Management by objectives and process management in the universities: an Italian case study

This paper aims at studying the implementation of process management in the public entities, such as University, in order to gain the capabilities they need to innovate, reenergize performance and deliver the value today’s customers and community demand. The case study regards the University of Eastern Piedmont (North of Italy); this organization is growing in the research and education field and has three headquarters, in Novara, Alessandria and Vercelli. The research’s method is empirically based and is made of these stage: 1. analysis of the present organizational structure; 2. identification of the activities carried out in each organizational unit of the structure (principals, heads of the research’s centers, heads of the administrative centers); 3. identification of the critical points in each activity, with a deep focus on co-ordination problems; 4. identification of the objectives of performance for each activity; 5. identification of the managerial and organizational steps to be carry out. Regarding the step 2 and 3, the empirical research’s method is based on interviews with the personnel of the University and on written questionnaires, while in the stage 3,4, and 5, quantitative methods are used as well. The results obtained confirm the need of managerial tools in order to achieve the managerial objectives, also in the public entities, especially with reference to process management.