Verso una Cloud Research? Nuove prospettive per la produzione di conoscenza rilevante nella psicologia del lavoro e delle organizzazioni

The paper develops the implications of the metaphor of cloud research, suggesting new prospects for research in the psychology of work and organizations. It argues for the production of significant knowledge with (not about) people as they deal with real problems of organizational life. This approach can relaunch the authentic applicative core of the discipline with respect to the complexity and mutability characteristic of the current scenarios of crisis and change in organizational contexts. The paper explores the connection between relevance and access to the situated knowledge which constitutes the order of life wherein the activity system in which people are involved is produced and reproduced. Concrete reference to a research case exemplifies the opportunities and problems connected with the production of situated knowledge in concrete organizational contexts.