Higher education institutions are increasingly concerned with the professional insertion of graduates in the labour market and with the design of institutional mechanisms to facilitate students’ transition from higher education to work, particularly given the context of scarcity of financial resources and the rise of graduate unemployment. This issue has been addressed, inter alia, through the creation of study programmes with internships. Despite the public discourse encouraging the use of such strategies, there is a general consensus regarding the absence of empirical studies on the professional value of these strategies. This article aims to assess two interrelated questions: the extent to which measures of graduate unemployment rate tend to decrease after the introduction of internships in Portuguese study programmes; and the extent to which this effect applies to the different institutions that comprise the Portuguese tertiary education landscape. It also seeks to contribute to the debate on the relevance of the structure and nature of internships, which are factors frequently neglected in the literature.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the extent to which knowledge management (KM), customer satisfaction (CS) and organizational image (OI) discriminate quality-certified municipalities from non-certified ones (ISO 9001). Design/methodology/approach: An empirical study was carried out involving 81 Portuguese municipalities (40 certified, 41 non-certified), paired in a random sampling procedure. The Knowledge Management Questionnaire (n=1,372 municipality employees), the Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Organizational Image Questionnaire (n=3,096 residents) were applied. Multiple discriminant analysis was performed. Findings: The results indicate that certified and non-certified municipalities are distinct based on a function that considers KM (competitive orientation and formal KM practices), CS (intangible and tangible factors) and OI (favorable image). Research limitations/implications: The findings need further validation in other countries. However, the results highlight the importance of quality certification for both employees and residents. Practical implications: The results encourage local public administration organizations to introduce and maintain quality certification. Originality/value: This research is the only one, to the authors’ knowledge, that simultaneously explores organizational processes of KM, CS and OI in local public administration. The sampling procedure and the information from diverse data sources are unique contributions. The conclusions may aid practitioners and scholars in understanding these organizational phenomena in the context of quality-certified and quality non-certified municipalities.

A third version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III) was developed internationally aiming to respond to new trends in working conditions, theoretical concepts, and international experience. This article aims to present the preliminary validation studies for the Portuguese middle version of COPSOQ III. This is an exploratory cross-sectional study viewing the cross-cultural adaption of COPSOQ III to Portugal, ensuring the contents and face validity and performing field-testing in order to reduce the number of items and to obtain insight into the data structure, through classic test theory and item response theory approaches. The qualitative study encompassed 29 participants and the quantitative one 659 participants from municipalities and healthcare settings. Content analysis suggested that minor re-wording could improve the face validity of items, while a reduced version, with 85 items, shows psychometric stability, achieving good internal consistency in all subscales. The COPSOQ III Portuguese middle version proved to be a valid preliminary version for future validation studies with various populations, able to be used in correlational studies with other dimensions.

The European Commission has highlighted the development of entrepreneurship competence in lifelong learning skills. In this way, the present study aims to contribute towards fostering the intrapreneurial mindset in healthcare settings. The focus of attention is on the relationship between organizational structures and processes (work-related content and content, specifically psychosocial risk factors), as well as individual wellbeing factors (distress and resilient coping) that could be relevant not only for the promotion of organizational wellbeing, but also to ensure an intrapreneurship-friendly environment (through the promotion of self-efficacy). An empirical study was conducted involving 333 formal caregivers of healthcare services. Portuguese versions of the instruments Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), and Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III, medium version) were employed. Results show that resilience and distress (at the individual level), as well as role clarity, control over working time, and job insecurity (at the organizational level) are predisposing factors for self-efficacy, which are highlighted as essential to ensure an enabling environment for intrapreneurship and wellbeing. For practical consideration, we present an entrepreneurial mindset development strategy through the implementation of cause-related marketing as a pedagogical tool for entrepreneurship within the organization, which allows for experimentation and the necessary creative flexibility.

Curricular internships are increasingly seen as an effective strategy capable of contributing to the objectives and targets of the sustainable development paradigm, both in its social, economic and institutional dimensions. This positive outlook is ingrained within the large bulk of existing research, which has been focused on the discussion of positive outputs, such as the enhancement of graduates′ competences (employability) and their work integration (employment). An important, albeit relatively unexplored, feature of the sustainable institutional politics of curricular internship management pertains to the assessment of its associated liabilities and tensions. This article seeks to address this challenge, by analyzing two interrelated dimensions. First, it seeks to understand the internship processes ranging from the planning to the implementation stages. Second, it elicits the associated negative aspects (the ‘lunar side’) of internships, allowing for an assessment of the features where there is room for improvement. Empirically, this article draws on in-depth qualitative research. It presents the results of four focus groups, voicing the perceptions of top management structures and students involving first cycle degrees in the areas of Marketing, Management, and Accounting from four public Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)-three polytechnics and one university. Findings confirm the general positive outlook of internships. Perceived negative perspectives report to both internal problems (such as the lack of institutional support and curricular design) and external problems (e.g., the shortage of suitable internship placements), constituting barriers towards sustainable institutional policies and strategies. Adaptive strategies to overcome specific difficulties are highlighted (e.g., establishment of advisory committees with local businessmen). Finally, recommendations regarding curricular internship management at HEIs are delineated (e.g., investment in monitoring and evaluation strategies of internships).