Empresa, personas y aprendizaje

En el mes de septiembre El País pidió mi opinión y la de otros expertos respecto a la formación continua: sus características, su necesidad, la forma de seleccionar cursos, etc. Aquí pongo el vínculo con el artículo completo: Asignatura pendiente en la empresa Es una lástima que las empresas no aprovechen el potencial de formación subvencionada que se les ofrece. De hecho, deberían asegurarse de que sus trabajadores se formasen incluso por encima de estos importes subvencionados, dado que la formación está directamente relacionada con la innovación y la productividad.

Relevant reference: Labour market deregulation, ‘flexibility’ and innovation, by Jonathan Michie and Maura Sheehan . Published in Cambridge Journal of Economics (2003) 27 (1): 123-143. Abstract Labour ‘flexibility’ is often portrayed as important to competitive success. Using evidence from an original survey of UK firms, this paper investigates the relationships between firms' use of, on the one hand, various flexible work practices, human resource management techniques, and industrial relations systems and, on the other hand, the innovative activities of those firms. Our results suggest that the sort of ‘low road’ labour flexibility practices encouraged by labour market deregulation—short‐term and temporary contracts, a lack of employer commitment to job security, low levels of training, and so on—are negatively correlated with innovation. Comment: Labour flexibility means so different things to different people that we are always in need of distinguishing which flexible pr...

Work flexibility may have an impact on workers' identity. The FAME project (Vocational Identity, Flexibility and Mobility in the European Labour Market) studied this subject between 2000 and 2003.  Their briefing paper number 54 is specially interesting. An excerpt: Three dominant modes of ‘strategic action’ taken by employees in forming their work-related identities have been identified:       In all of the occupational groups investigated, employees were found with an affiliation towards classical types of occupational identities with a high level of identification either with their occupation, the employer, the product or the daily work tasks. For this group of employees, changes at work present a great challenge, particularly for those who do not have the means or personal resources to adjust flexibly to new demands. In this case employees typically develop a ‘retreat’ strategy by holding on to traditional forms of identification with work aim...

Started in 2003, the National Workplace Flexibility Initiative is a collaborative effort  designed to position workplace flexibility as a compelling national issue - providing an essential step toward the long-term goal of making workplace flexibility the standard way of working in America.  Is is mainly funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Some outsprings of this initiative: When work works Workplace flexibility 2010

Thanks to Jordi Conesa for telling me about the Special report on telepresence in IEEE Spectrum. This special report explores the recent advances in robotic telepresence and their impact on society. Telepresence is a very special form of telework. According to Wikipedia , it "refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, via telerobotics, at a place other than their true location."