Francesca Di Virgilio

Social network for the choice of tourist destination: attitude and behavioural intention.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate how social networks can become the main tool for achieving fast and detailed information for the choice of tourism destination, in order to deeply understand the benefits of these media for promoting tourism destinations in a global perspective, reaching a wider range of potential visitors, and developing ad hoc and marketing strategies with benefits for competitive advantage on the market.Design/methodology/approach – The research focuses on an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which also integrates the constructs e‐word‐of‐mouth communication and enjoyment. In particular, 1,397 experience users have been involved.Findings – The main findings are related to the key role of e‐word of mouth communication on both the perception of usefulness and the attitude towards the use of social network as powerful tool for the choice of tourism destinations; as well as to enjoyment which underlines the role of the fun provided by the social network and represe...

The Role of Organizational Culture on Informal Conflict Management

Many researchers and scholars would without hesitation justify the role of formal processes to manage the conflict in the workplace. The conflict process is greatly influenced by organizational culture. A number of researchers have explored the influences of organizational culture on the different ways of handling conflict. But the organizational culture and conflict management research has often ignored the examination of the impact and implications of culture on informal conflict management in organizations. In this article we take a narrower approach that focuses on the specific domain of culture pertaining to the management of conflict. The purpose of this study was to analyze the amount and types of conflict in organizations with the aim of investigating the relationship between organizational culture and the behavioral norms used to informally manage conflict by examining the results of a survey questionnaire given to 168 employees of a Public Administration. The results indicate that there is a relationship between culture and behavioral norms. In this scenario, formal processes of conflict management become prescriptions and lose their relevance for understanding the challenges and the evolutions of conflict situations. We demonstrate that the practice of conflict management is more problematic, especially in that it brings the topic of organizational culture into the discussion of conflict theory literature.Many researchers and scholars would without hesitation justify the role of formal processes to manage the conflict in the workplace. The conflict process is greatly influenced by organizational culture. A number of researchers have explored the influences of organizational culture on the different ways of handling conflict. But the organizational culture and conflict management research has often ignored the examination of the impact and implications of culture on informal conflict management in organizations. In this article we take a narrower approach that focuses on the specific domain of culture pertaining to the management of conflict. The purpose of this study was to analyze the amount and types of conflict in organizations with the aim of investigating the relationship between organizational culture and the behavioral norms used to informally manage conflict by examining the results of a survey questionnaire given to 168 employees of a Public Administration. The results indicate that there is a rel...

Contractual Conditions, Organizational Level, Dimension of Organization, and Work Conflict as Potential Predictors of Job Stress in Public Administration

Job stress is a pervasive problem for employers in the 21st century economy, making it a timely and important topic in organizational settings. The variables influencing job stress are numerous and consequently it may be analyzed from different perspectives, but the root is primarily physical and psychosocial. This study specifically explores three physical sources of job stress—contractual condition of work, organizational position, and dimension of organization—and of one psychosocial source—work conflict. A survey instrument was used to collect information from regional Public Administration employees of South Italy. Data from 1,130 respondents were analyzed. Statistical correlations and hierarchical regression showed that contractual condition of work, organizational position, organizational dimension, and work conflict were all predictive aspects of job stress.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Field Study in the Italian Hospitality Industry

This chapter analyzes organizational citizenship behavior of permanent versus contingent employees in the Italian hospitality industry. The empirical data were derived from a questionnaire survey conducted in three regions of Southern Italy. Survey respondents were 848 frontline employees from 63 hotels. Findings show that contingent employees exhibited less helping behavior than permanent employees but no difference in their voice behavior. In addition, work status was found to make more of a difference in both helping and voice in less work centrality organizations. Hotel managers are encouraged to focus attention on individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization. Particularly in Italy, it would be advantageous to develop retention strategies for talented people that exhibit a high degree of organizational citizenship behavior.

Physical and Psychosocial Sources as Potential Predictors of Job Stress in the Workplace

Job stress has been steadily gaining attention from researchers in many disciplines and is a fundamental theme in the fields of human resources and risk management, as well as in public and occupational health, organizational psychology, health and safety, and medicine. The increasing attention given to job stress can be attributed to the different aspects of the problem: it is a health issue, but it has also become an economic issue for many people and organizations, and for society in general.

The Firm’s Global Strategies and the Effect of Group Knowledge Environmental Variables on the Decision-Making Process

A firm can only be successful if it applies effective strategies and possesses appropriate intrinsic resources and capabilities and related extrinsic information in order to analyze market opportunities and to capture market share to sustain competitive advantage in the global business landscape. In this context, consumer knowledge, within the framework of a groups’ consumer behavior, is a critical strategic factor in creating competitive advantage. Within this framework it is important to understand that competitive advantage can no longer be measured solely by the amount of resources that are readily accessible or by material production. Accessibility to consumer knowledge is an integral part of a firm’s core competencies. Strategically, consumer knowledge is an intangible resource that helps firms become more flexible and thus more competitive in the business environment (de Vita, Mercurio, & Testa, 2007).

Qualitative Performance and Diversity Management in University Teaching Evaluation

The problem with university instruction evaluation is one of the biggest topics of the evaluation methods. In this paper we will analyze the Teaching Quality Perception (TQP) of the students of a Business Administration (BA), trying to identify a series of indicators concerning the level of the distributed performances, in terms of quality of the instructions, support and so forth. To such scope we will use the evidence variated by the model ServPerf (Cronin-Taylor, 1992) trying to establish the qualitative level of the performances of the CoB considering the relative parameter to the quality of the didactics. On the base of the research of Lodan and Rosener (1991), the scope of this research is to confront the level of the qualitative performances of the afferent Course of Bachelor with three topics of diversity: gender and age as primaries dimension and type of received formation as secondary dimension. In order to proceed to such analysis we will use the statistical instrument of the linear correlation to establish which are the variables that effectively affect the perception of the level of quality of the university service from part of the students.

The Role of the Climate for the Improvement of Team Creativity Processes

The present work intends to contribute to the debate about the identification of the key dimensions (Ekvall, 1996; Amason, 1996; Justesen, 2001; De Dreu et al., 2003) of an effective creative process of the teams (Hackman, 1987). The study has been developed trough a qualitative analysis formed of three research tools by means of the triangulation method: interviews, direct observation of the work teams and focus groups. The results of the investigation lead to give evidence of the importance of climate and experience, between all the other variables, to enable team creativity processes.