From New-Taylorism to human sustainability - Extending management concepts outside industrial sector

This paper describes the evolution of managerial concepts and methods in the industrial sector by using as paradigm the re-engineering process fired by the necessity of manufacturing a new final product. Based on the experience done in developing research projects funded by the European Commission (EC), the growing diffusion of Industrial Districts, their main strength and weakness, are discussed, and some hints on the recent research progtams funded by EC are briefly reported. The emerging interest of transferring managerial methods from Industrial Districts to networks of Human-centred services, as healthcare, is then presented.