On November 3, 2014, ASSIOA – Italian Association for Organizational Studies – was established at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, an academic association that aims to bring together all scholars – professors and researchers – in the fields of Business Organization and Human Resource Management.

Our Roots

Reflections on the emergence of business organization as an autonomous field in Italian universities

By Giovanni Padroni

A series of events and situations, some occasional, allowed me to witness and accompany the launch and early stages of development of organization as an “autonomous” discipline within the Italian university system.

Reference is often made to the AIDEA Congress on “Organization and Business Economics” held in Taormina in October 1982 as the moment, if not of birth, then of the “conception” of this new grouping, which was likely significant for its influence on culture and practices within corporate scenarios.

In reality, the Taormina Seminar brought awareness that, in the absence of clear boundaries and transparent autonomy, the discipline would have had a difficult and perhaps stifled existence, despite the presence of valuable but unsystematic scientific attention from distinguished scholars. (Read more…)

The “Business Organization” Sector and the Birth of WOA

by Riccardo MERCURIO and Severino SALVEMINI

mercurioSALVEMINIIt is generally recognized that the birth and early development of Italian organizational studies is linked to the evolution of the discipline of Business Economics, from the Zappian school to the contributions of Onida (1951) and D’Ippolito (1952), studies in which the first legitimacy and peculiarity of organizational studies is recognized, albeit only within the perimeter of Business Economics. This founding phase of business organization coincides with the period between the enunciation of Gino Zappa’s model (cf. the well-known contribution, New Trends in Accounting Studies, 1929) and the 1960s, when Carlo Masini carried out a systematic business-economic reflection on organization and developed a theory that would have a guiding, directing, and stimulating effect on subsequent studies (The Organization of Work in Business, 1955). (Read more…)

 

PROSPETTIVEinORGANIZZAZIONE – QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATION

ProspettiveinOrganizzazione is promoted by the Italian Association for Organizational Studies (ASSIOA) and aims to contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge in Business Organization in every scientific and applied field.

ProspettiveinOrganizzazione is a digital journal whose main objective is to disseminate, both within the scientific community and among practitioners, the results of original research activities conducted by scholars and experts, both Italian and international, participating in the political, social, and economic debate on relevant issues for our country through the perspective of organizational analysis. The content is framed within the Italian managerial and entrepreneurial context and is addressed to an audience consisting not only of academics and researchers, but also managers, consultants, entrepreneurs, journalists, policy makers, etc. The journal is published quarterly with four issues per year, to which a monographic issue may be added hosting a selection of the most interesting contributions presented at the Annual Workshop on Business Organization.

ProspettiveinOrganizzazione presents a structure organized into thematic areas, each relating to a relevant topic for the above objectives:

  • Technology and Organizational Innovation;
  • Human Resource Management;
  • Organizational Behavior;
  • Organization: Theories and Design.

The Scientific Director of ProspettiveinOrganizzazione together with the Scientific Committee guides the editorial policies of the journal. For the selection process of contributions published in the journal, the Scientific Director and the Scientific Committee rely on the support of at least two anonymous reviewers from whom the authors’ names are concealed (double-blind review). The manuscript must therefore be submitted by the authors in anonymous form through the editorial office’s email address. Of the two reviewers, one is chosen from among the scholars who are members of the Scientific Committee or the Editorial Board, while the other is selected from among scholars who are experts in the topics addressed in the article. Contributions selected according to the blind review procedure are accompanied by invited-manuscript (labeled in the journal as “Points of View”). In particular, contributions are primarily collected in two sections:

  • Research Perspectives (double-blind review), which includes literature reviews and original research – of a theoretical or empirical nature – on the main issues concerning: organizational theories and design; technology and organizational innovation; human resource management; organizational behavior. While starting from scientific work, contributions must clearly highlight the managerial implications of the specific issues under analysis.
  • Points of View (invited-manuscript; excluded from blind-review), which includes contributions offering opinions and comments on current topics or business cases, in which empirical knowledge provides the basis for an argumentative text in which the organizational perspective must be explicit and well developed.