Domenica Farinella

Public Service Motivation How Does it Relate to Management Reforms and Changes in the Working Situation of Public Organizations? A Case Study of the Italian Revenue Agency

To what extent can PSM be considered a characteristic that evolves in the course of the individuals working life? After offering this question as a contribution to a research agenda on PSM, the article examines in what way the different dimensions of PSM, held by a group of employees in the Italian Revenue Agency, relate to their perceptions of recent changes in working conditions. It also explores the relationship between perception of change, PSM dimensions and job satisfaction, work motivation and organizational commitment. Out of the web of interactions that tie together these variables some support is found for the argument that there is a relationship between some PSM dimensions and changes in the work environment. It is suggested, however, that the question raised, besides needing further studies, could be much better researched with a longitudinal study of a cohort of individuals.

The Regionalization of the Public Health System and New Governance Models for Healthcare: The Stroke Network Case In Italy

This article describes the outcomes of a 2009 study into the reasons for the regional differences in implementation of “stroke networks” in Italy. Evidence shows that early diagnosis and delivery of treatment in specialized stroke units, including rehabilitation therapy, can reduce the risks of death and disability. Nevertheless, there are significant differences and delays in the implementation of such practices. To understand the reasons for the delays, measures were examined, including decision makers’ agendas, regional budget limitations,organizational delays, structural complexity, competition over scarce resources, power structure differences, and informal practices. This study outlines five main models of management and shows how competition with private hospitals, internal rivalries involving professionals and medical sectors, expenditure restraints, and a lack of well-trained personnel represent the main obstacles to the development and operation of stroke units.

The earthquake and the shanty: Post-disaster social order in a sicilian town (1908-2013)

This study explores the historical development of a deprived class in Messina, a Southern Italian city. By means of 85 in-depth interviews and the analysis of the most important phases of the reconstruction following a disastrous earthquake which took place in 1908, the authors investigate the forces that, over the course of a century, shaped the formation process of an “underclass�? living in shanties and deprived project areas within the city. The authors’ hypothesis is that the “economy of disaster�? and the “shock economy�? are not a specific feature of the current period. On the contrary, the elements characterizing the contemporary disaster-related speculative processes were largely active at the very beginning of the past century. This chapter, then, explores the long-lasting social consequences of speculative approaches to the management of disasters, and reflects on the forms of resistance of subaltern populations to an organization of life that started in the aftermath of a remote earthquake, and still affects their living conditions and ways of reproduction.

Dalla retorica del NPM al cambiamento in concreto: il caso di un centro di smistamento postale

During the last decades a process of public service reform has been run; it consists in tendency to the use of marked-oriented mechanisms in the public administration management (New Public Management). If, theoretically, the adoption of NPM seems to be simple and without any problem, the fulfilment of the change is, actually, difficult and ambiguous, especially because employers have to put into practice the reform. The paper is about the case of the privatization of the post service. The rhetoric of postal privatization is based on the passage from a red-taped, hierarchical and patronage-relationship model to an horizontal, flexible and meritocratic one. However, from the analysis of a sorting office emerges that the employers live the process of change in a uncertain and contradictory way, and consider the main organizational innovations as a process of downgrading.