Azione organizzativa e cultura

PRESENTATION (Paolo de Vita) The importance currently attributed to culture, complexity and change is seen in the fact that such topics are being investigated in spheres which are still relatively virgin territory in organization studies. An example is the sphere of cultural institutions, covering such vaied terrain as schools and universities, museums and libraries, research centres and foundations; in short, institutions large and small which seek to consolidate, elaborate and disseminate knowledge, promoting discussion and cultural awareness and stimulating progress. The institutional, structural, technical and social variety of these organizations certainly makes it hard to view them as a single category featuring homogeneous mechanisms and patterns of behaviour. Nor indeed would this be either constructive or desirable. Hence the author’s decision to use the methodology of case studies, reflecting a growing trend in recent research, is fully justified. This does, however, involve the risk of proceeding from the single case to hasty, contentious generalisations; instead the aim should be to discover chunks of reality and then situate and interpret them in a wider and more produ