Smart working as an organisational process or as a social change? An Italian pandemic experience

Purpose: Along the coronavirus pandemic, huge business challenges are facing as a result of collapsing customer demand and organisational significant changes supported by digital development, while the increasing social and environmental needs involve business and individuals. The authors argue that this trend is modifying organisational and market logic, replacing them with values and practices linked to community-based models. The present work aims to study the impact that smart working (SW) has on the worker, seen both as a member of the organisation and the social community. Design/methodology/approach: The study data were collected from a computer-assisted web interview administered in 2020 to public employees working for health agencies across the Campania region, in South Italy. To test the conceptual model, partial least squares-structural equation modelling is used. Considering the abductive soul of the research, the study represents a pilot survey that will deliver stochastic results to be subsequently replicated in all Italian health agencies. Findings: The results of the research highlighted how the evolutionary dynamics of SW employees tend towards a reconceptualisation of workspaces, a redefinition of time and emotions and a better balance between work and personal life, thus creating a greater space for social and community aspects and determining a greater involvement in their working life. Originality/value: This research introduces a new win-win logic in the labour market, one capable of generating advantages for people, organisations and the entire social system by allowing workers to better reconcile working times with their personal needs and with flexibility demands coming from companies. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Remarks on the management of proximal femoral fractures in times of COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract: Proximal femoral fractures (PFFs) are among the main causes of hospitalization of elderly patients. They are often challenging to manage at the perioperative stage, which is why appropriate monitoring is recommended in order to prevent and - whenever possible - avoid tforeseeable complications (infections, bedsores, bronchopneumonia, psychicological deterioration and worsening general conditions), reduce the mortality rate, facilitate functional recovery and restore the patient's ability to walk and return to everyday life activities and a normal family context. PFFs constitute a major adverse event for elderly patients, often over the age of eighty and with possible issues arising from a substantially unstable and deficient biological balance, with negative repercussions on their quality of life, longer hospitalization and higher healthcare costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the healthcare systems of virtually all world countries, giving rise to serious operational management difficulties (e.g. surgical staff shortages, less availability of surgical facilities, reassignment of surgical staff to other tasks, the need to convert facilities into intensive care units and dedicated COVID + operating rooms, reconfiguration of pathways and procedures with longer anesthesiological and surgical preparation times, environmental sanitation, etc.). All such factors have prolonged waiting times for surgery, causing higher complications rates especially in fragile patients. It is essential to operate through a timely multidisciplinary approach for PFF patients, who must be treated surgically as soon as possible in order to limit the risk of secondary complications due to prolonged bed rest and facilitate a rapid functional recovery.

Innovation and corporate social responsibility during the Covid-19 in Ardakan (Iran)

Purpose In developed countries, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an important element for firms, as CSR strategies enhance their competitiveness and corporate reputation, has CSR the same role in the emergent countries? To answer this question, the authors build a conceptual framework and focus their research on Iran's context with the aim to find an answer to the following research question: does CSR influence innovation processes and how much is it increasingly a cultural value in the same level of competitive ones? Therefore the purpose of this research is to study the role of CSR in firms operating in emergent countries Design/methodology/approach In the pandemic era, CSR could be considered not what you do with your money once you have made it but how you make your money safeguarding environmental resources and answering community needs, in collaboration with other social and economic agents. While investigating CSR, we have to take into account the fact that different countries have different priorities and values that shape the way business operates. Findings To reach this aim, the authors carried out the research during the pandemic period, between September 2021 and December 2021, on almost 500 small and medium enterprises operating in Ardakan area in Iran, a simple random sample was surveyed by partial least squares-structural equation modelling. Originality/value Given the lack of empirical studies on the considered country, this research has attempted to determine the impact of CSR practices on innovation and, simultaneously, to check the effect of innovation on CSR practices, in order to test empirically whether there is a bidirectional relationship. Furthermore, the study reveals the importance of integrating social and economic stakeholders' requirements and expectations about environmental and social concerns within a country in which the specific norms' presence is weak.