ORGANIZATIONAL WELL-BEING WITHIN UNIVERSITIES: EVIDENCES FROM ITALY

Organizational well-being or organizational wealth is one of the hot topics in the extant organizational literature. It is defined as “the organization’s ability to promote and maintain the physical, psychological and social workers wellbeing at all levels and for every job”. Studies are available stressing that the most efficient structures are those with satisfied employees and where the internal climate is serene and participatory. In fact, a poor organizational climate may cause cases of burn-out and makes more likely negative behaviours among employees. Conversely, motivation, collaboration, involvement and trust of and among employees are all factors that improve the wealth of employees themselves, that in turn improve the productivity of the organization and the satisfaction of the final customers. This topic is of particular interest within universities, where still scant studies have been developed. Thus, research is needed to understand how to improve the organizational wealth within such organizations. This paper aims to fill this gap. The results, based on a survey among Italian universities, highlight the main factors that affect, positively or negatively, the organizational well-being within the universities investigated. Thus, suggestions are provided to identify ad-hoc initiatives and strategies aimed at improving (or further improve) the level of organizational wealth. Moreover, the need for ex-ante or ex-post measurement instruments is highlighted.