Diversity management policies in innovative public services

This paper present the conceptual framework of the evolution of diversity management policies and results of a research conducted in Italy in 2009-2010, in three major public services companies. By diversity management we mean: “the adoption of targeted and segmented human resource management policies, aimed at valuing the different needs and expectations of different types of employees, with the aim of improving a company's overall performance”. At company level, work life balance in conjunction with diversity management policies may prove to be the concrete choice to make in order to meet two fundamental demands: a greater degree of psychological, physical and social wellbeing among workers such as to reduce occasions of stress and allow for more effective (individual and collective) resolution of conflicts structurally present in work places and governance of organisational and decisional systems; the creation of a collaborative and motivated organisational and relational climate favouring the valuing of people in such a way as to encourage human resources to adopt virtuous attitudes in harmony with the objectives and strategies of the company /institution. This policy aims at favouring to the utmost individual potential as a strategic lever capable of reaching company goals, providing both enterprises and stakeholders with additional assets.