Human resource strategic management in NPOs

PurposeThis explorative research aims at examining the social representation of psychosocial training in NPOs managers.Design/methodology/approachAn adopted multiple research approach was adopted to analyse a corpus of qualitative data. A detailed semi‐structured interview was administered to 122 senior managers of as many Italian NPOs. Interviews were analyzed using different techniques of content analysis and, run through the software T‐Lab (analysis of word occurrence and co‐word mapping, analysis of Markovian sequences).FindingsItalian NPOs' organizational culture seem to be action‐oriented and self‐referral, rather than knowledge‐oriented. Training is not considered as a tool for strategic management of HR. Senior managers are mainly self‐taught, trained on‐the‐job and, lack of a proper competence on HR management.Research limitations/implicationsThe group reached is a convenience sample and not a statistical representative sample.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests that intellectual capital can be an effective tool to address Italian NPOs self‐referential knowledge and overcome their gaps in strategic management of human resources.Originality/valueNPOs' senior manager training has rarely been addressed; in addition, the adopted methodology mixes different techniques of analysis.