IESE Business School

In recent years, businesses have come to play a key role in the development of nations.  Today, virtually all social life revolves around business activity in some way or another, and businesses are universally recognized as a generating source of wealth and well-being.

Innovative technology has revolutionized the field of the production of goods and services, bringing with it new forms for understanding business and its activities.  This transformation of business, which accelerates every day, requires new frameworks and ways of thinking in the areas of social and labor relations that respond to current problems and provide adequate channels and approaches to more properly address the concerns and aspirations of different people and social groups.

The growing importance that human resources and labor relations have acquired for the present and future of our society, especially in the area of business, inspired the academic institution IESE, and the business SEAT, to work together and pool their resources in 1988 in order to promote better understanding and social development. 

The contribution of new ideas and approaches that help produce improvements in the area of labor relations constitutes the basic nucleus of the Chair’s activity.

• Help develop a new model for labor relations in business that fully addresses the economic and social realities of present-day Europe.
• Promote an integrated vision for staff performance as a part of business strategy.
• Develop the design of a human and work strategy, incorporated into the general strategy of businesses, which takes into account the current realities in Spain and their evolution in the future.
• Strengthen the proper channels that increase awareness and support at the European level of new frameworks for action in the field of labor relations.

Dr. Sandalio Gómez, SEAT Chair of Labor Relations, is also Director of the Department of Management of People in Organizations, and Director of the program for continuing educations sessions in Madrid, Spain. Dr. Gómez is Professor of Management of People in Organizations at IESE, and Honorary Professor at the Universidad Austral de Buenos Aires (Argentina).

His main areas of interest are people management, and human resources and labor relations strategies.

Sandalio Gómez has published numerous case studies (Firestone, McDonald’s, Bayer, Expansión, NH), technical notes and research documents (“A New Concept for Work and People in Businesses of the 21st Century”), as well as books such as Labor Relations in Europe, Toward a European Board of Directors, and People and Work in Businesses of the 21st Century.

The Labor Relations Advisory Board has the following functions: 

1. Serve as a forum for study on the current situation of labor relations and human resources.

2. Encourage research in labor relations in Spain and the European Union.

3. Promote meetings and dialogue between academics, businessmen and experts in social and labor issues.

4. Advise, support and distribute its studies on social and labor policies.

Members of the Advisory Board:

• Miguel Canalejo, Alcatel España                             
• Baldomero Falcones, President, Santander Central Hispano Seguros & Reaseguros, S.A.
• Santiago García-Echevarría, Chair – The Political Economy of Business, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares
• José Mª Gil-Robles, European Parliament Member, Ex–President of the European Parliament
• Antonio Gutiérrez, Advisor, Caja Madrid Foundation, Ex–Secretary General, CC.OO.
• Ramón Paredes, Executive Vice-president of Human Resources, SEAT
• Manuel Pimentel, President, Asoc. Foro Nueva Sociedad Nuevas Propuestas, Ex–Minister of Labor, Spain
• Juan Rivero, Chair of Labor Law, Universidad de Zaragoza
• Juan Antonio Sagardoy, Chair of Labor Law, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
• Juan José Toribio, Professor of Economic Analysis for Management, and Director of IESE Madrid
• Enrique Used, President, Amper
• José María Vila, General Manager of Human Resources, Saint-Gobain Cristalería, S.A.
• Rafael Villaseca, General Manager, Panrico

Secretary: Carlos Martí, Research Assistant to SEAT/IESE Chair of Labor Relations

Since its inception, the Chair has developed its activities with a special emphasis in the following areas of research:

• Part-time work in Europe
• Early retirement and its impact on businesses, people and the pension system
• Implications of the incorporation of women in the labor market and structural means for work-family balance
• Work systems and their impact on human resources and labor relations policies
• Participation in businesses
• Professional compensation (salaries) and development systems
• Labor relations in Europe
• The future of labor unions

In order to improve the outreach and quality of its research, the SEAT Chair of Labor Relations has developed a number of different educational and promotional activities, including:

Annual Conference on Labor Relations in Europe

The 3rd Annual Conference on Labor Relations in Europe took place on February 25, 2004 in Madrid, Spain.  During the conference the results of the study “The Incorporation of Women in the Labor Market: Personal, Family and Professional Implications, & Structural Means for Improving Work-Family Balance.”

National and International Seminars

• Labor Relations in Europe throughout the 1990s, Madrid
• Towards a New Form of Labor Union in Europe, Madrid
• Business Management Compensation (Salaries) and Education, Buenos Aires
• Integration of Staff in Businesses, Madrid, Barcelona & Buenos Aires
• From Quality Circles to Participation Groups, Barcelona
• Teamwork: A New Concept for Participation, Madrid & Lisboa
• The Challenges and Future of Labor Unions, Madrid
• Ground Zero Collective Bargaining, Barcelona & Madrid
• How to Implement Change in Your Organization, Madrid, Barcelona & Lisboa
• Human Resources in 21st Century Businesses, Madrid, Barcelona & México
• Managing People in Spain and Latin America, Miami, May 2003

Open Classroom

Sessions are geared towards human resources and labor relations directors and will focus on cases highly relevant to businesses.

IESE Continuing Education Sessions