LIBRI DI ROBERTO LUSARDI

This article discusses whether and how strategic planning can promote the development and dissemination of organizational democracy in knowledge-intensive organizations. This research is inspired by the theoretical approach known as strategy-as-practice, in which strategic planning is considered a process of co-construction of meanings and actions involving multiple actors engaged in negotiation dynamics, through situational interactions in daily practice. Adopting a strategic ethnography approach from a methodological point of view, we examine the participatory strategic planning process conducted from January 2022 to April 2023 at the University of Bergamo. By analyzing ethnographic reports, formal documents, and working drafts, four strategic practices (Collective decision making, Platform and process alignment, Emotional coordination, and Organizational diplomacy) are identified as connected to two key enabling factors (synergic approach and consensus on organizational change) that can support and facilitate the spread of work environments more sensitive to the principles of organizational democracy. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

A causa del Covid-19 abbiamo vissuto quasi due anni in un mondo rovesciato, rivoluzionando i nostri stili di vita. Il volume mostra, sulla base di riflessioni teoriche sostenute da ricerche sul campo, alcuni di questi sviluppi, costruendo il contesto per interventi di supporto alle persone e di contrasto agli effetti negativi. Il testo approfondisce le seguenti “aree”: Policy, Anziani, Adulti, Giovani e Comunicazioni. Queste tematiche sono affrontate con uno sguardo critico, ma con un’attitudine costruttiva, utilizzando solide e sofisticate strumentazioni sociologiche.

In the article, we address the topic of professional cultures and, in particular, of the hybridi-zation process that is affecting health and social care integration practices. Through the presentation of a theoretical model of classification and comparison of the cultural properties of the professions involved in health and social care integration (medical, nursing, social and administrative culture) and the application of the model to an ethnographic case study carried out in Emilia Romagna, we intend to show how hybridization does not only possess involutive characteristics. In the studied field, the process of hybridization of professional cultures is an attempt to interpret the challenge of social and health integration in evolutive terms. Mutual contamination of professional knowledge and skills, promotion of teamwork-based interaction and the development of a pedagogic-promotional relationship with the user create shared value and innovation. The result is a cultural hybrid in which professions are increasingly interconnected and the principles of autonomy and specialization of professions match managerial knowledge, confirming when it has been widely discussed in literature about the consolidation of the new professionalism. The analysis of the empirical study shows how the organization can stimulate hybridization processes when the coordination strategies involve the constant review of organizational processes and paying attention to communicative dynamics and informal aspects that accompany the daily work of professionals.

Intensive Care Units are among the Health Care Organizations mainly crossed in the last decade from radical transformations. Such processes of deep innovation, contribute to redefine professional practice of doctors and nurses. In our research, based on 5 focus group carried out in 2005, in 5 ICU in North Italy, we have analyzed the communicative narratives that doctors and nurses put in existence in their daily practice. Two narratives, linked to two thematic topics, emerged from the data: emotionality versus involvement and separation; decisional ambivalence versus coherence and coordination.