How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Men and Women of the Corporation

A detailed review of the education sector in Australia as in the data provided by the 2006 edition of the OECD's annual publication, 'Education at a Glance' is presented. While the data has shown that in almost all OECD countries educational attainment levels are on the rise, with countries showing impressive gains in university qualifications, it also reveals that a large of share of young people still do not complete secondary school, which remains a baseline for successful entry into the labour market.

/pdf/education-at-a-glance-m5vl7o68j5.pdf

Education at a Glance

This article reports a meta-analysis of personality-academic performance relationships, based on the 5-factor model, in which cumulative sample sizes ranged to over 70,000. Most analyzed studies came from the tertiary level of education, but there were similar aggregate samples from secondary and tertiary education. There was a comparatively smaller sample derived from studies at the primary level. Academic performance was found to correlate significantly with Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness. Where tested, correlations between Conscientiousness and academic performance were largely independent of intelligence. When secondary academic performance was controlled for, Conscientiousness added as much to the prediction of tertiary academic performance as did intelligence. Strong evidence was found for moderators of correlations. Academic level (primary, secondary, or tertiary), average age of participant, and the interaction between academic level and age significantly moderated correlations with academic performance. Possible explanations for these moderator effects are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.

/pdf/a-meta-analysis-of-the-five-factor-model-of-personality-and-pfzsbphxto.pdf

A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance.

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w18121/w18121.pdf

Hard evidence on soft skills

https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/35844382/Velden_2015_Skills_and_the_Graduate.pdf

Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments

/pdf/the-integration-of-young-people-into-the-labour-market-the-3jnjkbj6k6.pdf

The integration of young people into the labour market: the role of training systems and labour market regulation

Acknowledgements.- Editors.- Contributors.- Management summary.- 1. Introduction Jim Allen and Rolf van der Velden_ 1.1 The policy context_ 1.2 The REFLEX project_ 1.3 Trends and demands_ 1.4 Methods and data_ 1.5 Structure of the report_ References_ Appendix 1.1 First and second level programmes per country.- 2. The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society Rolf van der Velden and Jim Allen_ 2.1 Introduction_ 2.2 The demands from the world of work_ 2.3 On the role of higher education in preparing graduates for the labour market_ 2.4 The effects of programme characteristics on competences_ 2.5 Does higher education provide a good basis to enter the labour market?_ 2.6 Conclusions_References.- 3. The Professional Work of Graduates Harald Schomburg_ 3.1 What makes a profession?_ 3.2 Who is working as a "professional"?_ 3.3 The role of professional knowledge_ 3.4 Professional role and professional identity_ 3.5 Professions and power_ 3.6 Discussion of results_ References_ Appendix 3.1 Mapping of 3-digit ISCO occupational codes to typology of professions.- 4. "Being Flexible": Graduates Facing Changes in Their Work Environment Julien Calmand, Michela Frontini and Michele Rostan_ 4.1 The changing work environment of European graduates_ 4.2 Outline of the chapter_ 4.3 Changes in graduates' work and employment situation_ 4.4 Employment mobility in graduates' early career_ 4.5 The impact of employment mobility on graduates' competences_ 4.6 Employment mobility as a way to get a good job_ 4.7 Graduates facing temporary work_ 4.8 Functional flexibility in graduate employment and work_ 4.9 Functional flexibility, competences, and higher education_ 4.10 Conclusions: two different ways of being flexible_ References.- 5. The Graduates in the Knowledge and Innovation Society Jean-Jacques Paul_ 5.1 Introduction_ 5.2 Some conceptual elements about innovation_ 5.3 What organisations are likely to be more innovative?_ 5.4 The place and the role of graduates regarding innovation_ 5.5 Are graduates equipped for innovation?_ 5.6 Innovation, occupations and rewards_ 5.7 Conclusions_References_Appendix 5.1 To what extent innovative activities are related to a specific working environment?.- 6. Mobilization of Human Resources Jim Allen_ 6.1 Clarifying concepts_ 6.2 Mobilization of human resources during higher education_ 6.3 Higher education as producer of "mobilization" competences_ 6.4 Mobilization of human resources after higher education_ 6.5 Determinants of utilization of own capacities_ 6.6 Determinants of mobilization of others' capacities_ 6.7 Conclusions_References.- 7. International Dimensions of Higher Education and Graduate Employment Ulrich Teichler_ 7.1 The growing relevance of international dimensions_ 7.2 International mobility_ 7.3 The impact of international mobility on employment and work_ 7.4 Foreign language proficiency_ 7.5 Internationally mobile careers compared to home careers_ 7.6 Concluding observations_ References.- 8. Winners and Losers Liv Anne Storen and Clara Ase Arnesen_ 8.1 Introduction_ 8.2 Labour market situation - match or mismatch_ 8.3 Wages_ 8.4 Work orientations_ 8.5 Job satisfaction_8.6 Summary and conclusions_ References_ Appendix 8.1 Definition of mismatch_ Appendix 8.2 The effect on wages of gender, grades, level of education, field of study, mismatch and type of job contract_ Appendix 8.3 Definition of winners and losers according to the graduates' response to the questions on work values and job characteristics (realization of work values).- 9. Conclusions and policy implications Rolf van der Velden and Jim Allen_ 9.1 General conclusions_ 9.2 Policy implications.- Index.

The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society: New Challenges for Higher Education

https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/954527/guid-1ddf745a-3437-4ee8-bdcd-aa747fcbdca3-ASSET1.0

The training of school-leavers

In this paper, we empirically explore how the often reported relationship between overeducation and wages can best be understood. Exploiting the newly published Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data (OECD 2013), we are able to achieve a better estimation of the classical ORU-model (Duncan and Hoffman, 1981), by controlling for heterogeneity of observable skills. Our findings suggest that 1) a considerable part of the effect of educational mismatches can be attributed to skills heterogeneity, and 2) that the extent to which skills explain educational mismatches varies by institutional contexts. These observations suggest that skills matter for explaining wage effects of education and educational mismatches, but the extent to which this is the case also depends on institutional contexts.

/pdf/educational-mismatches-and-skills-new-empirical-tests-of-old-1a40dnryy8.pdf

R.K.W. van der Velden

Papers

Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments

The integration of young people into the labour market: the role of training systems and labour market regulation

The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society: New Challenges for Higher Education

The training of school-leavers

Educational mismatches and skills: new empirical tests of old hypotheses