Changing your approach to work to work better
A doctoral thesis looking at CSS applied in Italian foundries
Working well even in difficult situations. And not only to achieve the optimum results, but to thrive in one’s work. These are the ideas that Leonardo Ciocca worked on in his psychology PhD thesis discussed at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. Ciocca explored a particular aspect of good corporate culture: managing to make even difficult and dangerous production environments liveable, respecting each role, focussing on results but also on people.
The paper, the research summary explains, explores the constructs of Corporate Social Sustainability (“CSS”) culture and sustainability of organisational life in Italian foundries, which are regarded by the sector literature as high-risk organisations. This is one of the crucial points of Ciocca’s work: taking difficult and risky production conditions as the subject of the research. Foundries, he explains, are commonly perceived as “3D Industries: Dirty, Dusty and Dangerous’, with little regard for environmental, social and economic sustainability. Ciocca’s hypothesis is that in these environments it is possible to identify cultural elements that can “clean up” a “dirty” job, so as to improve the sustainability of working life and contribute to the transition from “3D Industries” to “3P Industries”: Profit, Planet and People”.
The author first considers the concept of CSS, then the particular field in which it is to be applied, and then the research method to use. The next step was therefore to investigate CSS in Italian foundries, trying to draw both theoretical and operational conclusions.
Ciocca writes in his conclusions that the application of CSS to these particular environments “offers opportunities to improve working conditions and increase organisational well-being in foundry companies”, in addition to this, “it has been noted that this positively impacts on health and safety protection conditions of the staff involved, a factor that could translate into increasing the attractiveness of the sector for young workers, as well as an improvement in the sector’s reputation in the eyes of public opinion and of the workers themselves’. For Ciocca, then, the big challenge “is guiding foundries to invest in the sustainability of staff and the culture of CSS, supporting their employees, especially those in management and responsibility roles, through training courses that combine management aspects (…) and the protection of employees (…)”. A difficult path to put into practice, which involves the “evolution of management and management policies” and then the “overhaul of the plant and technological side”.
Tute pulite per un lavoro sporco. Culture della Corporate Social Sustainability nelle fonderie italiane (A clean suit for dirty work. Corporate Social Sustainability culture in Italian foundries)
Leonardo Ciocca
Thesis, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, PhD Course in Psychology, Cycle XXXIV, 2020
A doctoral thesis looking at CSS applied in Italian foundries
Working well even in difficult situations. And not only to achieve the optimum results, but to thrive in one’s work. These are the ideas that Leonardo Ciocca worked on in his psychology PhD thesis discussed at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. Ciocca explored a particular aspect of good corporate culture: managing to make even difficult and dangerous production environments liveable, respecting each role, focussing on results but also on people.
The paper, the research summary explains, explores the constructs of Corporate Social Sustainability (“CSS”) culture and sustainability of organisational life in Italian foundries, which are regarded by the sector literature as high-risk organisations. This is one of the crucial points of Ciocca’s work: taking difficult and risky production conditions as the subject of the research. Foundries, he explains, are commonly perceived as “3D Industries: Dirty, Dusty and Dangerous’, with little regard for environmental, social and economic sustainability. Ciocca’s hypothesis is that in these environments it is possible to identify cultural elements that can “clean up” a “dirty” job, so as to improve the sustainability of working life and contribute to the transition from “3D Industries” to “3P Industries”: Profit, Planet and People”.
The author first considers the concept of CSS, then the particular field in which it is to be applied, and then the research method to use. The next step was therefore to investigate CSS in Italian foundries, trying to draw both theoretical and operational conclusions.
Ciocca writes in his conclusions that the application of CSS to these particular environments “offers opportunities to improve working conditions and increase organisational well-being in foundry companies”, in addition to this, “it has been noted that this positively impacts on health and safety protection conditions of the staff involved, a factor that could translate into increasing the attractiveness of the sector for young workers, as well as an improvement in the sector’s reputation in the eyes of public opinion and of the workers themselves’. For Ciocca, then, the big challenge “is guiding foundries to invest in the sustainability of staff and the culture of CSS, supporting their employees, especially those in management and responsibility roles, through training courses that combine management aspects (…) and the protection of employees (…)”. A difficult path to put into practice, which involves the “evolution of management and management policies” and then the “overhaul of the plant and technological side”.
Tute pulite per un lavoro sporco. Culture della Corporate Social Sustainability nelle fonderie italiane (A clean suit for dirty work. Corporate Social Sustainability culture in Italian foundries)
Leonardo Ciocca
Thesis, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, PhD Course in Psychology, Cycle XXXIV, 2020