The Pursuit of Organizational Well-Being-an Exploratory Study in a Public Research Agency

The aim of this paper is to identify the key areas
that contribute to organizational well-being in the Italian
National Research Council (CNR), the major Public Research
Agency in Italy. Through this study we want to contribute to the
definition of this construct in specific contexts, such as research
agencies and universities. 7 focus groups were carried out
involving 61 employees with different professional roles and
profiles. Using qualitative data analysis software NVivo9, we
identified 6 key areas of organizational well-being in the CNR.
The results of this study highlight the value not only of human
resources management, but also of knowledge management,
relationships, clarity of the Agency vision and employee future
outlook, motivation and participation in decision making as
important factors for organizational well-being of a research
agency. We propose interventions for organizational health
promotion, aimed at creating a learning organization and at
activating knowledge management processes.