Stefano Baraldi

Management control systems in NPOs: an italian survey

This paper tries to point out the role and the characteristics of management control systems (MCS) in organisations whose main goal is not for profit (NPO). Are MCS a necessary or (at least) a useful tool to manage these organisations? How have they to fit the typical nature of NPOs? Are the traditional control processes (planning, programming, budgeting, reporting) effective in NPOs? What kind of information do they use? What is the ‘state of the art’ and the degree of sophistication of MCS in NPOs? To address these issues, a survey has been conducted among 76 Italian NPO top managers, and the results are reported in this paper.

How healthcare organisations actually use the internet's virtual space: a field study

For some years now, the opportunity of innovating business models has basically been linked to continual progress in ICT. Healthcare is no exception; information and communication technologies are generally considered the most effective drivers for changing organisation, improving quality, optimising resources, etc. – at least in theory. In practice, it is not clear which and how many of these opportunities are really exploited by organisations operating in healthcare. This article presents the results of a research project aimed at understanding to what degree and how Italian healthcare organisations make use of the virtual space made available to them by the internet.

Training programs and performance measurement

Purpose – This paper aims to present an exploratory study of the evaluation of training programs, based on a theoretical framework reviewing both the training literature and the strategic performance measurement (SPM) literature. The purpose of the paper is to analyse whether the operational approach (suggested by the training literature) and the strategic approach (suggested by the SPM literature) are actionable and feasible to measure the performance of training programs, and which relationships occur between these approaches.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology supporting the paper is largely oriented to action research. The research project took about 12 months, working with five Italian healthcare organisations in order to develop an actionable system for measuring the performance of selected training programs.Findings – The results suggest that the operational and the strategic approaches are actionable and feasible to measure the performance of selected training programs; that these approa...

Delivering Training Strategies: The Balanced Scorecard at Work

Aligning the value of training to organizational goals is an emerging need in human resource management. This study, aiming at expanding the research on training evaluation from a strategic management perspective, examines whether the use of the Balanced Scorecard approach can enable an effective delivery of training strategies, thus strengthening the link between training and organizational goals. The research was based on action research methodology. Researchers worked for about 12 months with three healthcare organizations. The research findings indicate that the balanced scorecard: (1) allows visualization of a clearly focused and internally consistent map of cause‐and‐effect relationships, turning the functional training efforts into strategic results; (2) effectively supports the training function both in managing training processes and in delivering targeted organizational outcomes; (3) offers a specific set of critical measures for evaluating the training functions performance; and (4) permits the fostering of a sound alignment between training programme objectives and functional goals. Various theoretical and practical implications are discussed.