The focus of the course is the organisation as a whole: the theoretical concepts relevant for organisational analysis and planning include the main structural and contextual dimensions of an organisation, such as formalisation, hierarchy, specialisation, technology, environment and culture. These dimensions are different in each organisation, and therefore represent tools for their investigation. The same structural and contextual dimensions have different connotations in the context of healthcare, because of the managerial, institutional and constructional rules imposed by the role of the medical profession. Moreover, the heavy corporatisation process that has affected health companies in recent decades, together with the coexistence of different professional “souls” in these organisations, create a greater complexity in the sector, and require an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of health organisations.
The course provides a framework for "reading" and designing healthcare organisations and is divided into the following parts:
- classical theories;
- reading the organisational system:
- personal and social variables
- organisational structures and management systems
- organisational planning
- the fundamental characteristics of health organisation planning
Part I will analyse the evolution of organizational theories to understand where, how and why we started talking about organisations. We start from the pioneers of the organisation's classic theories, highlighting the current elements that these still present: we analyse the contribution of Taylor and Fayol, and other authors who focused their attention on the soft dimension of the organisation, including the School of Human Relations.
PART II - Reading the organizational system (part 1): the psycho-social aspects.
We will concentrate on: (1) the Content Theories, focusing our attention to what "motivates people to work"; (2) Process Theories, to analyse how one can intervene on an individual's motivational process. We will analyse the differences between individuals (physical, psychological or emotional), how these make him/her unique, and how these drive his/her behaviour in the company. From the individual dimension, we will move towards the analysis of social relations within an organisation: characteristics and conditions that make a working group effective.
PART III - Reading the organizational system (part 2): the organizational structures and the management systems.
The concept of an organizational structure and planning. We will classify organisational activities into simple, functional, divisional and functional modified, and explain the process of designing an organisational structure according to a logic of strategic variables. Further, we will analyse management systems, that is clusters of transversal and widespread activities, the role of which is to allow the organisation to function.
At the end of the course the participants will have obtained the necessary conceptual and operational tools to develop:
- knowledge of the functioning and characteristics of the organisational and institutional systems of health organisations:
- knowledge of company specificities and the combination of typical processes of a healthcare organisation:
- the ability to identify, analyse and understand the relationships between environmental, strategic and organisational variables
- the ability to understand how strategic and institutional changes should translate into a redefinition of the organisational models in healthcare organisations;
- knowledge of the most significant change trends in the health sector in recent years;
- skills applicable to the management and organizational processes of healthcare organizations;
- a language that is appropriate for organisational issues, with particular reference to profiles.
The course is structured as follows:
- 20 video lectures, indexed by subject and with hypermedia bookmarks linked to the more-in-depth study materials;
- More-in-depth study materials are associated to the video lectures (texts, essays, articles, bibliographical references, lists of websites, case studies, etc.; )
- Exercises, practice work and virtual laboratories are associated to the courses and enable the students to put into practice the theoretical knowledge they learnt during self-study sessions as well as in collaborative learning sessions under the supervision of an expert teacher;
- Synchronic and asynchronic collaborative learning sessions using UNINETTUNO web fora for Interactive Class systems where lecturers, visiting professors, experts in the field present contributions, case studies, success stories related to the topics of the unit enabling students to interact in real time, to ask questions and get an immediate answer, and allowing the teachers to check the class learning process on the spot.