Ethics, gift and social innovation through CSR and female leadership in business administration in Italy

The aim of the paper is to inquire and discuss the specificities of the women’s approaches in leading organizations towards generating social innovation. What are the traits of women’s leadership and their role in managing and governing organizations? Are they holders of values, which raise their capability “to listen” and “to read” stakeholders expectations and needs in different socio-economic and historical contexts? The work provides a reply to these research questions by analyzing the role of women in two different Italian organizations. The first one is relative to an institution (“S. Giuseppe Institute for Maternal and Infant Help” in Rimini and the “Little Hospital Regina Elena”, currently named S. Giuseppe Onlus) that, from the beginning of the Nineteenth century, played a key role in the local and national context (Italy) in protecting illegitimate motherhood and children, which represented from centuries a social and cultural plague in the Country. The second one is relative to an Italian large-sized multi-utility company (SGR Group) based in Rimini and developed abroad (Bulgaria) which is family owned and whose sustainability-oriented process is driven for years by the vision of a female President. The reflections emerged from the analysis contribute to understand the potential of women in generating social innovation through their management and leadership and the changes “silently” promoted within organizations. Coherently, the work contributes to nurture a field which has still to be improved in order to disclose the frequently “hidden” role of women in promoting CSR and sustainability and developing the socio-economic and territorial context, in Italy and abroad.