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The study aims to examine the relationship between telework conditions and employees' job satisfaction (JS) within knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs). Additionally, it aims to unfold the mediating role played by both organizational and job characteristics, namely supervisory support (SS) and job autonomy (JA).

The analysis adopts a simultaneous qualitative-quantitative design, starting with a preliminary inductive analysis of qualitative data, followed by a deductive quantitative analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM). The data were retrieved from a survey completed by some 700 employees of a regional environmental protection agency in Italy.

Findings show that the positive association between conditions for telework (CT) and JS is partially mediated by both SS and JA. Moreover, the results of the study suggest a sequential nature of such mediational patterns.

This research provides an empirical contribution to a relatively under-investigated area: the role of job characteristics in explaining the nexus between telework and JS. Furthermore, the study takes place within the context of a KIPO, adding particular significance to the emerging insights due to the distinct nature of the work conducted in such settings.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scholarship on public management models and to advance the theoretical conceptualization of the complexity of performance management systems (PMSs). The paper explores how the characteristics of PMSs vary within and across different organizational units in common institutional context, based on the case of a regional authority in Italy.

A framework of analysis considering both objective and subjective factors was derived from a combination of performance typologies in the public sector, namely ideal types of managing performance (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2007) and performance regimes (Jakobsen et al., 2017). The combination of the characteristics of these two models across different Directorates General (DGs) has also been explored through a nested case study (Starman, 2013). Data were gathered via a desk analysis of official documents regarding the planning and programming of a regional authority along with in-depth interviews with top-level managers.

The results highlighted a clear differentiation of PMSs, both within and across DGs. The findings of the study reveal the hybrid nature of PMSs within a common institutional context.

Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Bouckaert and Halligan (2007) and Jakobsen et al. (2017), the paper provides an integrated approach for analysing PMSs, considering both objective and subjective dimensions. Insights and indications for future research on hybridity at a meso level of public organizations are highlighted.

Health-care professionals are caring for patients in unprecedented circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing with scarce resources, higher demand and uncertain outcomes. In this context, the purpose of this study is to explore the views of health-care professionals regarding their work conditions and perceived impacts of the pandemic on their health, as well as the role of resilience and improvisation in face of the new challenges.

This exploratory and qualitative study carried out semi-structured interviews with eleven health-care professionals from three Brazilian states that have been working in intensive care settings during the pandemic.

The pandemic has posed a great personal and professional burden on the professionals, impacting their physical and mental health. It also has required them greater resilience and improvisation capabilities to adequately perform work-related activities.

In addition to individual-level attitudes, the results suggest that aspects in the government, society, personal relationships and providers domains influence the effects of the pandemic on the health-care professionals and how they cope with the ongoing crisis. Such a multifactorial approach should therefore be considered by health managers.

With no similar effort identified, this study emphasizes the relevance of discussing the pandemic burden on frontline professionals and intends to be useful for health practitioners, managers, academics and policymakers.

This study tries to free women from the “invisible role” prison and understand the different managerial goals and styles adopted by males and females in family small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in managing employees. In particular, this paper grasps the complexity of the relationship between women’s leadership positions and configurational human resource management (HRM) practices in family SMEs.

The authors use the qualitative fuzzy set comparative analysis (fsQCA) on 623 small and medium Italian family businesses to explore women’s contributions and impacts on adopting HRM practices and business performance.

The findings confirm that gender-specific leadership styles influence the adoption of distinct bundles of HRM practices and ultimately affect organizational performance in family SMEs. Indeed, women in the family SME social context, to meet certain gender expectations, are more likely to implement steward-oriented HRM practices. This reinforces the role of women as key players in improving organizational performance by adopting people-centered HRM practices that promote employee satisfaction and retention.

Using the fsQCA analysis and the gender theory, family business and HRM literature, the paper investigates the role of women in Italian family SMEs as CEOs or HR managers in implementing HR management practices to achieve good organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new apparatus for testing acoustic insulating, air permeating and water vapor transfer properties of fibrous assemblies with density variation.

An apparatus is designed and built in order to investigate the acoustic insulating, air permeating and water vapor transfer properties of fiber assemblies with density variation. The apparatus mainly consists of three chambers, just like the structure of a syringe. The three properties can be measured by placing different sensors at the corresponding chambers. The material density variation can be realized by compression.

The new apparatus can realize the measurement of the three properties with density variation, which provides a new perspective to study the physical property of fibrous assemblies.

The paper introduces a new apparatus for testing acoustic insulating, air permeating and water vapor transfer properties of fibrous assemblies with density variation.

The purpose of the research is to conduct an exploratory investigation of the material handling activities of an Italian logistics hub. Wearable sensors and other smart tools were used for collecting human and environmental features during working activities. These factors were correlated with workers' performance and well-being.

Human and environmental factors play an important role in operations management activities since they significantly influence employees' performance, well-being and safety. Surprisingly, empirical studies about the impact of such aspects on logistics operations are still very limited. Trying to fill this gap, the research empirically explores human and environmental factors affecting the performance of logistics workers exploiting smart tools.

Results suggest that human attitudes, interactions, emotions and environmental conditions remarkably influence workers' performance and well-being, however, showing different relationships depending on individual characteristics of each worker.

The authors' research opens up new avenues for profiling employees and adopting an individualized human resource management, providing managers with an operational system capable to potentially check and improve workers' well-being and performance.

The originality of the study comes from the in-depth exploration of human and environmental factors using body-worn sensors during work activities, by recording individual, collaborative and environmental data in real-time. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current paper is the first time that such a detailed analysis has been carried out in real-world logistics operations.