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.