Governing and organizing for participation and engagement. What can we learn from social cooperation?

Titolo Rivista STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Autori/Curatori Silvia Sacchetti, Michele Pasinetti, Elena Rocca, Riccardo Bodini
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2022/1
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 33 P. 50-82 Dimensione file 339 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2022-001003
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

The present article shall analyse how organizations can activate stakeholder participation processes. Specifically, this article examines select participatory projects that were identified, developed and implemented within a network of Italian social cooperatives focusing on work integration. An area, therefore, in which worker participation is geared at pursuing explicit social objectives whilst enhancing innovative capacity, thus improving overall competitiveness and economic sustainability. Within this context, the paper focuses in particular on the organizational processes and schemes that promote stakeholder empowerment and active involvement, beyond the existence of formal governance structures and management bodies. The paper is structured in two parts. The first draws from the literature to analyse the importance of participation within companies, focusing on social enterprises, and discusses the structural and procedural features of inclusive governance. The second part examines the experience of the CAUTO network of social cooperatives in Italy and its participatory practices, paying particular attention to the key features of the organizational context in which they arose, the project structure that characterized them, and their replicability in other contexts.

Questo articolo prende in esame i modi in cui le organizzazioni possono attiva-re processi partecipativi da parte dei propri stakeholder. In particolare, l’articolo analizza alcuni progetti di partecipazione identificati, sviluppati e implementati all’interno di una rete di cooperative sociali italiane. Un ambito, quindi, in cui la partecipazione dei lavoratori è orientata al perseguimento di espliciti obiettivi so-ciali e nel contempo al miglioramento delle capacità di innovazione, aumentando quindi la competitività e la sostenibilità economica dell’impresa. In questo contesto, il paper si concentra in particolare sui processi organizzativi che promuovono l’empowerment e il coinvolgimento attivo dei portatori di interesse, al di là della presenza di strutture formali di governo e gestione partecipata dell’organizzazione. L’articolo è strutturato in due parti. La prima si basa sulla letteratura per analizzare l’importanza della partecipazione nelle imprese, concentrandosi sulle imprese sociali e prendendo in esame le caratteristiche strutturali e procedurali della governance inclusiva. La seconda parte esamina l’esperienza della rete di cooperative sociali italiane CAUTO e le pratiche partecipative che ha messo in atto, pre-stando particolare attenzione alle caratteristiche chiave del contesto organizzativo in cui sono nate, alla struttura progettuale che le caratterizza, e alla loro replicabilità in altri contesti.

Keywords:Governance inclusiva, progetti partecipativi, coinvolgimento degli stakeholder, cooperazione sociale, impresa sociale, gestione di impresa, Italia.

  1. Amabile T. M. (1997). Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do. California management review, 40(1): 39-58.
  2. Apparao D., Garnevska, E., Shadbolt, N. (2019). Examining commitment, heterogeneity and social capital within the membership base of agricultural co-operatives—A conceptual framework. Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 7(1): 42-50.
  3. Blair M. M., Stout, L. A. (1999). A Team Production Theory of Corporate Law. Law Review (Vol. 85).
  4. Bogart K. A. S. (2013). Convergence of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 13(4): 318-329.
  5. Borzaga C., Tortia, E. C. (2010). The economics of social enterprises”, The Economics of Social Responsibility. The World of Social Enterprises. London: Routledge, 15-33.
  6. Borzaga C., Fazzi, L. (2014). Civil society, third sector, and healthcare: the case of social cooperatives in Italy. Social Science & Medicine, 123: 234–241.
  7. Borzaga C., Sacchetti, S. (2021), Inclusive organizations as agents of democracy, In Chiappero, E. (ed.) Social justice in a global society. Toward new forms of social innovation and economic democracy for a Silvia Sacchetti, Michele Pasinetti, Elena Rocca, Riccardo Bodini 79 sustainable development. Fondazione Feltrinelli, Milano (Italy), 227-255.
  8. Centro Studi Lang (2017). Manuale operativo per la Theory of Change. Linee guida per gestire un workshop partecipativo di Teoria del Cambiamento e porre le basi per la valutazione dell’impatto sociale, Philantropy Insights 5/2017.
  9. Chesbrough H. (2006). Open Business Models: How To Thrive. The New Innovation Landscape.
  10. Coase R. H. (1937). The Nature of the Firm. Economica, 4(16): 386–405. DOI: 10.2307/2626876
  11. Cohen W. M., Levinthal, D. A. (1989). Innovation and learning: the two faces of R & D. The economic journal, 99(397): 569-596.
  12. Cowling K., Sugden, R. (1998). The essence of the modern corporation: markets, strategic decision‐making and the theory of the firm. The Manchester School, 66(1), 59-86.
  13. Crane B. (2018). Revisiting who, when, and why stakeholders matter: Trust and stakeholder connectedness. Business & Society, 59: 263–286.
  14. Curedale R. (2018). Service design, process and method. Design community college Inc.
  15. Deci E. L., Ryan, R. M. (2000). The” what” and” why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological inquiry, 11(4): 227-268.
  16. Dewey J. (1954). The Public and Its Problems: An Essay in Political Injury. Swallow Press.
  17. Dosi G., Egidi, M. (1991). Substantive and procedural uncertainty. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 1(2): 145–168. DOI: 10.1007/BF01224917
  18. Freeman R. E., Harrison, J. S., Wicks, A. C., Parmar, B. L., De Colle, S. (2010). Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. Cambridge University Press.
  19. Gandz J., Bird, F. G. (1996). The ethics of empowerment. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(4), 383–392. DOI: 10.1007/BF00380359
  20. Grandori A. (2001). Neither Hierarchy nor Identity: Knowledge-Governance Mechanisms and the Theory of the Firm. Journal of Management and Governance, 5(3/4): 381–399. DOI: 10.1023/A:1014055213456
  21. Helmsing A. H. J., Vellema, S. (2011). Value chains, social inclusion and economic development. London and New York: Routledge.
  22. Hirschman A. O. (1980), “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty”: Further Reflections and a Survey of Recent Contributions. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society, 58(3): 430–453. DOI: 10.2307/3349733
  23. Hirschman A. O. (1982). Shifting involvements: private interest and public action. Princeton University Press.
  24. Hymer S. (1972). The Internationalization of Capital. Journal of Economic Issues, 6(1): 91–111. DOI: 10.1080/00213624.1972.11503013
  25. Kogut B., Zander, U. (1993). Knowledge of the Firm and the Evolutionary Theory of the Multinational Corporation. Journal of International Business Studies, 24(4): 625–645. DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490248
  26. Lanzara G. (1993). Capacità negativa: Competenza progettuale e modelli di intervento nelle organizzazioni. Bologna: Il Mulino.
  27. Lewin A. Y., Massini, S., Peeters, C. (2011). Microfoundations of internal and external absorptive capacity routines. Organization science, 22(1): 81-98.
  28. Loasby B. J. (2006). Industrial organization. In T. Raffaelli, Giacomo Becattini, Marco Dardi (Eds.), The impact of Alfred Marshall’s ideas : the global diffusion of his work. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 371–378. Retrieved from --http://eh.net/book_reviews/the-elgar-companionto-alfred-marshall/
  29. Mamouni Limnios E., Mazzarol, T., Soutar, G. N., Siddique, K. H. (2018). The member wears four hats: A member identification framework for cooperative enterprises. Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 6(1), 20–33.
  30. Maslow A. H. (1998). Maslow on management. Originally published as Eupsychian Management: A Journal. Homewood, IL: Irwin-Dorsey, (1965). New York, NY: Wiley. Retrieved from --https://www.abebooks.it/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1412576297&searchurl=tn%3Deupsychian%2Bmanagement%2Ba%2Bjournal%26sortby%3D20%26an%3Dabraham%2Bh%2Bmaslow&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2
  31. McGregor D. (1960). Theory X and theory Y. In Pinguin Business (Ed.), Organization theory, Selected readings. London, pp. 358–374.
  32. Nelson R. R., Winter, S. G. (1982). An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Ed. Retrieved from --http://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb/pdf_2/Dosi_1_An_evolutionary-theory-of_economic_change.pdf
  33. Nonaka I.. Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create The Dynamics Of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press, Ed. DOI: 10.1016/S0040-1625(96)00091-1
  34. Nonaka I., Umemoto, K., Senoo, D. (1996). From Information Processing to Knowledge Creation: A Paradigm Shift in Business Management. Pergamon Technology In Society, 18(2), 203–218. Retrieved from --http://www.sietmanagement.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/nonaka-1996.pdf
  35. Perkins D. D., Zimmerman, M. A. (1995). Empowerment theory, research, and application. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5): 569–579. DOI: 10.1007/BF02506982
  36. Perkins W. B. (2000). Citizen Participation in Resource Allocation. Policy Studies Journal, 28(4): 882.  --https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A75833907/AONE?u=anon~124df6f3&sid=googleScholar&xid=a7368c19
  37. Polanyi M. (1966). The tacit dimension. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Retrieved from --https://www.worldcat.org/title/tacit-dimension/oclc/60901005
  38. Poledrini S., Tortia, E. C. (2020). Social Enterprises: Evolution of the Organizational Model and Application to the Italian Case. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 10(4).
  39. Ryan R. M., Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1): 68–78.  DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68
  40. Sacchetti S., Sugden, R. (2003). The governance of networks and economic power: the nature and impact of subcontracting relationships. Journal of Economic Surveys, 17: 669–692.
  41. Sacchetti S. (2004). Knowledge caps in industrial development.  New Political Economy, 9(3), 389-412.
  42. Sacchetti F., Sacchetti, S., Sugden, R. (2009). Creativity in socio-economic development: Space for the interests of publics. International Review of Applied Economics, 23: 653-72.
  43. Sacchetti S., Sugden, R. (2011). The public interest in economic development and creativity: a knowledge governance perspective. In B. Dallago and C. Guglielmetti, eds, Local Economies and Global Competitiveness. UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 232-241.
  44. Sacchetti S. (2013). Motivational resilience in the university system. In R. Sugden, J. Wilson, and M. Valania, eds, Leadership and Cooperation in Academia: Reflecting on the Roles and Responsibilities of University Faculty and Management, Cheltenham (UK): Elgar.
  45. Sacchetti S., Tortia, E. (2013). Satisfaction with Creativity: A Study of Organizational Characteristics and Individual Motivation. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14: 1789-1811, ISSN: 1389-4978,
  46. Sacchetti S. (2015). Inclusive and exclusive social preferences: A Deweyan framework to explain governance heterogeneity. Journal of Business Ethics, 126: 473-485. First published online November 2013.  
  47. Sacchetti S., Tortia, E. (2016). The extended governance of cooperative firms: inter‐firm coordination and consistency of values. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 87(1):93-116.
  48. Sacchetti S., Birchall, J. (2018). The Comparative Advantages of Single and Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives. Journal of entrepreneurial and organizational diversity, 7(2): 87-100, ISSN:2281-8642
  49. Sacchetti S., Borzaga, C., Tortia, E. (2019).The institutions of livelihood and social enterprise systems. Euricse Working Paper, 109(19).
  50. Sacchetti S., Borzaga, C. (2020). The Foundations Of The “Public Organisation”: Governance Failure And The Problem Of External Effects. Journal of Management and Governance,
  51. Sacchetti S., Tortia, E.C. (2020). Governing cooperatives in the context of individual motives. International Journal of Social Economics, 48(2): 181 - 203. --https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-09-2019-0579.
  52. Sacchetti S.. Catturani, I. (2021). Governance and different types of value. A framework for analysis. Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 9 (1),
  53. Sacchetti S., Catturani, I. (2021). Governance and different types of value: A framework for analysis. Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 9(1).
  54. Sacconi L. (1991). Etica degli affari: individui, imprese e mercati nella prospettiva dell’etica razionale. Milano: Il saggiatore, Retrieved from --https://air.unimi.it/handle/2434/600446#.XOVBUMgza70
  55. Santos F. M. (2012). A positive theory of social entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics, 111(3): 335-351.
  56. Saz-Gil I., Bretos, I., Díaz-Foncea, M.(2021). Cooperatives and Social Capital: A Narrative Literature Review and Directions for Future Research. Sustainability, 13, 534.
  57. Signoretti A., Sacchetti, S. (2020). Lean HRM Practices in Work Integration Social Enterprises: Moving Towards Social Lean Production. Evidence from Italian Case Studies.
  58. Spender J.-C. (1996). Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17(S2):45–62. --https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250171106
  59. Stame N. (2016). Valutazione Pluralista. Milano: Franco Angeli.
  60. Stickdorn M., Hormess M., Lawrence A., Schneider J. (2018). This is service design doing. O’REILLY.
  61. Taplin D., Clark H. (2012). Theory of Change basis, New York. ActKnowledge. --https://www.theoryofchange.org/wp-content/upload/toco_library/pdf/ToCBasics.pdf
  62. Teece D., Pisano, G. (1994). The Dynamic Capabilities of Firms: an Introduction, Retrieved from --http://icc.oxfordjournals.org
  63. Thomas A. (2004). The Rise of Social Cooperatives in Italy. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 15(3):243–263.
  64. Tortia E., Sacchetti, S. (2013). Satisfaction with Creativity: A Study of Organizational Characteristics and Individual Motivation. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14: 1789-1811, ISSN: 1389-4978,
  65. Van den Broeck A., Carpini, J., Leroy, H., Diefendorff, J. M. (2017). How much effort will I put into my work? It depends on your type of motivation. In Chmiel, N., Fraccaroli, F. and Sverke, M., eds. Work and organizational psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 354-372.
  66. Weiss M. (2021). Challenges for Workers’ Participation. In: Addabbo T., Ales E., Curzi Y., Fabbri T., Rymkevich O., Senatori I. (eds) The Collective Dimensions of Employment Relations. Cham:Palgrave Macmillan,
  67. Wilkinson A. (1998). Empowerment: theory and practice, Personnel review.
  68. Wilkinson A., Barry, M., Morrison, E. (2020). Toward an integration of research on employee voice. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1): 1-6.
  69. Williamson O. E. (1973). Markets and Hierarchies: Some Elementary Considerations. The American Economic Review, 63(2):316–325. --http://www.jstor.org/stable/1817092

Silvia Sacchetti, Michele Pasinetti, Elena Rocca, Riccardo Bodini, Governing and organizing for participation and engagement. What can we learn from social cooperation? in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 1/2022, pp 50-82, DOI: 10.3280/SO2022-001003