Search results

Drawing on the “Giffoni Experience” case study, the purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual link between requisite variety and organizational life cycle. The law of requisite variety states that – to be viable – a system should be able to achieve the minimum number of states which are required to deal with environmental uncertainty.

A descriptive case study approach was taken, which allowed a holistic analysis of the subject being investigated. Multiple sources and different techniques were used to collect relevant data, including: document analysis, unstructured interviews with key informants, and participant observation.

The development of requisite variety is intended to fill the gap between organizational adaptability and increased environmental complexity. The process of requisite variety generation is influenced by the organizational life cycle stages, turning out to be reactive in the early phases of life and proactive in the maturity ones. Ultimately, the development of requisite variety makes the organization able to establish a co-evolving relationship with the environment, which paves the way for greater organizational adaptability and effectiveness.

The research findings are not generalizable; besides, the exploratory nature of this study did not allow to point out a consistent relationship between requisite variety and the organizational life cycle.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first attempts to examine requisite variety adopting the conceptual lenses of organizational life cycle. Empirical research works dealing with requisite variety are uncommon and generally overlooked by management scholars and practitioners.

This paper aims at investigating the link between inter-organizational relationships and innovation, discussing whether the probability to detect a greater innovation propensity of organizations increases with or without collaborative partnerships.

Drawing on secondary data provided by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) about a representative sample of 8,967 Italian firms, three multinomial logit models and four logit models have been estimated, in an attempt to examine the effects of inter-organizational relationships on different types of organizational innovation.

A positive and statistically significant relationship between inter-organizational relationships and organizational innovation emerged from all the models which were arranged for the purpose of this study. Several categories of partners, including suppliers, universities and firms belonging to the same holding group, were found to be more effective in fostering the probability of organizational innovation. Interestingly, geographical proximity did not seem to influence the organizational propensity to innovate.

Even though further developments are needed to disentangle the complex link between inter-organizational relationships and organizational innovation, the former are likely to positively affect the innovation ability of organizations. From this point of view, it could be argued that partners perform as catalysts, which boost the knowledge creation process underlying the emergence of organizational innovation.

This is one of the first attempts to exploit the potential of multinomial logit models and logit models to investigate the effects of inter-organizational relationships on the propensity of organizations to innovate.

It is not easy to grasp the concept of “value” in the higher education context. In fact, different stakeholders generally hold diverging perspectives about the value generated by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The purpose of this paper is to disentangle the value expectations and perceptions of current and former students (i.e. the main stakeholders) of a medium-sized university established in Northern Italy.

A mixed, qualitative–quantitative case study was undertaken. A semi-structured survey was delivered through a computer-assisted web interview technique to a sample of 2,572 people. Inter alia, the interviewees were asked to express their value perceptions and value expectations toward the case institution and to rate their own assessment of educational services’ quality.

The respondents felt that the university was effective in delivering functional, extrinsic and intrinsic value; conversely, they perceived several gaps in the case institution’s ability to accomplish emotional and relational value. Moreover, the interviewees argued that the institution was unsuccessful in establishing a bridge between higher education and the labor market, focussing on conceptual issues, rather than on experiential learning and soft skills.

The gap between the students’ value expectations and perceptions hampers the perceived quality of educational services. The lack of awareness of this gap is thought to trigger organizational inertia, which contributes to the impoverishment of educational services’ quality.

The paper sheds light on different value perceptions and expectations held by students of a medium-sized HEI; also, it provides some insights into the organizational and management implications of diverging value perceptions and expectations of students.

Workplace discrimination negatively affects the functioning of organizations. Scholars have generally focused their attention on specific forms of prejudiced treatment at work as well as on particular groups of discriminated employees. Conversely, studies investigating the multifacetedness of this phenomenon are sporadic. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the advancement of the scientific knowledge about workplace discrimination showing a full-fledged portrait of this phenomenon in Italy.

Secondary data about self-reported experiences of workplace discrimination of a large sample of Italian people were collected and run in a logistic regression model. Five forms of discrimination at work were taken into account: prejudiced job design and work allocation; discriminatory use of promotion and awards; wage differentials; unjustified increased workload; and mismanagement of HRM instruments.

More than a fifth of respondents perceived at least one form of workplace discrimination. Different types of prejudiced treatment were triggered by distinctive socio-demographic and work-related factors. People who were unemployed at the moment of the interview were consistent in claiming that they suffered from all the forms of workplace discrimination. Former employees who underwent a work-family conflict were more likely to suffer from iniquitous treatment at work.

The occurrence of workplace discrimination was not objectively assessed. Besides, since only Italian people were included in this study, the findings are not generalizable at the international level.

This article provides some insights to inspire policy and management interventions intended to prevent and/or curb the occurrence workplace discrimination.

The ecosystem view is a fascinating perspective which provides management scholars with innovative conceptual tools to investigate the functioning of complex service systems. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the “mega” level of the education service ecosystem in an attempt to explain the relationships between education attainments and income disparities across Europe.

Data were collected from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Data trends over the time period (2007-2010) were investigated, involving 27 European countries. Unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity was controlled and dynamics over time were investigated. A random effects model was estimated for each country. The semi-log functional form is informed by Mincer’s (1974) human capital models.

Education levels were found to be a predictor of income inequality in all the countries included in this research, i.e. higher education level leads to higher income and vice versa. However, the effect of education attainments on individual earnings was irregular. Eastern European countries, inter alia, revealed a strong relationship between education attainments and individual earnings, whereas Scandinavian countries showed a weak link between education levels and income.

Education has the potential to affect income inequalities in Europe. Policy makers should develop tailored strategies to deal with the consequences of education levels on individual earnings. Both education services’ quality and the interaction between education and moderating socio-demographic variables may influence income inequality in European countries.

This is one of the first attempts to investigate the relationship between education and income inequalities drawing on the service ecosystem perspective. Further conceptual and practical developments are needed to better explain the effects of education attainments on income inequality.

Educational organizations have to continuously adapt their structures, processes and practices to meet the evolving institutional and social challenges raised by the external environment. From this point of view, organizational change is a fundamental ingredient of the recipe for success in educational management. The purpose of this paper is to contextualize organizational change to educational institutions, pointing out its determinants, barriers and consequences.

A systematic literature review was performed. On the whole, it concerned 330 scientific contributions. Manuscripts were searched in two large citation databases. Tailored selection and inclusion criteria were designed in order to exclusively focus on papers investigating organizational change dynamics in the educational environment. In sum, 41 contributions were included in this literature review.

Organizational change in the educational context paves the way for various managerial challenges. First, the internal and external triggers of change should be concomitantly handled, in order to curb isomorphic pressures and steer organizational evolution. Second, specific strategies should be implemented to overcome the barriers to organizational change, including ambiguity and uncertainty. Finally, yet importantly, the side effects of organizational change should be recognized, in an attempt to attenuate their drawbacks on employees’ working conditions.

Organizational change should be understood as an iterative process, rather than as a circumscribed event. Educational managers should design specific approaches and deploy ad hoc tools to effectively implement organizational change.

This study attempts to systemize the current scientific literature about organizational change in the field of educational management, illuminating some intriguing avenues for further research.

Corruption is a wicked issue affecting public sector organizations across the world. Even though research in this field is blooming, little is known about the strategies that could be implemented to prevent and/or fight the occurrence of public corruption. The purpose of this paper is to fill the extant gaps in the scientific knowledge, providing insights into the strategies that can be use to fight public corruption.

Using a longitudinal approach, the paper points out some evidence on the perceived effectiveness of different public governance initiatives in reducing the risks of public corruption in Europe. More specifically, 31 Western European countries were involved in this analysis. The research covered a seven years’ time-span, ranging from January 2010 to December 2016.

Rule of law (RL) was found to be an important ingredient of the recipe for successful anti-corruption policies. Conversely, political stability (PS) turned out to entail greater incentives to public corruption. Whilst voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption were correlates of perceived anti-corruption performance, they were not found to act as relevant regressors in the panel model.

The generalizability of the research results is limited by the geographical boundaries of this study; besides, there is the risk that the study findings were affected by the consequences of the recent financial turbulences concerning Western European countries.

RL is momentous to realize the full potential of anti-corruption policies: in fact, it contributes in reducing the incentives to improperly use public assets, enhancing the proper functioning of public sector organizations. Alternatively, PS may induce public officials and citizens to collude in order to capture public resources.

The paper contributes in shedding light on the perceived effectiveness of anti-corruption initiatives, paving the way for further conceptual and practical developments.

Whistleblowing – i.e. the employees’ decision to report illegal, immoral and/or illegitimate practices performed by peers, supervisors and/or subordinates – involves a contestation of the existing organizational power. Therefore, it challenges the whistleblower’s identification with the organization. Nevertheless, whistleblowing has been rarely related to organizational identity. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap, investigating employees’ whistleblowing intentions in the context of higher education.

A quantitative, exploratory analysis concerning the whistleblowing episodes that occurred in the whole population of Italian publicly owned universities and higher education institutions was performed (n=69). Secondary data about whistleblowing were retrieved from the annual reports arranged by the supervisor for the prevention of corruption and the promotion of transparency.

Most of Italian publicly owned higher education institutions did not experience whistleblowing. Conversely, less than a quarter of the sample reported at least ones whistleblowing procedure. The homogeneity of organizational identity seemed to discourage the willingness of academic employees to report organizational wrongdoings. ICT-based and anonymized whistleblowing systems were found to support the propensity of academics to blow the whistle.

Tailored interventions are needed to address the interplay between organizational identity and academic employees’ whistleblowing intentions. The culture of silence predominating in institutions characterized by a hegemonic organizational identity should be overwhelmed. Prevention measures intended to guarantee the whistleblower’s anonymity through the use of ICT-based platforms are useful to support the academic employees’ willingness to blow the whistle in case of organizational misconduct.

This is one of the first attempts to investigate the interplay between organizational identity and whistleblowing in public sector organizations.

Even though innovation is widely understood as a critical success factor, little is still known about the top management ability to steer small firms’ innovativeness. In an attempt to fill such gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between strategic orientation and propensity to innovate of a representative sample of Italian small-sized organizations.

Secondary data collected from the Community Innovation Survey performed in Italy by the Italian Institute of Statistics were investigated. Data concerned a representative sample of 5.833 units of analysis. Ad hoc logistic regression models were designed to illuminate the relationship between small firms’ propensity to innovate and their strategic orientation.

The outputs of logistic regression models suggested that strategic aims, strategic goals and awareness of environmental threats influenced the propensity of small firms to innovate. On the one hand, the desire to expand the current market share and to open new markets aroused product innovation; on the other hand, the need to increase organizational flexibility boosted process innovation.

This study relied on secondary data; therefore, it was not possible to tailor the process of data collection to the specific purposes of this research. Besides, findings are not generalizable at either the European or worldwide level.

This is one of the first attempts to exploit the potential of multiple logistic regression models to shed light on the relationship between small firms’ strategic orientation and their propensity to innovate.

Educational institutions are facing a growing number of challenges, which impair their ability to provide high quality and effective educational services. The involvement of pupils in co-creating learning experiences is a fundamental ingredient of the recipe for increased educational quality. Inter alia, the implementation of citizen science initiatives at schools allows pupils to be active co-producers of educational services. The purpose of this paper to shed light on the attributes of citizen science projects targeted at pupils (aged between six and ten) attending primary schools, in order to identify their potential implications in terms of educational services’ quality improvement.

Secondary data were collected from the Scistarter® web platform. Projects addressed to primary schools and provided with specific classroom materials were taken into consideration (n=65). A qualitative, comparative and bird’s eye analysis was performed: first, looking at the role and the tasks assigned to pupils, the projects were grouped in four categories; second, the potential implications of citizen science on educational services’ quality were investigated.

Citizen science at school paves the way for pupils’ empowerment and for their direct involvement in the co-production of educational services. Moreover, it enhances the relationship between teachers and pupils, engaging them in a co-creating partnership intended at addressing real scientific issues at school. However, citizen science is still poorly integrated into conventional educational curricula in primary schools.

From a management point of view, citizen science is thought to contribute to the improvement of educational services’ quality, stimulating pupils to partner with their peers and with teachers for the purpose of knowledge co-production; in addition, it allows for the enrichment of educational activities in primary schools. From a policy perspective, citizen science at school harmonizes with the democratization of scientific knowledge.

This is one of the first research papers to demonstrate the potential implications of citizen science on educational services’ quality and effectiveness in primary schools.