The aim of this thesis is to analyse empirically, proposing new methods to tackle disputed questions in the literature of political and labour economics, the Italian institutional setting both in a political competition context and in the occupational structure. The first paper explores the relationship between transfers from central state to political aligned municipalities and the effect of these transfers on local electoral consensus. This study contributes to the empirical literature of the political determinants of spikes in central transfers in pre-electoral periods and of the electoral benefits of pork barrel measures for incumbent politicians. Despite several findings of strong evidence that intergovernmental fiscal transfers rise during election years, in the Italian case researchers investigated little the political incentives that lay behind these increases or the success of these transfers in attracting votes. We focus on the so called swing municipalities, defined as those in which the probability of winning is close to one-half, analysing data of Italian comuni with more than 15 000 inhabitants, in the period 2007-2014. From an empirical perspective, every attempt to estimate the causal impact of political alignment on the amount of federal transfers is clearly complicated by endogeneity issues. Without a credible source of exogenous variation in political alignment, the empirical correlation between alignment and transfers (if any) can be completely driven by socio-economic factors influencing both dimensions. We propose a new model specification to account for the endogeneity issue arising when estimating the causal impact of political alignment on transfers: the unpredicted change in the government occurred in 2011 after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi and the following appointment of Mario Monti as prime minister. We perform our empirical estimation in two steps: first, we apply the close-race RDD setup (Lee 2008) to assess the impact of political alignment on transfers. Results from the close-race RDD show that aligned municipalities receive more grants, with this effect being stronger before elections. At a second empirical stage, we perform a local linear regression of the re-election probability of the local incumbent on transfers, including the first stage error term to have our coefficient of interest measuring only the effect of politically-driven transfers on electoral outcomes, and we conclude that this probability increases as grants increase. The second paper stems from the observation of the most recent phenomena in the domestic and foreign labour market: technological progress has been associated to a crowding-out of cognitive-skill intensive jobs in favour of jobs requiring soft skills, such as social intelligence, flexibility and creativity. Soft skills can be defined as interpersonal, human, people or behavioural skills necessary for applying technical skills and knowledge in the workplace. The nature of the soft skills make them hardly replaceable by machine work, and Among soft skills, creativity is one of the hardest to define and to codify, therefore, creativity-intensive occupations have been shielded from automation. In our work, we focus on creativity, starting from its definition in order to get significant insights on which occupational profiles in Italy can be considered creative and to explore their dynamics in the labour market. A possible analytical definition of creativity comes from the seminal work of Edward De Bono. According to his pioneering research in the field, lateral thinking is strictly related to creativity and it can be described along four dimensions: 1) fluidity, as the ability of a subject to give the highest possible number of answers to a certain question; 2) flexibility, as the number of categories to which we can bring back these questions; 3) originality: ability of expressing new and innovative ideas; 4) processing: ability of realizing concretely one’s ideas. We apply this definition to a uniquely detailed occupational dataset on tasks, skills, work attitudes, and working conditions regarding all Italian occupations: the Inapp-Istat Survey on Occupations (Indagine Campionaria sulle Professioni, ICP hereafter), an O*NET-type dataset developed by the Italian National Institute for Public Policy Analysis. The Survey on Occupations, in fact, presents a list of skills and competences and workers are asked to identify those they make use of in performing their job. Inside this list, we identify 25 skills associated to creativity and we formulate a Matrix Completion (MC) optimization problem, as discussed theoretically in Mazumder (2010). Matrix Completion is the task of filling in the missing entries of a partially observed matrix, which we generate by obscuring randomly 10%, 25% and 50% of the entries in the columns associated with the creative skills, given a fixed row (occupation). In our analysis, we use a formulation of the problem known as Nuclear Norm Minimization and we solve it with the Soft Impute Algorithm. We conclude our analysis on social skills in our third paper where we analyse the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on soft skills in the context of Italian occupations, operating in about 100 economic sectors. We leverage detailed information from ICP, the Italian O*Net, and we simulate the impact of Covid-19 on those workplace characteristics and working style that were more seriously hit by the lockdown measures and the new sanitary dispositions (physical proximity, face-to-face discussions, working remotely, ecc.). We simulate three possible scenarios based on the intensity of the effects of COVID-19 on some working conditions, such as working from home, keeping physical distance and so on. We then apply matrix completion, a machine learning technique used in recommendation systems, in order to predict the levels of soft skills required for each occupation when working conditions change, as these changes might be persistent in the near future. Professions showing a lower intensity in the use of soft skills, with respect to the predicted one, are exposed to a deficit in their soft-skill endowment, which might ultimately lead to lower productivity or higher unemployment, thus enhancing the negative effects of the pandemic.

Escuela Peruana de Buenas Prácticas es un proyecto de negocio que consiste en la formación y desarrollo de habilidades blandas como empatía, comunicación verbal y no verbal, adaptación a los cambios, entre otros. Creemos que es importante poder gestionar estas técnicas para la solución de problemas, aprender a trabajar en equipo, ser líder, reducir el nivel de estrés y otros aspectos que ayuden al desarrollo de una formación que impulse al estudiante debido a que, en el Perú, el sistema educativo solo está enfocado en asignaturas básicas como matemática, comunicación, ciencias, entre otros cursos. Sin embargo, en los últimos años se ha demostrado la importancia de enseñar habilidades blandas para la toma asertiva de decisiones tanto en la vida personal como profesional. Ante esta situación, en el rubro educativo peruano existen pocos centros de preparación dedicados al desarrollo de estos cursos con una propuesta diferente. En ese sentido, este proyecto de negocio busca cubrir esta necesidad con una propuesta de valor que radica en un centro especializado que se encargará de desarrollar habilidades blandas en niños y adolescentes con docentes de larga experiencia. La Escuela Peruana de Buenas Prácticas tendrá como fuente de ingresos el pago de los padres de familia que matriculen a sus hijos, por lo cual nos dirigiremos a todos los centros educativos privados de nivel primaria y secundaria apoyándonos en campañas que nos permitan mostrar nuestra propuesta de valor. / Peruvian School of Good Practices is a business project that consists of the training and development of soft skills such as empathy, verbal and non-verbal communication, adaptation to changes, among others. We believe that it is important to be able to manage these techniques to solve problems, learn to work as a team, be a leader, reduce the level of stress and other aspects that help the development of a training that encourages the student because, in Peru, the educational system is only focused on basic subjects such as mathematics, communication, science, among other courses. However, in recent years the importance of teaching soft skills for assertive decision making has been demonstrated both in personal and professional life. Faced with this situation, in the Peruvian educational sector there are few preparation centers dedicated to the development of these courses with a different proposal. In this sense, this business project seeks to cover this need with a value proposition that lies in a specialized center that will be in charge of developing soft skills in children and adolescents with long-term teachers. The Peruvian School of Good Practices will have as a source of income the payment of parents who enroll their children, for which we will go to all private primary and secondary education centers, supporting ourselves in campaigns that allow us to show our proposal of value. / Trabajo de investigación

Alongside the evolution of the recruitment process, different types of recommendation systems have been developed. The purpose of this study is to investigate recommendation systems within educational contexts, successful implementations of recommendation system architecture patterns, and alternatives to previous experience when evaluating candidates. The study is conducted through two separate methods; A literature review with a qualitative approach and design science research methodology focused on design and development, demonstration and evaluation. The literature review shows that, for recommendation systems, a layered architecture built within a microservice ecosystem is successfully utilized and has multiple beneficial aspects such as improved scalability, maintainability and security. Through design science research methodology, this study shows a suggested approach to implementing a layered architecture in combination with KNN and hybrid filtering. To avoid the lapse of suitable candidates, caused by demanding previous experience, this study shows an alternative approach to recruitment, within an educational context, through the use of soft skills. Within the study, this approach is successfully used to evaluate and compare students, but the same approach could possibly be applied to evaluate and compare companies. Moving forward, this study could be further expanded by looking into possible biases arising as a result of using AI and choices made during this study, as well as weighting of student-attributes.

Traditionally, higher education has put a lot of emphasis on cognitive ways of knowing. Although the focus on theoretical knowledge still remains, the labor market’s demand for social skills have increased rapidly over the past decades. Investments in the internationalisation of higher education have created a platform in which the learning of noncognitive ways of knowing is promoted. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how exchange studies have influenced the Swedish students participating in the Erasmus+ programme focusing on the development of soft skills. Nine students from Uppsala university were interviewed to understand how they regarded and viewed their exchange studies. In centre of interest is the growth of social learning through cultural experiences. To broaden the analysis, an additional expert interview was conducted with a study- and career counsellor involved with the Erasmus+ programme at Uppsala university. Using a Bourdieusian framework, the findings of this work indicate that soft skills could be viewed as being part of the cultural capital. By focusing on the importance of learning outside your comfort zone, the participants identified personal development through intercultural experiences. Viewing soft skills as cultural capital and by identifying that knowledge becomes embodied through social interaction, exchange studies could be seen as a great platform for learning and developing intercultural experiences.

No description available.

The growth of technology and the proliferation of information made modern complex systems more fragile and vulnerable. As a result, competitive advantage is no longer achieved exclusively through strategic planning but by developing an influential cadre of technical people who can efficiently manage and navigate modern complex systems. The dissertation aims to provide educators, practitioners, and organizations with a model that helps to measure individuals’ systems thinking skills, complex problem solving, personality traits, and the impacting demographic factors such as managerial and work experience, current occupation type, organizational ownership structure, and education level. The intent is to study how these skills, traits, and demographic factors can impact an individual’s abilities in working effectively with modern complex systems. These skills and traits also enable individuals to display distinctive patterns of thoughts in developing solutions that address complex technical problems. The dissertation further provides strategies for the management and enhancement of technical individuals based on assessing their performance. The model consists of three established instruments: Systems Thinking Skills, Perceived Complex Problem-Solving (PCPS), and Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator. These instruments are applied at the individual level to identify strengths and weak areas of improving an organization. In particular, PCPS is a researcher-developed instrument that captures the complex problem-solving perception of individuals. The different samples of the population for the dissertation come from students and practitioners.

Магистерская диссертация (ВКР) состоит из введения, трех глав, заключения, библиографического списка и 4 приложений. Работа включает в себя 4 таблицы и 7 рисунков. Общий объем магистерской диссертации (ВКР) составляет 86 страниц. Во введении обосновывается актуальность выбранной темы, а также определяются цель и задачи исследования. В главе 1 рассматриваются концепция и определение лидерства и глобализации, типы лидерства и их обязанности в компании, а также описывается влияние глобализации на лидерство. В главе 2, посвященной методологическому аспекту влияния глобализации на лидерство компаний, рассматриваются методологические основы исследований, методы сбора данных, анализа собранных конкретных данных, а также базы данных Института стратегических изменений, Forbes’ 2000 и BCG 100 Global Challenger. В главе 3, посвященной практическому аспекту влияния глобализации на лидерство в компаниях, рассматривается исследовательский проект GLOBE: The global leadership organizational behavioural effectiveness, в рамках которого анализ глобального лидерства опирается на девять ключевых культурных ценностей или измерений. В главе 3 также представлен сравнительный анализ лидерства в различных глобализированных компаниях, в общей сложности было собрано 59 завершенных опросов, 26 частичных опросов и 264 доступа к опросам. Заключение содержит информацию о достигнутой цели и реализованных задачах, поставленных во введении к данной работе. Список литературы представляет собой источники, к которым был получен доступ в ходе исследования. Приложение содержит подробный график и таблицы, имеющие отношение к исследованию. / Master's thesis (ВКР) consists of the introduction, three chapters, conclusion, bibliographic list, and 4 appendices. The work includes 4 tables and 7 figures. The total volume of the master's thesis (ВКР) is 86 pages. The introduction substantiates the relevance of the chosen topic, as well as defines the purpose and objectives of the study. Chapter 1 examines the concept and definition of leadership and globalization, types of leadership and their responsibilities in a company, and also describes the impact of globalization on leadership. Chapter 2, which is about the methodological aspect of globalization’s impact on company leadership, explores the methodological framework of research, methods of data collecting, analyzing collected concrete data, and examine the databases from Institute for Strategic Changes, Forbes’ 2000 and BCG 100 Global Challenger. Chapter 3, which is about the practical aspect of globalization’s impact on company leadership, studies GLOBE: The global leadership organizational behavioral effectiveness research project, with nine key cultural values or dimensions underpinned their analysis of global leadership. Chapter 3 also presents a comparative analysis of leadership in different globalized companies, with total of 59 completed surveys, 26 partial surveys and 264 survey accesses were collected. The conclusion contains information about the achieved goal and the implemented tasks set in the introduction to this work. The list of references represents the sources that were accessed during the research. The appendix includes detailed graph and tables that are relevant to the research.

Purpose: This study investigates the extent to which aspirant CA(SA)s perceive how the academic programme is, and should be, developing relational and decision-making (RDM) skills. There has been extensive criticism that these skills are insufficiently developed in accounting students, an unfortunate reality which, consequently, hinders their expected performance during the SAICA training programme. Research method: A questionnaire was distributed to 103 aspirant CA(SA)s (of which 44 responded) working at one of the largest audit firms globally and currently in their 1st to 3rd year of the SAICA training programme. The questionnaire consisted of three main questions focusing on the respondents' perception of the academic programme. Findings: The majority of the respondents perceive that almost all of the RDM skills are developed to an intermediate or advanced level during the academic programme. However, respondents also perceive that the academic programme should place greater focus on developing certain RDM skills, such as relationship-building; professional scepticism and teamwork, to an advanced level, to maximise performance during the training programme. Lastly, the case study method, a teaching method by academics, resulted in the highest response rate for assisting in developing RDM skills. Originality and value: The study is the first to research RDM skills development, as defined within the new SAICA Competency Framework, during the South African academic programme. Furthermore, the findings of this study could assist SAICA in identifying RDM skills development shortcomings and whether the academic or training programme providers should bear more responsibility for developing certain skills.

No description available.

[ES] Comprender el comportamiento humano en situaciones de gestión, planificación y liderazgo dentro de organizaciones constituye un desafío tanto para los científicos como para la sociedad en general y los profesionales de los recursos humanos. Las tomas de decisión, la planificación de recursos, la gestión de equipos y el apoyo y acompañamiento del grupo, son factores que, desde perspectivas como la psicología, sociología, economía o liderazgo, han sido repetidamente estudiados dada su influencia directa en la eficacia final de una organización y de un equipo de trabajo. Actualmente no existe un consenso a la hora de definir el liderazgo. Este concepto, en cambio, se ha abordado desde diferentes perspectivas, por lo que los componentes que se han propuesto para explicar comportamientos de gestión son muy diversos. Una aproximación válida discrimina entre aquellos líderes que focalizan su ejecución en las tareas y en lograr objetivos en base a cumplir plazos y planificación, dando lugar a un liderazgo basado en tareas; y aquellos otros líderes que focalizan su ejecución en cuidar y mejorar las relaciones dentro del equipo, logrando los objetivos mediante la motivación y acompañamiento del grupo, dando lugar a un liderazgo basado en las relaciones. En los estilos de liderazgo basados en tareas y en relaciones se diferencian, por tanto, habilidades de planificación y gestión o hard skills y aspectos relacionales o soft skills, respetivamente. De la misma manera que la definición del estilo de liderazgo se ha abordado desde diferentes aproximaciones, su evaluación también se ha tratado desde diferentes puntos de vista y constituye, hoy en día, un desafío tanto para investigadores como para los profesionales del campo de los recursos humanos y la gestión en organizaciones. Sin embargo, no existe una medida validada para el estilo de liderazgo. La evaluación del liderazgo se ha realizado tradicionalmente mediante metodologías de comportamiento explícitas como cuestionarios o entrevistas, las cuales presentan limitaciones que sesgarían, en última instancia, la evaluación. La relevancia de nuevas técnicas de análisis de comportamiento implícitos, como técnicas ecológicas y basadas en el análisis de la actividad cerebral y ocular en situaciones reales, está despertando un nuevo interés para reconocer y discriminar los diferentes estilos de liderazgo en las organizaciones. De este modo, tareas experimentales y el análisis en laboratorio de conductas y competencias concretas surgen como una solución alternativa capaz de superar barreras interpretativas, pero del mismo modo presentan limitaciones de transferencia a situaciones reales. La realidad virtual surge como una alternativa prometedora para aportar entornos con una mayor transferencia a la vida real y que generen mayor nivel de implicación por parte de los usuarios que los entornos y métodos de evaluación tradicionales, permitiendo aportar medidas implícitas en contexto más reales. Esta propuesta está avalada por numerosos trabajos en el campo de la psicología aplicada, la neuroeconomía y la neurociencia organizacional, que apoyan el uso de la realidad virtual para la evaluación del comportamiento humano. El presente trabajo propone el uso combinado de realidad virtual y metodologías implícitas de la neurociencia organizacional, así como técnicas de análisis de machine learning, para estudiar los comportamientos vinculados al estilo de liderazgo. Partiendo de esta premisa, se describen dos estudios que investigan la sensibilidad de un paradigma pasivo, consistente en la visualización de videos emocionales, y un paradigma activo, consistente en la interacción con un juego serio de realidad virtual, ambos combinando variables implícitas comportamentales y cerebrales o fisiológicas, para determinar el estilo de liderazgo. Los resultados del paradigma pasivo evidenciaron diferencias en la sudoración de la piel, así como en la respuesta eléctrica del cerebro, entre aquellos participante / [CA] Comprendre el comportament humà en situacions de gestió, planificació i lideratge dins d'organitzacions constitueix un desafiament tant per als científics com per a la societat en general i per als professionals dels recursos humans. Les preses de decisió, la planificació de recursos, la gestió d'equips i el suport i acompanyament del grup, són factors que, des de perspectives com la psicologia, la sociologia, l'economia o el lideratge, han estat repetidament estudiats, atesa la seva influència directa en l'eficàcia final una organització i un equip de treball. Actualment no hi ha un consens a l'hora de definir el lideratge. Aquest concepte, en canvi, s'ha abordat des de diferents perspectives, i per això els components que s'han proposat per explicar comportaments de gestió són molt diversos. Una aproximació vàlida discrimina entre aquells líders que focalitzen la seua execució en les tasques i en assolir objectius sobre la base de complir terminis i planificació, donant lloc a un lideratge basat en tasques; i aquells altres líders que focalitzen la seua execució a cuidar i millorar les relacions dins de l'equip, aconseguint els objectius mitjançant la motivació i acompanyament del grup, donant lloc a un lideratge basat en les relacions. En els estils de lideratge basats en tasques i en relacions es diferencien, per tant, habilitats de planificació i gestió o hard skills i aspectes relacionals o soft skills, respectivament. De la mateixa manera que la definició de l'estil de lideratge s'ha abordat des de diferents aproximacions, la seua avaluació també s'ha tractat des de diferents punts de vista i constitueix actualment un desafiament tant per a investigadors com per als professionals del camp dels recursos humans i la gestió en organitzacions. No obstant això, no hi ha una mesura validada per a l'estil de lideratge. L'avaluació del lideratge s'ha realitzat tradicionalment mitjançant metodologies de comportament explícites com ara qüestionaris o entrevistes, les quals presenten limitacions que esbiaixarien, en última instància, l'avaluació. La rellevància de noves tècniques d'anàlisi de comportament implícits, com ara tècniques ecològiques i basades en l'anàlisi de l'activitat cerebral i ocular en situacions reals, està despertant un nou interès per reconèixer i discriminar els diferents estils de lideratge a les organitzacions. D'aquesta manera, tasques experimentals i l'anàlisi al laboratori de conductes i competències concretes sorgeixen com una solució alternativa capaç de superar barreres interpretatives, però de la mateixa manera presenten limitacions de transferència a situacions reals. La realitat virtual sorgeix com una alternativa prometedora per aportar entorns amb una transferència més gran a la vida real i que generen més nivell d'implicació per part dels usuaris que els entorns i mètodes d'avaluació tradicionals, permetent aportar mesures implícites en context més reals. Aquesta proposta està avalada per nombrosos treballs al camp de la psicologia aplicada, la neuroeconomia i la neurociència organitzacional, que donen suport a l'ús de la realitat virtual per a l'avaluació del comportament humà. Aquest treball proposa l'ús combinat de realitat virtual i metodologies implícites de la neurociència organitzacional, així com tècniques d'anàlisi de machine learning per estudiar els comportaments vinculats a l'estil de lideratge. Partint d¿aquesta premissa, es descriuen dos estudis que investiguen la sensibilitat d¿un paradigma passiu, consistent en la visualització de vídeos emocionals, i un paradigma actiu, consistent en la interacció amb un joc seriós de realitat virtual, ambdós combinant variables implícites comportamentals i cerebrals o fisiològiques, per tal de determinar l'estil de lideratge. Els resultats del paradigma passiu van evidenciar diferències en la sudoració de la pell, així com la resposta elèctrica del cervell, entre aquells participants amb estils de lideratge diferent. Els resultats del paradigma / [EN] Understanding human behavior in management, planning and leadership within organizations is a challenge for scientists, society and professionals of human resources. Decision-making, resource planning, team management and group support are factors that, from perspectives such as psychology, sociology, economics or leadership, have been repeatedly studied, motivated by their direct influence on final effectiveness of an organization. Currently, there is no consensus on defining leadership. This concept has been approached from different perspectives and, consequently, the components that have been proposed to explain management behavior are very diverse. An existing valid approach discriminates between those leaders who focus their execution on tasks and on achieving objectives based on meeting deadlines and planning, giving rise to task-oriented leadership; and those leaders who focus their execution on caring for and improving relationships within the team, achieving goals by motivating and accompanying the group, giving rise to relationship-oriented leadership. Task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership involve, respectively, planning and management skills or hard skills, and relational aspects or soft skills. As for the definition of leadership styles, the evaluation of leadership has also been approached from different points of view and constitutes, today, a challenge for both researchers and professionals in the field of human resources and organizational management. However, there is no validated measure for leadership style. The evaluation of leadership has traditionally been carried out through explicit behavioral methodologies such as questionnaires or interviews, which have limitations that would ultimately bias the evaluation. The relevance of new implicit behavior analysis techniques, such as ecological techniques and those based on the analysis of brain and eye activity in real situations, is awakening a new interest in recognizing and discriminating between different leadership styles in organizations. In this way, experimental tasks and the laboratory analysis of specific behaviors and competencies emerge as an alternative solution capable of overcoming interpretive barriers, but present limitated transference to real situations. Virtual reality emerges as a promising alternative to provide environments with a greater transfer to real life and subjects with a higher level of involvement than traditional environments and evaluation methods, allowing implicit measures to be provided in more real context. This proposal is supported by numerous works in the field of applied psychology, neuroeconomics and organizational neuroscience, which support the use of virtual reality for the evaluation of human behavior. This thesis proposes the combined use of virtual reality and implicit methodologies of organizational neuroscience, as well as machine learning analysis techniques, to study behaviors linked to leadership style. Based on this premise, two studies are described that investigate the sensitivity of a passive paradigm, consisting of viewing emotional videos, and an active paradigm, consisting of interacting with a serious virtual reality-based game, both combining implicit behavioral and brain or physiological responses to determine the leadership style. The results of the passive paradigm showed differences in skin conductance, as well as in the electrical response of the brain, between those participants with different leadership styles. The results of the active paradigm also showed that participants with different leadership styles made different decisions and focused their attention, described by visual behavior variables, on different elements. The results obtained in this thesis, therefore, support the sensitivity of virtual environments and organizational neuroscience methodologies to identify leadership styles, which offers a potential ecological and non-invasive alternative for analyzing leaders / Parra Vargas, E. (2022). Entornos de realidad virtual y neurociencia organizacional para la evaluación de capacidades de liderazgo en organizaciones [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/186130