Process Tracing Change Management: The Reform of the Italian Judiciary

Purpose. In 2009, the Italian government started a national programme for improving the management of judicial offices. The programme implementation has been patchy, with only a few cases performing satisfactorily. Against such background, the Law Court of Milan achieved exceptional results and it is now recognised as a good practice and reference for Italy. The article investigates this case study, in order to reconstruct the local conditions supporting the success of the national programme. Design/Methodology/Approach. The article tests a theory of the programme based on leaders’ engagement, their access to managerial knowledge, and the transfer and consolidation of such knowledge. The research applies process tracing, a qualitative method that uses Bayesian reasoning to improve the accuracy of within-case inferences. Findings. The analysis shows that programme and context features interacted to support change. In particular, while the national programme successfully provided resources for both leaders' engagement and knowledge access, the transfer and consolidation of managerial knowledge was largely due to the performance of a brokerage function performed locally between consultants and magistrates. Originality/value. The article sheds light on the local conditions for change management and does so by using an innovative qualitative method that improves the reliability of within-case inferences.