1 Integrating Software Competences and Managerial Skills from Humanistic Background: a case study on University-Industry Higher Education Programs Authors:

Abstract The paper points out how approaches to analyze the overall process of Junior Software Technologists Management in ICT Firms could take advantage shifting from a ‘knowledge-based approach ’ to a ‘knowing organization approach’. In the latter approach, instead of regarding the knowledge as an object to transfer, it is suggested that knowing is something that people, especially knowledge workers, collectively do and construct. The design of University-Industry higher education programs is studied as a ‘process of cognitive construction ’ and as a ‘process of political construction’, identifying a community of practices involved in multiple mediations between actors, objects, and tools of educational processes. This framework allows to overcome a simplistic view of educational programs as linear processes of knowledge transferring from teachers to students and as series of evaluations carried out by actors with formal hierarchical authority (e.g. teachers during the examination, project leaders during the milestones, managers during the selection interview, etc.). The paper presents preliminary findings from a case study developed on the pilot project of a Master Program on Software Technology and Management, carried out within a partnership between RCOST University of Sannio and several ICT leader companies. The degree of actual integration between technological skills, business skills, and behavioral repertories is linked to degree of common knowledge developed by the actors (University teachers, Company-tutors, knowledge workers). The degree of ICT companies involvement in higher education programs seems to be linked to a shared view on medium-term knowledge strategies of the University, the firms and knowledge workers. The researc