Luigi Moschera

Strong and Weak Events: How to Measure Them?

This paper is related to our previous work (submitted to the 6th New Institutional Workshop, Lyon, 2009) dealing with the analysis of the evolution of the Italian Temporary Work Agencies’ field (TWAs) through the new institutional logics approach. Through this approach, we aimed to analyze the TWAs that constitute a fairly young field which came into being in 1997. The process of rise and evolution of the TWAs’ field has been complex and lengthy. It has been characterized by different phases and several events that shaped and influenced actions and behaviors of individual and collective actors involved in the field.Last year during the workshop the discussion brought out the interest about the analysis of the events according to several variables. Therefore, this contribution represents a step forward focusing on the analysis of the events occurred in TWAs’ field. We focus on the methodological process used to identify and to measure the events relevant to the analysis of this organizational field.In light of these assumptions, the paper aims to identify the events occurred in the Italian TWAs’ field from 1986 to 2010. In addition, we aim to measure the strength of these events in order to find out which are the critical ones that caused the shift from one phase to another and from one institutional logic to another in the process of institutional change.

Myth #8: The Myth of Scale

Elephants have bigger brains than humans, but less interconnected and, consequently, less developed (adapted from Morgan 1986). The quest for measurement in health care paved the way for the myth of scale, which ultimately assumes that higher dimensions are associated with better organizational performance. Moreover, it pretends that organizational design is a simple issue, which could be dealt with through reductionism (Gharajedaghi 1999). Organizations are conceived as engines (Morgan 2016): human resources are easily replaceable and performance is predictable (Thietart and Forgues 1995). This approach produces a veil of ignorance, which diminishes the meaningfulness of organizational science. Sticking to this, several scholars have found that organizational dimensions are able to affect organizational performance in terms of efficiency (Chadwick et al. 2004), effectiveness (Sahin and Ozcan 2000), and adoption of innovative technologies (Irwin et al. 1998). However, this reductionist reasoning does not capture the real nature of healthcare organizations.

Evolution of Institutional Logics: The Emergence of the Temporary Work Agencies Field in Italy

This article shows the process of creation and evolution of an organizational field. By an in-depth longitudinal analysis, we investigate the field of Temporary Work Agencies in Italy (TWAs). The article focuses on how a field evolves over time. We delineate three phases of evolution - incubation, emergence and development - and we analyse events and the role of actors that have characterized them. Further, we identify the institutional logics that have strongly influenced the strategic and organizational behaviour of the actors involved in the Italian field of TWAs and their interactions. Therefore, to respond to this institutional complexity the actors have tried to influence with both individual and collective actions the logics themselves. The analysis shows that two competing logics have coexisted within the TWA field: the regulation logic, inspired by the social status and welfare, and the de-regulation logic, connected to the liberal and free-market model. Through the longitudinal analysis repeated in four different field studies, we have reconstructed the process of evolution of the field, describing the links between the different phases. Our research contributes to the institutional logic perspective fitting into the discussion on the coexistence of competing logics in an organizational field.

Remembering Claudio: a note from his friends at Universities of Naples and Catanzaro

Received: 4 August 2005 Revised: 27 September 2005 Accepted: 29 September 2005 At the University of Naples, the research group on information systems and organizational studies developed a strong relationship with Claudio Ciborra throughout the years, having the chance of benefiting from his insights and ideas to promote the study of the discipline and establishing sound reference models for new generations of researchers. Starting from personal relationships rooted in the 80s (Claudio had been teaching in southern Italy at the beginning of his academic career), we enjoyed a proximity to Claudio’s academic endeavours, which strengthened during the time. As a consequence of such mutual interest, back in 1999, Claudio’s dream of bringing the major European Conference on Information Systems to Italy for the first time started to assume a real contour when the decision was made to host the 11th ECIS (2003) at the University of Naples. Organising such a prominent event in the academic calendar was indeed a major challenge, but also, as was clear from its preliminary rounds, an exciting opportunity to get in touch with outstanding academics and fresh ideas. And as such that chance had been conceived by Claudio as well. For sure Claudio loved the location for a variety of reasons: a true cosmopolitan and mediterranean in nature as he was, he found inspiration and joy of life in countless journeys towards the south. But also because he managed to feel at home there, feeling a sense of recognition of his groundbreaking ideas. To use Claudio’s own words, his link with Naples managed to ‘precipitate the turning of an ephemeral contact into a relationship that looks and feels like a long acquaintance’. The ECIS project gradually assumed the traits of an emerging reality in the years between 1999 and 2003, when several meetings with him took place in various locations, to unfold hot topics deserving a track at the conference, always in an effort, under his constant eye on the matter, to strike a balance between academic rigour and the attractive novelties of the outside world. ECIS 2003 was a memorable conference, addressing the need to explore the limitations of existing managerial and technical approaches and models, to establish new alliances with other social sciences, looking at the specificity of emerging technologies in a new light. It was really a manifesto of Claudio’s attitude and meanings towards the discipline, answering his invitation to refocus the managerial agenda, drawing on new contributions emerging from the social sciences, such as theories of globalization and the risk society, allied to those from business and management. In his vision, the conference represented a milestone and a challenge for the IS field, called to develop new paradigms to inspire fresh research directions, where cultural and human issues have a primary role, adapted to the current challenges of developing and using information and communication technologies in the changing world, squeezed by revolutionary and unprecedented forces and trends affecting organizations and institutions in which information technology is introduced: globalization; European Journal of Information Systems (2005) 14, 459–460 & 2005 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/05

Logiche istituzionali e allomorfismo in un campo organizzativo: le Agenzie per il Lavoro in Italia

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