Organizational Resilience and Organizational Learning in the Health Sector

The objective of this thesis is to facilitate the understanding of the resilience of healthcare structures after the Covid-19 pandemic crisis by providing a contribution to a national research project on organizational resilience. The first chapter, after analyzing the notion of "crisis," focuses on identifying and defining the concept of organizational resilience, distinguishing its various key aspects. In particular, the first aspect involves the implications of organizational resilience on leadership. A definition of resilient leadership is then provided, a notion that merges with other leadership theories and styles, which are adequately reported. The second aspect involves the concept of organizational learning, an essential element of organizational resilience. Organizational learning is a complex process (much more complex than individual learning) that is based, among other things, on the knowledge and memory of the organization. The first chapter presents, analyzes, and explains Kahn's theoretical model of organizational resilience, which is the theoretical reference point for this thesis. This model is based on the study of dynamics between organizational groups to determine if and how resilient a company is. These dynamics can be of collaboration or rejection, and the factors influencing these dynamics are rooted in group theory. The second chapter provides a detailed and in-depth description of the functioning of the Italian healthcare system, which ranges from the national to the local level, through regional and district levels. The right to health is a fundamental right of Italian citizens, taking the form of LEAs (essential levels of assistance), whose distribution across the national territory is ensured by the state, while their management is the responsibility of the regions. The thesis adopts specific geographical horizons corresponding to those of the Veneto region, whose healthcare system is described with a focus on the characteristics of hospital structures. After analyzing the concept of health crisis or emergency, whose definition and classification are ambiguous, a brief analysis of the key characteristics of organizational resilience in the medical field is presented, as its uniqueness and social importance make it significantly different from any other company. In particular, the analysis of the trade-off between resilience and safety is fundamental for understanding the resilient dynamics of the healthcare context. Finally, practical references to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic by the national and regional healthcare systems are included. The third chapter collects the contribution of this thesis, which is divided into two distinct parts. The first part focuses on the thematic analysis of interviews with hospital staff members. The interviews aim to identify how hospital work changed during and after the pandemic period, what innovative elements were introduced, and if, how, and why they survived or did not survive in the post-pandemic period. The second part of the chapter presents, in light of the theoretical foundations provided by the first two chapters and the information emerging from the interview analysis, a series of measures of the identified fundamental elements. These measures will be part, with the necessary adaptations, of a questionnaire that will be administered to hospital staff, based on a protocol yet to be defined, for the analysis of the resilience of the healthcare structure.