Concept Mapping As A Learning Tool For The Employment Relations Degree

Concept mapping is a technique to represent relationships between concepts that can help students to improve their meaningful learning. Using the cognitive theories proposed by Ausubel (1968), concept maps can help instructors and students to enhance their logical thinking and study skills by revealing connections among concepts that can simplify all the new concepts that can be introduced in a subject during any subject classes of a semester. In this paper a study is made for the introduction of this technique in the subject Business Management Principles as part of the Employment Relations Degree. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of concept mapping on the learning acquired by the students. For this purpose we use data with the evolution of qualifications of students as the items that show how a planned way of introducing new concepts (relating with concepts that students already have) can be very useful in college teaching. Therefore this paper analyzes within a specific context the way in which concept maps are constructed to reflect student’s knowledge and facilitate their sense-making and improve their meaningful learning

25 Years Of Science Parks In Spain: Towards A New Model Of Development

In the knowledge-based economy, developed and in developing countries are putting an increasingly interest on encouraging their firms to produce, exploit, transfer and apply knowledge. In this context, there seems to be a general agreement about the need to develop and strengthen networking activities using infrastructures to promote knowledge transfer between different economic actors. Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are an important part of these support infrastructures. The main objective of this paper is to analyze how STPs have evolved during the last 25 years in Spain. Therefore with available data we study how has changed their model from a "science push" in the first generation models to a "science pull" for the second generation models of Science Parks. Data from the APTE (Spanish Association of Science and Technology Parks) shows that new parks are redesigning their activities toward a third generation of STPs based on interactive local flows located in science-industry-government relations, increasingly involved with local, regional and even global innovation activities. This paper also analyzes how go-betweens and intermediaries can facilitate the interaction between firms, government and research institutions, and liaise with public and private R&D funding and venture capital organizations

Machiavellians, Unethical Workmates And Intention To Stay: An Empirical Exploration

Machiavellianism is usually studied as an individual characteristic affecting an individual’s ethical/unethical behavior in organizations, turning into an important influential factor in that matter. However, no studies have been conducted to date testing the influence of this personal trait on the individual’s intention to stay, which on the basis of the theoretical perspective of the Resource-Based View of the Firm, have important valuable implications for the organization. Furthermore, no empirical research has been conducted in relation to test the comfort that Machiavellians experiment when an unethical climate is perceived in the organization. This paper will study the effect that a Machiavellian personality has on the individual’s intention to stay and what happens if Machiavellians are within the organization in company of workmates who behave unethically in human interaction. Results obtained through the empirical analysis in a sample of Spanish banking employees are discussed and conclusions and implications both for academics and business professionals are presented

Social Capital Generation Inside Science Parks: An Analysis Of Business-University Relationships

The importance of inter-organizational relations for business competitiveness is widely known. In recent years numerous researchers have been studying firm’s relationships using social capital theoretical framework as a multidimensional concept that integrates various facets of relationships. The empirical evidence in the literature show that is a valuable corporate asset that can determine firm performance. Focusing on Science Parks as a facilitating landscape promoting interactions with Universities and Research Centres, we conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of technological companies located inside Spanish Science Parks. In our research we found that firms’ relations with universities generate social capital and once created it had a significantly positive effect on firm performance measured as knowledge acquisition and reputation of firms. Contrary to our expectations generated social capital has no significant effect on the development of new products and in the technological distinctiveness of firms

Corporate Ethics And Ethical Behaviour: The Significant Function Of Top Management Role Modelling

Despite growing professional and academic interest in business ethics, moral lapses continue in the business sector, which suggests a need to rethink the efficiency of existing ethical strategies. That is, top management’s efforts to promote ethical behaviour among employees tend to focus on the implementation of explicit formal mechanisms, whereas in practice, more informal elements that communicate the true attitude toward ethics may be more useful and necessary. Thus top managers must work actively to make their personal ethics evident to influence the ethical behaviours of employees. Without a perception of ethics at the top, formal mechanisms likely fail to result in a more ethical workforce. This study therefore empirically analyses top managers’ role modelling behaviour along with the efficacy of their sanctioning dimension to promote ethical behaviour. Top management role modelling has a positively impact on employees’ ethics; sanctioning behaviour does not. These findings have critical practical implications, as well as promise for further research

Digitalizing a New Higher Education Degree Course to Best Satisfy Students: A Proposal of Best Practices

Digitalization is a complex challenge for many higher education institutions worldwide given that the new trend for best performance is to draw on ICTs to provide quality, interactive teaching to promote the highest student satisfaction. In this sense, most universities, in their digitalization processes, have opted for the Moodle learning platform, as it allows them to manage different digitized content (text, videos, evaluations, etc.), thus providing staff with a powerful tool to successfully implement the teaching-learning process. The purpose of this study is to determine, from the student perspective, the aspects universities should focus on when making the decision to digitalize a new degree course. To this end, qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys were administered to a representative sample of students to gather information on the current state of digitalization of the degree course they were studying (a Degree in Tourism recently included among the courses offered by a Spanish University)

Group Work Satisfaction At The University: An Innovative Experience In The New Higher Education Degrees

A methodology based on group work to facilitate the assimilation of the concepts and competences to be acquired by university students is presented as part of the teaching activities in second and third courses in the Business and Management Administration Degree at University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). This methodology allows that students benefit from synergies between group members and complete the training received with one system that permits, in a better way, the achievement of a series of important generic and specific competences.The present article is aimed at assessing student satisfaction after the completion of the group work activity in terms of motivation and involvement. The authors conclude that the degree of satisfaction is acceptable and good and that the activity per se is perceived as having a close relationship to the themes of the corresponding subject. An important collaboration between group members is observed, although there are students who shirk their responsibilities fully.The study concludes that group work is a good teaching and learning tool that facilitates the acquisition of a series of important specific and generic competencies to pass the subject and at a low investment of study time

Promoting Ethics In The Workplace: Why Not Reflect General Organizational Justice?

Recent decades reveal increasing academic and practitioner interest in improving corporations’ social and ethical reputations. Efforts to promote ethics usually focus on the implementation of explicit, formal mechanisms, aimed at transmitting ethical and moral content and reflecting an interest in behavioural ethics. Although the efficacy of these mechanisms has been demonstrated, such efforts may fail if ethics does not exist in reality in the normal procedures and operations of the firm and in the treatment employees perceive from their employers. Organizational justice is an antecedent of ethical behaviour, though most research depicting this link has centred exclusively on assessing (un)ethical behaviours directed toward the organization. Other insights, however, might suggest a relationship between organizational justice perceptions and general ethical behaviour; therefore, this study conducts an empirical examination of survey data from 436 Spanish banking employees to discern their perceptions of organizational justice by top management and whether these perceptions are related to general ethical/unethical behaviours. Findings, finally, reveal that such perceptions have positive effects on workforce general ethics. That is, actions and efforts by top management that signal organizational justice can help promote ethics among a wider workforce. These findings have substantial practical implications, as well as insights for further research

Educational Innovation And Personalized Tutoring In Higher Education: A Personal And Professional Guidance

College years determine the essential academic and personal training for students future success. Certainly, higher education period is essential in the development of students as persons, setting out their emotional and intellectual capital and therefore determining their professional and personal life expectations. However, this process generally must be faced with few help and also sometimes students have to create, sometimes blindly, their own path. In this sense, Social Sciences Faculty of Cuenca (Spain) has created a Tutoring Action Program that is designed to provide more supportive, collegial and discipline-specific training for students. This plan defines also a new tutorial role for professors as personal mentors of students. The aim of this paper is to present the new methodology used for the implementation of the Tutorial Action Plan which includes the assignment of this new role attributed to professors, and that consist in advising and guiding the students in those questions that may arise throughout the university degree, as well as advising students to do those things that are most appropriate for their profiles relative to their future labor orientations