Barbara Barabaschi, Laura Barbieri, Franca Cantoni, Silvia Platoni and Roberta Virtuani
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how remote working has been carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in Italian SMEs, representing at the same time an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how remote working has been carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in Italian SMEs, representing at the same time an organizational challenge and an excellent opportunity for individual and organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper involved 60 Italian SMEs of various sectors and 330 employees: 217 clerks (average age 42) and 113 managers (average age 48) belonging to different functional units and with a different education backgrounds. Two different questionnaires, one addressed to clerks and one to managers/executives who coordinate the remote working activity, were prepared and sent. This paper investigates the issues of perceived productivity, technological preparation, coordination, programming and control with specific attention to how the participants faced the remote working experience from the learning point of view.
Findings
Before the pandemic, Italian SMEs did not feel the necessity to adopt a structured policy on remote working. The COVID-19 emergency has forced them to consider that working remotely is possible and can produce benefits and positive results for what they learned in terms of autonomy, motivation and trust, to the detriment of physical presence, which is not as fundamental to ensure productivity.
Originality/value
While large, formalized and structured companies encountered modest difficulties being already technologically and culturally prepared for remote working, the big challenge was that of SMEs, who found themselves obliged to adopt it. This paper examines how Italian SMEs lived and evaluated the switch to a new work organization and turned it into an occasion for workplace learning.
Details
Keywords
Franca Cantoni, Silvia Platoni and Roberta Virtuani
Frequently the universities' Placement Service is based on the student's hard profile at the expense of soft traits. On the other side, the “person–organization fit” axiom…
Abstract
Purpose
Frequently the universities' Placement Service is based on the student's hard profile at the expense of soft traits. On the other side, the “person–organization fit” axiom suggests firms are looking for profiles with specific soft skills to face the increasing level of environmental turbulence. This research aims to understand if high-resilience students also have high academic achievements and how the three components of resilience (emotional intelligence, positive thinking, planfulness) can have different impact on individual performances.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was conducted on students enrolled on different courses of studies and years in an Economics and Law faculty. A questionnaire was administered during the first exam session (ante-Covid) and the second and third exam sessions (post-Covid). This questionnaire consists of 84 questions related to planfulness, emotional intelligence and positive thinking, whose combination can be considered a measure of resilience. In fact, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried to identify these three new variables (the components) based on the 84 initial ones. Finally, an ordered logit model was implemented to verify whether, and in what direction, planfulness, emotional intelligence, positive thinking and Covid 19 (the independent variables) affected the students' performance (the dependent one).
Findings
While planfulness positively affected academic performance, emotional intelligence affected it negatively. The impact of positive thinking and Covid was not significant, and thus what emerged from the preliminary analysis of the grades is not confirmed.
Research limitations/implications
This is a case study of a university experience that is paying great care in preparing students to satisfy the firms' work demands. To confirm and refine results the sample will be expanded to other faculties and other life/soft skills will be investigated.
Practical implications
This soft trait approach—that studies how various measures of soft skills are related to course grades—has a two-fold significance by crafting universities' placement activities and facilitating firms' onboarding.
Social implications
This is a case study of a university experience; a university that is paying great attention to preparing students ready to satisfy the firms' work demands but also citizens capable of supporting the growth of their nation and society in general.
Originality/value
The research can be considered a first step towards the inclusion of the formal evaluation of the students' life skills in their academic path, creating a link with their achievements.
Details
Keywords
Maria Alebaki, Maria Psimouli and Stella Kladou
Wine tourism literature still falls behind other streams of research in its ability to assess phenomena associated with the implementation of digital practices to address…
Abstract
Wine tourism literature still falls behind other streams of research in its ability to assess phenomena associated with the implementation of digital practices to address strategic challenges. Moreover, studies on social media in tourism and hospitality prioritize the relationship between tourists’ behavioural aspects and technology. Relationships, experiences and timely responses on the digital environment are particularly important, taken the ‘new normal’ which COVID-19 necessitates. Within this framework, the present case study explores the role of social media (Facebook in specific) in the effort of Cretan wineries to respond to new encounters, as well as the importance, if any, of collaborative practices for developing online strategies of individual businesses. Findings help us identify (a) the role of the winescape studies in exploring the digital environment and (b) the main communication priorities of wineries as expressed through social media during the pandemic crisis.
Details
Keywords
Nunzia Carbonara, Barbara Scozzi and Roberta Pellegrino
This paper aims to provide an easy-to-use yet powerful tool to assess the organizational readiness to adopt effective Smart Working (SW). In light of this main objective, based on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an easy-to-use yet powerful tool to assess the organizational readiness to adopt effective Smart Working (SW). In light of this main objective, based on the current state of research, the study develops a maturity model to assess the SW organizational readiness (SWOR). The SWOR maturity model consists of three dimensions, each of them further detailed into two sub-dimensions. A tool was developed to make use of the model.
Design/methodology/approach
The SWOR maturity model was converted into a Web-based questionnaire that includes 54 questions based on 44 items to operationalize the model sub-dimensions. The questionnaire was used in a survey conducted at the Local Health Authority (ASL) of the province of Bari (Italy).
Findings
Several implications derive from the present study. From a managerial perspective, the SWOR maturity model supports companies in the as-is analysis of processes, technologies and human resources, which are the enablers of an effective SW, and in the development of a roadmap to achieve a desired “to-be” situation.
Originality/value
Despite recent studies on SW have identified the key drivers that affect the success of SW implementation, there is a lack of models and tools that help companies become aware of the actions and investments to be taken to move towards an effective SW adoption. Even the analysis of the literature on maturity models reveals a gap in the research related to the assessment of SW organizational readiness. The present paper tries to overcome these limitations.