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INTRODUCTION
In recent years in Italy, as in the rest of Europe, new and profound changes have occurred both in institutions and in the economic and political world as a whole. Such transformations in social and economic systems, typical of societies in the phase of transition to industrially advanced economies, have determined the need for the strategic and organizational reorientation of Italian companies.
Several of the transformations which have occurred derive from the great importance of "information", and the ever more variable "knowledge" of a strategic order stems either from the attenuation of the dominance of the production of goods in favour of services, or from structural changes in company organization. Finally, there are relevant changes in the value systems at the company level, which no longer require "social responsibility", but instead the correct performance of an institutional role according to business logic. There are also changes at the level of individual workers for whom ability and personal characteristics must count more than an ideology of guarantees at any price 1!. Thus concepts of meritocracy, professionalism and recognition for individual performance take on greater relevance with respect to collective reward.
While at one time the external world was a dominant influence on the strategic and organizational choices of companies, the current trend, determining greater complexity and sophistication, leads towards behavioural models of "energetic" companies ready to anticipate changes. In such a context companies require management techniques which are coherent with the level of environmental complexity. In particular, assuming the competitiveness of the organization, a change in the model of human resource management becomes indispensable, above all for large companies. A change occurs equally from a model of human resource management, which conceives this activity as a process of transforming and influencing individual behaviour, oriented towards the "management of big numbers", to models of management in which the abilities and competences of individuals find considerable and adequate recognition.
According to applied management theories, the personnel function in Italy has moved from an administrative role (staff accountancy, legal and social security concerns), to an auxiliary role (the personnel office helping the other functions), then to a speciallzed functional role, and to a strategic role 2!. Thus it is in a transitional phase from personnel management towards human...