Ubaldo Comite

By Ubaldo Comite

In Italy, the machinery of justice has been, on more than one occasion, the subject of criticism. For the most part, the criticism has been relative to the slowness of trials and the inadequacy of the judicial system, deemed not capable of confronting the request for continuously evolving justice in an exhaustive manner, whose characteristics change in time based on the emerging needs of society. The analysis of the justice system was, in fact, generally not subject to enquiries on offices’ productivity and to evaluation of the management of resources invested in the sector. The same centres of data elaboration and the related departments at the Ministry of Justice, for example, have not gone much further than collecting the statistical data and creating the generic indicators of service quality. Such parameters, though, are often revealed to be too bureaucratic and of little use in proposing ameliorative solutions of the service offered to citizens, who desire levels of protection that are more responsive to their expectations. In this sense, the application of the system of accountability within the judicial system can contribute to the managerialization of the service.

Part of the book: Accounting and Corporate Reporting

By Ubaldo Comite

In recent years, the reflection on the social role the healthcare company plays has led public opinion, management scholars and the healthcare system themselves to place the concept of ethics at the centre of their attention. Throughout the decades, the doctrine has taken notable steps forward in the definition of the particular version of ethics, that is, business ethics, while at the same time, quite a few healthcare system have begun to equip themselves with instruments for defining and measuring their ethical behaviour (e.g. ethical codes, customer satisfaction tools, complaint handling). Today, in fact, many healthcare systems are fully aware that it is in their best interest to manage their ethics as much as their economy and that it is wrong to consider the commitment of social responsibility within the government only as a purely moral concern (and therefore, in some ways, optional). Today, the healthcare system is given a new role by the society, which stands side by side with the by now “institutional” role of producing goods and services while creating welfare: it thus becomes an organism that must behave more responsible in satisfying human values. It becomes a cell that works in a synergetic manner within the larger macroeconomic system.

Part of the book: Social Responsibility