Paper submitted to the Italian Chapter of Association for Information Systems (itAIS) conference 2025 – [17-18 October 2025, Castellanza (VA)]
Title: Good Practices of Public Sector Digital Transformation: Insights from Case Studies
Authors: Luiza Gaysina, Aizhan Tursunbayeva, Alessia Berni, Andrea Tomo, Luigi Moschera
Brief description:
Public sector organizations around the world adopt digital technologies
aiming to increase their efficiency and enhance the quality of their services.
Through a review and simplified qualitative comparative analysis method, this paper examines academic articles focused on investigating cases of digital transformation initiatives and new ways of working in public sector organizations across different countries. The purpose of this study is to identify and discuss successful practices of public sector digital change efforts. To achieve this objective, an enriched Leavitt’s model encompassing five interconnected organizational elements: task, structure, technology, people, and environment was followed.
The findings illustrate that technology-driven change in the public sector
requires careful planning, investments, and continuous support. Good practices include establishing transparent communication with stakeholders and involving them in the design and implementation stages of digital projects. Investing in developing technical talents internally in the long term can help public sector institutions reduce costs and enhance their ability to innovate. The study makes a contribution to theory by advancing the understanding of the complexities of digital change and new work-related practices in the public sector. By examining a range of case studies, this research also provides valuable insights for public sector practitioners and policymakers and offers strategies to strengthen both internal processes and public service provision.
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Papers submitted to European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) conference 2025 – [3-5 July 2025, Athens]
Title: Unveiling sociotechnical dimensions of digital transformation in the public sector: insights from a literature mapping
Authors: Tomo A., Tursunbayeva A., Berni A. and Mangia G.
Brief description:
This paper maps the literature on digital transformation in the public sector, identifying key pillars and proposing a holistic framework encompassing sociotechnical dimensions.
Using bibliometric analysis, the paper examines new forms of work, technology, employee skills and behaviours, and organizational practices, highlighting their interconnections within the suggested framework. This approach offers a comprehensive perspective with theoretical, practical, and policy implications.
We identify four key sociotechnical dimensions of digital transformation, namely transformation of workplaces and new forms of work, technologies, HRM practices, digital skills and culture. We then reconnect these dimensions into a framework showing their intertwined relationship.
The paper allows for a deeper understanding of the interconnection existing between the diverse sociotechnical dimensions and factors related to the digital transformation, which represents an important step to design more human-centred workplaces and more resource-efficient, sustainable, and agile public sector.
By understanding the sociotechnical dimensions, the study explains how new forms of work shape the design of organizational models promoting human-centred workplaces, efficiency, sustainability and agility in the public sector, ultimately fostering better adoption of digital transformation strategies.
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Title: Foreseeing the future: Anticipatory governance in response to public administration’s technological and managerial challenges
Authors: Lucio Todisco, Gianluigi Mangia, Paolo Canonico and Andrea Tomo
Brief description:
This paper focuses on how Anticipatory Governance can be a valuable approach for public organizations in redesigning relationships and work processes in the public sector in response to technological changes. To answer these questions, a 19-item questionnaire was administered to 42 public employees to understand their perception in the Italian public context of the concept of Anticipatory Governance and its impact in responding to changes in working methods due to technologies. This study provides some preliminary implications from a theoretical-managerial point of view. From a theoretical point of view, it intends to enter the academic debate regarding Anticipatory Governance and its role in understanding social phenomena arising from using new technologies. From a managerial perspective, however, it aims to provide a preliminary reading on how public decision-makers can use this approach to respond to changes in working methods in the public sector.
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Title: The impact of digital transformation on the role of public healthcare professionals
Authors: Lorenzo Mercurio and Alessandra Ricciardelli
Brief description: N/A
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Paper submitted to the 3rd EIASM Workshop on People Analytics & Algorithmic Management (PAAM) [12–13 June 2025]
Filomena Pagnozzi e Gilda Antonelli, How Individual Behaviour Shapes Resistance to Change: Exploring the Role of a Change-Oriented Organisational Culture and AI Technologies
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Papers submitted to the Italian Workshop of Organization Studies (Workshop di Organizzazione Aziendale) (WOA) conference 2025 – [29-30 May 2025, Pescara]
Title: Enhancing decision-making processes through managerial training and behavioural competencies: an Anticipatory Governance perspective
Authors: Todisco L., Tomo A., Mangia G., Canonico P., Langella F.
Brief description:
In an era of rapid economic, technological, and social changes, traditional governance models are experiencing a deep crisis. This has become one of the main topics of academic debate on how public administrations can be more proactive. Existing managerial approaches and tools to deal with these phenomena of uncertainty are lacking, which is why the Anticipatory Governance (AG) approach finds strength in public administrations. AG fosters a proactive dimension of public action, integrating decision-making, forecasting, innovation, and learning processes. In this contribution, based on empirical work, we will focus on how AG is perceived in Italian public administrations and how it can be successfully implemented, paying particular attention to its relationship with managerial training and behavioural skills.
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Title: Investigating Change Processes and Practices in the Integration of Artificial Intelligence: A Narrative Inquiry Approach
Authors: Cecilia Maltempo, Francesca Loia, Stefania Mele, Marcello
Martinez and Mario Pezzillo Iacono
Brief description:
This article aims to analyze how organizational actors describe their subjective positioning within change processes triggered by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence. Using a narrative approach, we investigated how individuals construct their identity in relation to AI—whether aligning with or distancing themselves from pre-existing organizational models—and whether the change is perceived as accepted, negotiated, or imposed. The stories collected illustrate how people interpret and experience transformation, contributing to a deeper understanding of the situated and subjective dimension of change management. By examining different narrative trajectories, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how change management practices are enacted and reinterpreted in AI-mediated environments, emphasizing the human dimension of technological transitions.
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Title: Vigour Project: an organizational model for innovation and integrated healthcare
Authors: Lorenzo Mercurio, Alessandra Ricciardelli, Umut Elmas, Maddalena Illario, Vincenzo De Luca, Regina Roller-winsberger and Lutz Kubitschke
Brief description:
The paper introduces and explains the role of hte VIGOUR project (Evidence-Based Guidance to Scale-Up Integrated Care in Europe), funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme. This project was designed to assist healthcare authorities in enhancing and expanding integrated care practices. It brought together a network of international partners who collaborated to provide region-specific support and to strengthen institutional capacities within national and regional health systems. By promoting reciprocal learning and offering structured methodological guidance, the project enabled local actors to navigate systemic obstacles and adapt existing integrated care models to their distinct socio-political environments. In doing so, VIGOUR aimed to contribute to more resilient, efficient, and person-centred approaches in the organization and delivery of health and social services throughout Europe.
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Paper submitted to the Italian Chapter of Association for Information Systems (itAIS) conference 2024 – [11-12 October 2024, Piacenza]
Title: Digital skills and maturity in the public sector: reviewing EU guidelines
Authors: Gaysina L., Tursunbayeva A., Berni A. and Tomo A.
Brief description:
This study provides a scoping review examining “grey” literature around digitalization practices and digital skills in the public sector in EU member countries. It makes a theoretical contribution by proposing a framework for analyzing 21st-century digital skills in the public sector with different stages of digitalization maturity, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive policy guidelines that are linked with digital skills development. This study also offers recommendations for practitioners and suggests avenues for future research.
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Title: Maturity of information processing in the digital transformation: analysis in the Italian healthcare system
Authors: Galdiero C., Marrapodi R., Mele S., Scaletti A., Martinez M.
Brief description:
This study explores the integration of Information Systems (IS) and Information Processing View (IPV) within the context of healthcare organizations undergoing digital transformation. Using Galbraith’s (1974) information processing theory, we assess the alignment between healthcare information systems and organizational information processing requirements to determine their impact on digital transformation. By implementing a digital organizational maturity model developed by Aras and Büyüközkan (2023), we measure the digital maturity of a platform that integrates various healthcare services to better understand how a holistic approach supports its digital transformation. The study confirms the critical role of comprehensive Information Processing View models in overcoming the challenges posed by digital transformation in the healthcare sector.
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Title: Technostress and Organizational Sustainability within the public sector: A Scoping Review
Authors: Maltempo, C., Stana, R. A., Loia, F., & Martinez, M.
Brief description:
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze in depth the literature focusing on the recent debate on the effect of Technostress on Organizational Sustainability in the public sector, shedding light on emerging research topics related to the phenomenon. To meet this research aim, this study is based on a scoping review. Web of Science database was selected and scanned to access publications. The analysis identifies in the sample under investigation the temporal distribution of scientific contributions, the co-words cloud as well as a thematic map on the motor and emerging themes which characterize the topic under analysis. This study also proposes a research agenda for scholars while providing insightful suggestions from a practical point of view for researchers and professionals in public sector HR and organizational design.
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Papers submitted to Academy of Management (AOM) conference 2024 – [4-6 July 2024, Milan]
Title: Gig work in organizations: Trends and perspectives from Human Resource Management professionals
Authors: Keplinger K., Tursunbayeva A., Singh V., Di Lauro S.
Brief description:
While the literature on gig work is expanding rapidly, many are the issues that need to be answered in order to fully understand the lived experiences of gig workers and illuminate the dynamics of gig work. Despite it is widely recognized that gig workers constitute an heterogenous workforce, for instance, seminal works have focused on finding similarities among gig workers across platforms, while the mechanisms behind different gig workers’ behaviors and perceptions are still widely obscure. Moreover, most of the literature focuses on what gig workers do individually on platforms, but not – or only cursorily – on how these workers manage the interplay between their online and offline activities. Specifically, comprehending how the online dimensions of work blur or integrate with offline aspects of gig workers’ lives – such as family condition or family needs, the presence of alternative, offline jobs, the cultural context of the community and country of origin – is of significant importance. This symposium addresses these issues by examining what happens behind and beyond platforms, and by presenting four papers looking at different gig workers’ experiences and different forms of interplay between online and offline aspects of gig work.
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Papers submitted to European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) conference 2024 – [4-6 July 2024, Milan]
Title: Making sense of the (home) workplace during and after COVID-19: the experience from the Italian public sector
Authors: Tomo A.
Brief description:
This paper explores how public employees reacted to the pandemic and organized their home workplaces to deal with the lockdown. The paper takes the perspective of smart working as a regime with some constitutive logics that also bring an identity project to explore issues of individual identity and sensemaking within a context characterized by “distance” that constrained employees working from home. Therefore, there is an interest in understanding the impact the re-organization of (home) workplace had on public employees’ identities, their work and private lives, since feeling in tune with the workplace may support people increasing identification and commitment with the organization.
The paper employs an ethnographic approach combining photo-elicitation with interviews to Italian public employees.
The paper contributes to the literature on identity and workplace in the public sector but also provides a practical and policy implications for public administrations willing to continue enabling smart working for their employees.
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Title: Human-centred and sustainable future of work in the Italian public sector
Authors: Tomo A., Tursunbayeva A., Pezzillo Iacono M., Antonelli G., Berni A.
Brief description:
This research aims to explore the new forms of work facilitated by technology and digital tools, and how they contribute to the development of agile and sustainable organizational models within the public sector. In this context, the research will establish connections between the public sector, agile working methods, human-centered and ethical development, implementation, usage, and sustainability.
The research also aims to deepen our understanding of both the positive and negative aspects of these new forms of work, as well as the associated HRM practices and underlying technologies. This approach seeks to provide a comprehensive perspective that supports theoretical, practical, and policy implications.
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Papers submitted to European Academy of Management (EURAM) 2024 – [22-25 June 2024, Bath]
Title: Signaling the adoption of Responsible AI principles: A study of AI job advertisements
Authors: Aizhan Tursunbayeva, Shilpi Jain, Sriparna Basu, Luigi Moschera
Brief description:
Little is currently known about the extent to which Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) principles are implemented in organizations and the organizational processes through which these principles unfold. This theoretically informed and empirically grounded paper sought to bridge this crucial knowledge gap. It draws upon unique job advertisement data for AI-related positions from the USA, the UK, and India to investigate whether and how organizations signal their commitment to Responsible AI (RAI) principles during the recruitment process. The Natural Language Processing analysis indicates a limited presence of RAI signals across and within circa 9.000 job advertisements analyzed. Where these were present, the analysis suggests variations of RAI signals, especially across different employment statuses, and seniority levels. The findings hint that organizations predominantly consider RAI principles relevant to full-time positions for entry and mid-senior-level AI jobs.
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Papers submitted to International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics (IFKAD) 2024 – [12-14 June 2024, Madrid]
Title: Towards an agile public sector: reinventing the public administration by designing human-centred and sustainable organizational models, HRM practices and work(places)
Authors: Tomo A., Tursunbayeva A., Pezzillo Iacono M., Antonelli G., Berni A.
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Title: Exploring the Relationship between Knowledge Sharing and Organizational Models in Italian Courts
Authors: Pezzillo Iacono M., Canonico P., De Nito E., Esposito V.
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Paper submitted to ‘BEING-SEA’ Alliance conference 2024 – [10-12 June 2024, Malta]
Title: Technology-enabled agile working arrangements, and HRM practices in the public sector: a literature review of case studies
Authors: Gaysina L., Tursunbayeva A., Berni A., Tomo A.
Brief description:
This paper examines a range of case studies present in the literature related to the introduction of technology-driven solutions within public sector organisations in different countries. A total number of 51 case studies is collected and analysed at 3 levels: micro (individual), meso (organisational), and macro (societal). Leavitt’s (1965) diamond model comprising four key elements: task, people, technology, and structure, is used as a theoretical framework to guide the case studies review. Through conducting a thorough case studies analysis, the research contributes to the literature on technology implementation and adaptation in the public sector. It encourages a deeper understanding of the diversity of technology-driven organizational practices including new ways of working implemented globally. This study also seeks to make observations from the reviewed case studies concerning successful and unsuccessful public sector HRM practices, that might be useful for policymakers and organisational leaders operating in the public sector.
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Paper submitted to European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) 2024 Spring Workshop – [9-10 May 2024, Matera]
Title: Digital transformation of the public sector: designing a human-centred and sustainable future of work
Authors: Tomo A., Tursunbayeva A., Pezzillo Iacono M., Antonelli G., Berni A.
Brief description:
The present paper is part of a wider project funded by the Ministry of University and Research (PRIN PNRR 2022) entitled “Towards an agile public sector: reinventing the public administration by designing human-centred and sustainable organizational models, HRM practices and work(places)”. The paper will comprise an integrative and multi-level (macro, meso, and micro) systematic review to problematize the issues related to: (re)conceptualization of agile forms of working, exploration of related working arrangements and underlying technologies, their human-centred and ethical development, implementation, use, implications, and relevant change processes in the public sector. In so doing, the study aims to deepen the understanding of positive and negative aspects of the new forms of work, as well as the associated HRM practices and underlying technologies, supporting useful theoretical, practical, and policy implications.