Relazioni informali e attitudine alla cooperazione nelle organizzazioni professionali: i risultati di uno studio empirico

This paper reports the results of an empirical study performed in a large Italian university hospital. It explores the impact of both formal and informal processes on performance in complex organizations. The paper is based on the results of a previous study performed in the same hospital that explored how internal organizational features and patient characteristics affect departmental performance and outcomes. We argue that focusing on the analysis of informal social relations emerging among individuals and among organizational units is fundamental to provide a comprehensive explanation of management practices creation and diffusion in knowledge-intensive and professional organizations. In these contests, where knowledge generation and sharing play a central role and professionals’ autonomy and motivational structure make coordination processes complex, the successful implementation of managerial practices, and thus organizational performance, results from people informal interaction and from the emergence of "communities of practices".;

Americo Cicchetti, Silvia Profili, Relazioni informali e attitudine alla cooperazione nelle organizzazioni professionali: i risultati di uno studio empirico in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 2-3/2001, pp , DOI: