Human Sciences and Welfare Innovation Applied research doctoral scholarships: 18 scholarships for innovative PhDs
The projects
• Initiative Welfare. Supporting family caregivers. taking care of those who care
• How to build an effective succession plan
• Training impact evaluation in psychological context
Initiative Welfare. Supporting family caregivers. taking care of those who care
Financing company: ATS di Bergamo
Reference Professor: Prof. Giuseppe Scaratti, Università degli studi di Bergamo
The research project addresses the socio-organizational processes and the impact generated by the project “SUPPORTING FAMILY CAREGIVERS. TAKING CARE OF THOSE WHO CARE”, activated in the province of Bergamo. The project is implemented through a series of concrete initiatives, including the development of a web portal for caregivers to help them connect with dedicated local services, the active involvement of Third Sector Entities, Associations, and Institutions (gathered in the “Caregiver Bergamo Laboratory”), involvement of Community Foundations in order to co-design dedicated calls for proposals, the establishment of 14 territorial teams to provide integrated social and health services to caregivers, the structuring of a scientific method for analyzing processes and collected data (“Caregiver Observatory”) and the initiation of experimental actions and research on relief packages and health budgets
The research objectives are the following:
• highlight the socio-material conditions that give sustainable support to those who take care of their relatives and fragile people
• identify leverages and devices adopted for managing the intra/interorganizational collaborative and integrative processes
• define three typologies of KPIs: output, outcome, processes
The methodological approach involves the use of qualitative and quantitative devices: data will be gathered through participant observation, focus group, interviews, check list with likert scales and surveys.
How to build an effective succession plan
Financing company: Ecolab srl
Reference Professor: Prof. Andrea Greco, Università degli studi di Bergamo
Succession planning is a crucial component of Ecolab’s organizational management, ensuring a pipeline of qualified candidates to fill key roles.
This doctoral research focuses on Ecolab’s Italian and EU organization, investigating effective factors, actions, and strategic approaches in succession planning, particularly for leadership positions.
In addition, the study aims to build new evaluation and development tools, also using the AI, to measure the effect and test strategies in a longitudinal way to prepare future leaders to succeed in critical roles.
The ultimate goal is to enhance Ecolab’s succession planning processes, ensuring stability and continued success within the Italian and EU context.
Training impact evaluation in psychological context
Financing company: Cooperativa Spazio Iris
Reference Professor: Prof.
Giuseppe Scaratti, University of BergamoThe project investigates the theme of training evaluation understood not as a technical issue of methodological application, aimed at better measuring the achievement of pre-established objectives, but as a dynamic process of learning and individual, social and organizational transformation (Scaratti and Kaneklin, 1999; Scaratti et al., 2015; Ivaldi et al., 2015), generating new visions and inyerpretations of reality in relation to the psychological fields considered. The theoretical-conceptual assumption adopted refers to the distinction between use and usability of evaluation (Patton, 1997; Ledermann, 2011; Saunders, 2012) and the consequent connection between individual evaluation practices and organizational dimensions, according to an idea of organization as flow of interactions (Yanow and Tsoukas, 2009), in which people are absorbed and which provide a collective evaluative and negotiation orientation.
The research objectives are the following:
• Identify evaluation practices and evaluation cultures in use
• Configure monitoring checklists to be adopted before, during and after training, following a training effectiveness evaluation perspective
• Prefigure sustainable and transformative actions based on the evaluation outcomes generated
The methodological approach congruent with the idea of evaluation presented requires a strong anchoring in local contexts and knowledge, mediating the use of devices capable of enhancing the uniqueness of the specific reference cases and facilitating the involvement of organizational actors ( Bisio, 2002; Cousin and Whitmore, 1998; Shaw, 1999; Contandriopoulos and Brousselle, 2012; Ivaldi et al., 2015), through the adoption of a psychosocial engineering approach to evaluation processes (Kirkpatrick, 1967; Beauvois, 1981; Cuel and LePoultier, 1999; Frascaroli, 2011).