The evolution of health-, safety- and environment-related competencies in Italy: From HSE technicians, to HSE professionals and, eventually, to HSE managers

• Published in: Safety science Vol. 118; pp. 724 - 739
• Main Authors: Colombo, Simone, Golzio, Luigi Enrico, Bianchi, Giancarlo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Core competencies; Evolution; Managers; Policies; Professionals; Safety; Safety management; Socioeconomic factors; Technicians; Italy
• ISSN: 0925-7535; 1879-1042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2019.06.002

•Italy’s evolution of the HSE competencies and the associated professionalisms.•Cultural background of Italy’s HSE professionals.•Contribution of unions, associations and national (as well as regional) policies to HSE competencies transformation.•Evolution of the Italian HSE legislation.•Italy’s HSE education and services supply. After a short introduction of cultural models underlying the prevention policies of business risks, the manuscript explains, through an unconventional reading filtered by the systemic, socio-technical theoretical approach, how the competencies, as well as the role, of Italy’s HSE professionals evolved over years and what were the challenges that were faced and the opportunities caught. Starting from the description of the different cultural backgrounds owned by Italy’s Health, Safety, and Environment professionals, the paper explains how the HSE profiles evolved according to both the legislative and the societal evolution. Further, it explains how the HSE professionals, thanks to the contribution of the unions, the (industrials and practitioners) associations and the national (as well as regional) policies, evolved from the simple role of technicians to that of professionals and, finally, will (hopefully) evolve into that of HSE managers.