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Twenty years since educational reforms were implemented in Spain aiming at the modernisation of the vocational education system and at the improvement of its educational and developmental functions, relationships between education and industry have not been widely analysed. This study reviews the recent international literature on the topic and then looks at one advanced regional case within the school-based, Spanish vocational education context. Analysing data from a sample of 330 industrial firms from the Basque Country, binary logistic regression was applied in order to identify factors especially associated to the fact that SMEs have a greater or lower number of collaboration relations with vocational schools. We also examined the variables that have the greatest impact on whether firms assess vocational schools positively. Results indicate a strong association between intensity of relationships and positive assessment of vocational schools' educational and developmental functions.

This paper seeks to contribute to the knowledge of the relationship established between firms and vocational education and training (VET) schools around work placements in companies (both standard and extended, so‐called 'dual', models) in Spain. An ad hoc survey of 332 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from two industrial regions was conducted and a categorical principal components analysis was applied to identify the main dimensions or components of those relationships. The main elements found are related to (i) staff selection and social responsibility; (ii) trust, reciprocity and knowledge sharing with schools; and (iii) the organizational culture of the companies. The results obtained illustrate an evolution from a 'provider‐client' scheme towards a more strategic partnership between schools and firms, thus contributing new aspects to the literature available on the Spanish case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive coaching has become one of the principal leadership development strategies of our time. However, this is a field of HRD that has been discussed far more often in professional than academic literature and further research is required. This work analyses the relation existing between the main explanatory factors of executive coaching effectiveness and the different types of results that can be achieved. This study also provides an empirical test of the effectiveness of executive coaching using the first three levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model (1975). Responses from 176 executives are analyzed, assessing their perceptions of their latest experience of executive coaching. Structural modelling is used to match factors affecting the success of executive coaching to its results. The resulting model highlights the influence exercised by the coach, and to a lesser extent the coachee and the process, on coachee satisfaction. It also shows how the coach influences the coachee's learning. The results also suggest that there is a positive relationship between satisfaction, learning and behavioral change, as Kirkpatrick suggests. The development of a final focus group, in which human resources managers, coachees and coaches took part, contributed to improvements in the discussion and interpretation of the results. In the light of these results, the implications for the professional and academic area are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interactive learning model argues the importance of incremental innovation, linked to production activities, and the role in that innovation of qualified workers - including those with a vocational training degree - in opposition to the supremacy of scientific personnel that tends to characterize high-tech industries. However, scarcely any attention has been paid to the role of intermediary workers in innovation processes. This study, based on a survey of 1142 Spanish industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), examines the degree to which technicians and employees with a vocational education and training (VET) profile are represented in these firms and their involvement in innovation activities. In order to identify the importance of the factors studied in a multivariate model, a binary logistic regression was performed with an index of VET workers' participation as a dependent variable, segmenting the companies by technological level. The study shows that for sectors with greatest R&D intensity, the presence of VET personnel in technical posts and the existence of external co-operation in innovation were found to triple the probability of greater participation. In more low-tech sectors, these variables continue to exercise a strong influence, but the multiplier effect of another two has also been detected, specifically the innovative capacity of the company and a greater level of involvement of operators in organizational learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a classified list of the factors that are most influential in the success of an executive coaching process, arranged in order of importance. Design/methodology/approach – Selection of factors from an exhaustive literature review, and development of a qualitative investigation, applying a Focus Group, a Nominal Group technique, and the Delphi method to a group of experts comprising coaches, coachees, and human resources managers, in order to complete and assess the factors selected. Findings – The most outstanding factors needed in executive coaching are confidentiality, trust, and empathy between coach and coachee; the coach’s ability to generate trust, and her/his competence in communication skills, vocation and commitment; the coachee’s need, motivation, responsibility for his/her own development and commitment to the process; and a guarantee from the organization of the confidentiality of that process. Practical implications – This research furnishes a quantitative criterion for the evaluation and ranking of the determining factors in coaching success, which facilitates a justified selection of factors, both for research and professional purposes. Social implications – This study makes it possible to better channel the allocation of resources and gearing of business decisions for the implementation of coaching programs. Originality/value – This paper provides a systematic review of the empirically based literature dealing with the main success factors in the effective application of executive coaching, and contributes new factors derived from the knowledge of professional experts, along with a classified and ranked list of those factors, assessed in terms of their relevance to the satisfactory outcome of a coaching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to assess the compliance with the characteristic of the relevance of disclosure in Management Reports, particularly dealing with Human Capital (HC) information. Design/methodology/approach: We codify all instances where narratives of IBEX-35 stock index companies over a five year period in Spain comply with the recommendations for a "high quality" Management Commentary (MC) in terms of the relevance characteristic of the information disclosed (IASB, 2005). Findings: The analysis results show that a greater quantity of information about HC in terms of the number of pages devoted is not always indicative of higher quality in terms of relevance if we look for the application of IASB recommendations. Research limitations/implications: Further research could assess compliance with other qualitative characteristics required by other standards or guidance that were internationally accepted. Practical implications: Among the areas that require improvement in HC disclosures we highlight forward-looking information. Social implications: We propose that an internationally accepted agreement must be struck to unite all the efforts that are being made to improve narrative information in the MC section, and specifically with reference to HC. Originality/value: This work compiles the HC disclosures identified as best practices that may serve as a reference to other companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic literature argues that managers, with their resources and capabilities, constitute a source of competitive advantage for companies, but that cooperatives generally have difficulties attracting and retaining competent managers. The present study examines the special efforts made in the creation and development of cooperative managers via corporate training centres in the Mondragon Cooperative Group. The fieldwork that supports this research is a qualitative study based on a series of in-depth interviews with 12 people in charge of Mondragon’s training structure. This study confirms that Mondragon’s cooperatives have overcome the difficulties common to other cooperatives in attracting and retaining valuable managers. The study also confirmed that Mondragon’s management training policy, based on its corporate training centres, is internally perceived as a source of competitive advantages to the cooperatives in the attraction, development and retention of managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policies (often at the regional level) favouring pre-competitive research and cooperative research and development have played a decisive role in the development of technology centres in Europe and all over the world. The technology offer model gave priority to the creation of technology transfer organizations and structures, but there is increasing evidence that this model did not attach enough attention to the needs of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and in particular, to their capacity to take in knowledge. In this paper, based on qualitative research, we show in detail some of the main issues involved in the relationships between technology centres and SMEs in the Basque Country, a region that has developed intensive policies favouring technology transfer organizations over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) implementation in 20 European firms. In contrast with the radical postulates of the early orthodox literature, the find- ings reveal that BPR was used in a preventive way, with implementation time lengths directly related to the scope of the organisational changes attempted and generating moderately positive results according to corporate performance indicators, with relatively low social cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explain the key factors affecting the success of BPR in a large European electricity company. First a review of the "business process re-engineering" (BPR) concept and its relationship with organisational change and change management is carried out. This is followed by the analysis of the idea of BPR adopted by the company, an explanation of the main guidelines of the implementation carried out, and an interpretation of the results that were obtained. The balance, both in economic and change management terms, was highly positive, although organisational and cultural change, in a strong sense of the term, remains a matter still to be resolved by the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though the availability of skilled labour and technological know-how is critical to the sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the relationships between industry and the vocational education system have received little attention in the recent literature regarding social aspects of innovation. The objective of this paper is to analyse the intensity of relationships between industrial SMEs and vocational education and training (VET) centres from the firms' perspective. The study is based on a survey carried out with a sample of 1388 Spanish industrial SMEs with vocational education graduates among their employees. Multivariate hierarchical segmentation techniques were used in order to identify the main explanatory variables. As a result, we obtained a typology ("tree") of eight organizational profiles associated to different intensity levels (from higher to lower) of relationships between firms and schools. The results show that most industrial SMEs maintain relations with vocational education centres, reflecting the importance of the latter for the companies. The organisational type having the highest level of relations refers to SMEs with experience in external cooperation (cooperation with other actors in innovation projects) which have vocational education employees (graduates) in technical areas and which are bigger in size. Likewise, the results suggest that fruitful collaboration between SMEs and vocational education centres depends on the existence of an established culture of innovation among the smaller firms. This work sheds light on economic and social sustainability. Its results and discussion are linked to the objectives of United Nations sustainable development goals and the recent communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament entitled "European skills agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness, and resilience". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]