The evolution of health-, safety- and environment-related competencies in Italy: From HSE technicians, to HSE professionals and, eventually, to HSE managers

After a short introduction of cultural models underlying the prevention policies of business risks, the manuscript explains, through an unconventional reading filtered by the systemic, socio-technical theoretical approach, how the competencies, as well as the role, of Italy’s HSE professionals evolved over years and what were the challenges that were faced and the opportunities caught. Starting from the description of the different cultural backgrounds owned by Italy’s Health, Safety, and Environment professionals, the paper explains how the HSE profiles evolved according to both the legislative and the societal evolution. Further, it explains how the HSE professionals, thanks to the contribution of the unions, the (industrials and practitioners) associations and the national (as well as regional) policies, evolved from the simple role of technicians to that of professionals and, finally, will (hopefully) evolve into that of HSE managers.