novel factor capable of siding with and orienting innovative patient-centered policies of human resources management.

PurposeAlong the coronavirus pandemic, huge business challenges are facing as a result of collapsing customer demand and organisational significant changes supported by digital development, while the increasing social and environmental needs involve business and individuals. The authors argue that this trend is modifying organisational and market logic, replacing them with values and practices linked to community-based models. The present work aims to study the impact that smart working (SW) has on the worker, seen both as a member of the organisation and the social community.Design/methodology/approachThe study data were collected from a computer-assisted web interview administered in 2020 to public employees working for health agencies across the Campania region, in South Italy. To test the conceptual model, partial least squares-structural equation modelling is used. Considering the abductive soul of the research, the study represents a pilot survey that will deliver stochastic results to be subsequently replicated in all Italian health agencies.FindingsThe results of the research highlighted how the evolutionary dynamics of SW employees tend towards a reconceptualisation of workspaces, a redefinition of time and emotions and a better balance between work and personal life, thus creating a greater space for social and community aspects and determining a greater involvement in their working life.Originality/valueThis research introduces a new win-win logic in the labour market, one capable of generating advantages for people, organisations and the entire social system by allowing workers to better reconcile working times with their personal needs and with flexibility demands coming from companies.

Purpose The growing success of open innovation practices in many firms raises the question of whether such principles can be transferred for reinventing public sector organisations. A paradigm based on principles of integrated collaboration, co-created shared value, cultivated innovation ecosystems, unleashed exponential technologies and extraordinarily rapid adoption is the so-called Open Innovation 2.0. The development of this approach reflects the perception that the innovation process has evolved. This study aims to explore new ways to study healthcare networks as key tool for innovation creation and spreading, by deploying the emergent paradigm of Open Innovation 2.0. Design/methodology/approach The study investigates the impact of clusters, or localised networks, involving industrial, academic and institutional players, in the (bio)pharmaceutical setting; the aim is to enrich the line of inquiry into cluster-based innovation by applying a social network analysis (SNA) methodology, with the aim to provide new perspectives for recognising how the set of interactions and relationships in the (bio)pharmaceutical context can lead to higher levels of knowledge transfer, organisational learning and innovation spreading. Findings Starting from the top ten (bio)pharmaceutical companies, and the top ten contract research organisations (CROs), the study helps understand that: the combination of the single big pharma company and the CROs to which great part of the work is externalised, can be compared to a community of transaction that deals with the supply and demand of a specific kind of goods and services; clusters can comprise either a single one or more communities of transaction; virtual CROs act as a community whose all components participate to the creation of value (co-creation), thus comparable to a certain extent to a community of fantasy. Originality/value Based on the novelty of the OI2/SNA combination approach to deal with the “complex” (bio)pharmaceutical industry, the outcomes of the present study mean to highlight: a comprehensive perspective for understanding the dynamics of modularity and their implications for innovation networks; the presence of innovation networks as main mean to promote and support paths of knowledge creation and transfer.

The social frame of healthcare organizations in Europe (and in particular in the Italian Public Sector), as a combination of relational, formal and informal aspects, is one of their most relevant sources of complexity, which leads to different approaches about decisional, clinical and organizational processes (Cicchetti, 2004). These issues have been enlightened as well by the increasing social incidence of chronic-degenerative pathologies, such as Diabetes Mellitus type 2. In this regard, the Italian national e-government strategy has first pointed out the need for paths of integration and interoperability among information systems to ensure a safe exchange of information (CNIPA, 2008). The activity of “integrated design” of information flows between doctors and patients allows the creation and development of reticular organizational forms in which many non contiguous actors work at the same time on the diagnosis and care process. This paper shows how the adoption of the Social Network Analysis (SNA), as theoretical and methodological perspective that emphasizes the social reality as reticular framework (Moreno, 1987), can provide an innovative approach for the study of the “pathology networks” and the “integrated management” of Diabetes Mellitus type 2, where ICT solutions are (or are about to be) currently involved.