Open Access
Co-designing doctoral programs to enhance postgraduate students' employability: insights from industry stakeholders
(Emerald, 2023) Pérez García, Raquel María; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Aramendia Muneta, María Elena; López Peláez, Antonio; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Purpose: Doctoral programs play a crucial role in promoting innovation and technology transfer in universities. To design these programs effectively and with a co-design perspective, it is essential to consider all stakeholders involved in the process, including teachers, students and employers. The main objective of this study is to enhance postgraduate programs to improve students' employability. Design/methodology/approach: This empirical study was conducted over a three-year period and employed semi-structured interviews as its primary research methodology. In the first phase, 21 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers from various sectors. The second phase involved 20 interviews, and the final phase of the study included 18 interviews with the same managers from previous phases. Findings: The study's main results revealed that the international networks, language proficiency and analytical skills of doctoral students were highly valued by employers. The main findings come from companies with doctoral students. Therefore, the skills were identified during the learning experience of the PhD graduates in the companies. Practical implications: The study's results can guide improvements in postgraduate program curricula and design to enhance students' employability. Originality/value: This research presents a novel approach to its findings. On the one hand, the study's conclusions may provide valuable insights for business agents, encouraging them to hire PhD students. On the other hand, it aims to drive necessary changes that promote more PhD students' focus on non-academic careers, creating significant value for research and innovation in the private sector.
Open Access
Guest editorial: Immersive telework: a new hybrid organizational model
(Emerald, 2024) Erro Garcés, Amaya; Belzunegui Eraso, Ángel; Pastor Gosálbez, Inma; López Peláez, Antonio; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
To expand the theoretical knowledge base and provide a better understanding of telework since the pandemic, we launched a special call for papers on "Organizational behavior since COVID-19: teleworking and organizational challenges since the pandemic".
Open Access
Digital social work
(SAGE, 2024-08-05) López Peláez, Antonio; Kalenda Vávrová, Soňa; Gojová, Alice; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Acebes Valentín, Rafael; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Social interaction through technology, professional intervention through digital tools, and reorganization of public and private organizations to digitalize their procedures and work with reliable and robust data are three processes that coexist and feed off each other, giving rise to the development of what has been called digital social work. In this article, we briefly analyze some of the characteristics of digital social work, the challenges faced in digitalized societies, and the broadening of the debate on digital divide, which goes beyond access issues, and focuses on what is now considered a key challenge for social welfare: digital vulnerability.
Open Access
Más allá de las competencias digitales en eHealth: un nuevo modelo de liderazgo digital
(Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas, 2024) Erro Garcés, Amaya; López Peláez, Antonio; Pérez García, Raquel María; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Sociología y Trabajo Social; Soziologia eta Gizarte Lana
El artículo analiza el impacto de la digitalización en el sector sanitario, una tendencia acelerada por la pandemia del COVID-19. La pandemia de COVID-19 ha sido un acelerador de cambios, haciendo evidente la necesidad de competencias digitales avanzadas en todos los niveles del sistema sanitario. La investigación se basa en el método Delphi para identificar las competencias digitales necesarias y los retos futuros en la digitalización del sector de la salud. Los autores destacan la necesidad de un liderazgo adecuado que facilite la adaptación organizativa y cultural en este contexto, resaltando la importancia de las competencias digitales no solo en los profesionales de la salud, sino también en los pacientes para gestionar sus propios cuidados de manera más eficiente.
Open Access
Young people, social workers and social work education: the role of digital skills
(Routledge, 2020) López Peláez, Antonio; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Gómez Ciriano, Emilio José; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
This paper addresses a key issue in the development of youth-focused social work: the role of digital skills in the relationship between young people and social workers who work with these native digital users. To this end, we analysed data from the International Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 and Eurostat. Information from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and a survey conducted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the British Association of Social Workers supported the empirical analysis. The main findings reveal a gap between the level of digital skills required in the labour market and the actual level of digital skills in both young people and social workers, despite efforts by both groups to improve their skills. Initiatives to foster digital skills are therefore recommended to bridge this digital divide. Lastly, it was concluded that both groups could act as mutual drivers of digital transformation.
Open Access
Social work, solidarity economy and decent work
(SAGE, 2023) López Peláez, Antonio; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Aramendia Muneta, María Elena; Ramírez Navarro, José Manuel; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Eradicating poverty is a fundamental objective of social work, both at local and at global levels. After COVID-19, the United Nations Commission for Social Development and Sustainable Development Goals, the global agenda developed by the International Association of Schools of Social Work, the International Council on Social Welfare and the International Federation of Social Workers have placed the fight against poverty and the role of decent work at the forefront of the public agenda. We analyse most recent publications on decent work, highlighting two strategies to promote poverty eradication from social work: participation and education.
Open Access
Poverty, social work, and social intervention: decent work as a strategy to overcome poverty after the Covid-19
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2023) López Peláez, Antonio; Aramendia Muneta, María Elena; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Social workers worldwide must be concerned about how to overcome poverty after the COVID-19. The 61st Session of United Nations Commission for Social Development has highlighted decent work as a priority for social workers and social welfare practitioners after de COVID-19. Decent work is a key strategy to overcome poverty in the post-pandemic time. A systematic review of the literature revealed 225 articles from 2020 on this topic. The descriptors were social work, decent work, good work, decent job, good job, decent employment, and good employment. The results obtained allow us to establish some recommendations to address poverty from the perspective of social work, designing intervention strategies to overcome inequalities.
Open Access
Superdiversity and social policies in a complex society: social challenges in the 21st century
(SAGE, 2021) López Peláez, Antonio; Aguilar Tablada, María Victoria; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Pérez García, Raquel María; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
La superdiversidad es una característica de las sociedades contemporáneas que afecta a los procesos de cambio social y las políticas sociales. Utilizando métodos de metaanálisis, este artículo revisa el tratamiento de la superdiversidad en la literatura para informar mejor las políticas sociales desde una perspectiva sociológica. Un rastreo de la literatura en inglés y español recopiló 76 artículos con diferentes enfoques metodológicos durante el período 2007-2019. Los descriptores de la búsqueda fueron superdiversidad, diversidad cultural, flujos migratorios, migración global, cambios de población, interacciones sociales, cambio social, complejidad social, cuidados, política social, contextos superdiversos, edad, género y migrantes. Los principales resultados son la identificación de claves para informar las políticas sociales y promover un cambio social sostenible en consonancia con la realidad social actual.
Open Access
Food security and social protection in times of COVID-19
(SAGE, 2022) Erro Garcés, Amaya; López Peláez, Antonio; Pérez García, Raquel María; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
From the perspective of social work, it is important to analyse food insecurity before and during the COVID-19, identify the best practices and how social work can contribute to improving living conditions. Using a meta-analysis, this article reviews how food security is addressed in the literature to better inform social policies from a social work perspective. A search of the literature revealed 217 articles between 2010 and 2021. The descriptors for the search were food security, food aid and social work. The main results are the identification of key aspects to inform social policies and promote sustainable social change worldwide.
Open Access
Social networking sites and youth transition: the use of Facebook and personal well-being of social work young graduates
(Frontiers Media, 2020) Castillo de Mesa, Joaquín; Gómez Jacinto, Luis; López Peláez, Antonio; Erro Garcés, Amaya; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
Research on youth transitions, and the well-being of young people, has to take into consideration the digital context in which they are immersed. Digital interaction of young people increase year by year, social networking sites play a key role in their personal and professional relationships, and a very high percentage of jobs require digital skills. According to Eurostat (2019), participating on social networking sites (one of the most common online activities in the EU-28), is growing every year [more than half (56%) of individuals aged 16–74 used the internet for social networking sites], and this percentage increases among the younger generations. In this article, we present the results of our research on the digital skills and well-being of young people on Facebook, based on a survey with a sample of 126 young people graduated from the University of Málaga (School of Social Work) (Spain). Based on certain scales, the level of digital skills that students have on Facebook was measured, considering strategic aspects for information search, level of use and presence of Facebook in life, maintenance of relations and tolerance to diversity. Variables of psychosocial well-being were also measured (social capital, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and personal well-being). Variables of digital skills on Facebook were subsequently related to well-being variables. Results show that certain digital skills relate to the well-being of young people. In this sense, we deem it crucial to develop education policies that could provide young graduates with general digital skills to be used on social networking sites.