Embracing tensions throughout crises: The case of an Italian university hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has identified some tensions that public organizations may encounter during crises. However, there remains a scarcity of research examining how public health care organizations effectively navigate these tensions to reconcile the diverse interests, needs, and demands from various stakeholders. PURPOSES: The study seeks to shed light on the dynamics underlying the tensions experienced by public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It illustrates how different hospitals' actors have navigated these tensions, identifying solutions and approaches that fostered collaborative endeavors among internal and external stakeholders. METHODOLOGY: The study draws on qualitative analyses of 49 semistructured interviews and the notes from two focus groups involving key informants at one of the largest university hospitals in Italy. We also rely on the verbatim transcripts from meetings involving the members of the temporary emergency team constituting the taskforce. FINDINGS: The results highlight the tensions that emerged throughout the different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and how various actors have managed them in a way to reconcile opposing forces while unleashing adaptability and creativity. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Hospital managers would benefit from developing a paradoxical mindset for crisis preparedness, allowing them to embrace existing tensions and devise creative solutions to favor resilience and change.

Customer-organization relationships: development and test of a theory of extended identities.

We develop a theory of personal, relational, and collective identities that links organizations and consumers. Four targets of identity are studied: small friendship groups of aficionados of Ducati motorcycles, virtual communities centered on Ducatis, the Ducati brand, and Ducati the company. The interplay amongst the identities is shown to order affective, cognitive, and evaluative reactions toward each target. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 210 Ducati aficionados, and implications of these multiple, extended identities for organizations are examined.

Hierarchical representation of motives in goal setting.

The authors developed a framework for thinking about motives in goal setting. The reasons for choosing a particular goal are represented in a hierarchical network of motives. To uncover context-specific motives and their interconnections, the authors propose a procedure based on the elicitation of justifications for one's goal. The authors applied the procedure to the motivation of volunteering to join the Italian Army by officers (N = 151) and 3 groups of enlisted soldiers (Garibaldi Brigade, N = 141; Folgore Brigade, N = 144; and volunteers in training, N = 150). The resulting idiographic motives and linkages between motives were validated by regressing attitudes, intentions to reenlist, and commitment toward the army on motives and linkages between motives. A heuristic nomothetic summary of goals, arranged in an interconnected hierarchy, was derived.