The need to implement advanced approaches to protect the environment is forcing companies to refocus their internal procedures and actions. To match employees' capabilities and the organization itself to these new requirements, the human resource management department can offer some key tools. This article analyzes whether environmental training (ET) and organizational learning (OL) positively influence the development of proactive environmental strategies (PESs) and compares the two processes, which differ in the time, costs, and difficulty required to implement them. Companies in the tourism sector are currently facing a highly dynamic environment where innovativeness is a decisive factor for achieving competitiveness. As such, we analyze whether the presence or absence of innovativeness influences the development of these two mechanisms. Using a sample of 252 tourism companies, we tested these relationships using structural equation modeling. The findings showed that (1) innovativeness is an antecedent of implementing ET and OL in the companies sampled, (2) both mechanisms promote implementing PESs, and (3) ET is equally as effective as OL for this purpose. Managers should take these findings into account when deciding which mechanism to apply when striving to achieve environmental proactivity.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of one of the more widespread techniques for personnel development and training: coaching. This technique in the business context entails boosting of a manager's capabilities so as to improve business results through a combination of experience, knowledge, support and the motivation provided by advisers who specialize in business management.Design/methodology/approachTo analyze the effectiveness of this innovative technique, the authors examined a sample of 40 small companies located in Ceuta (an autonomous Spanish city in North Africa) using a Wilcoxon‐Mann‐Whitney test. Participants were divided into two groups; in one group, an individualized audit process was conducted to obtain an actual picture of managerial practices (focusing on needs and corrective measures). In the other group, an advising process also complemented a coaching phase that was implemented to facilitate employee adoption of the proposed measures. Ultimately, differences between these two groups were found.FindingsResults indicate that coaching substantially increases the level to which processes of improvement are established within organizations, consequently increasing the competitive capability.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the potential benefits of the use of coaching in the business context. Coaching facilitates the implementation of a set of improvement measures designed to increase business competitiveness, suggesting that this type of advising stands to be very beneficial for companies.Originality/valuePractices that lead to the development of human capital in organizations are basic tools for managers that are becoming increasingly essential for achieving business efficiency and strategic change. The paper analyzes the implementation of coaching in the business arena, specifically in the case of managers, which is a novelty given the dearth of empirical research on coaching. Thus, the results of the paper provide the wider academic community with empirical evidence on how coaching is a profitable practice for improving human resource management.

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