Workplace Learning Strategies Research Articles

AGEISM IN THE LABOR MARKET: LEARNING AND EDUCATION FOR OLDER ADULT JOB SEEKERS

Abstract Despite older workers’ value to an organization and no differences in job performance or productivity from younger workers (Rego et al., 2018), older job seekers encounter ageism in employment during their job search (Zaniboni et al., 2019). Ageism in employment and the workplace have detrimental effects on older job seekers, organizations, and society. Therefore, this conceptual paper explores the financial, emotional, psychological, and physical factors that should be considered when supporting older job seekers in navigating reeducation and learning to obtain employment. We collected and reviewed extant literature on this topic by consulting the following databases: EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and PubMed and using search terms such as “older adult,” “workplace,” “ageism,” “employment.” Ageist practices and stereotypes can occur at any stage of the employment process, including application, interview, hiring, training, job duties, benefits, downsizing, or termination. Older job seekers or employees may experience age discrimination in the workplace directly (e.g., if employers consider candidates cannot project the youthful image that the business desires, they may decline to offer the position) or indirectly (employers reject older applicants for a job because of their overqualification). We provide practical implications for older job seekers by exploring workplace learning strategies for older adults, including peer mentoring, intergenerational learning (Arthanat, 2019), proactive personality, and effective job search activity (Zacher, 2013). In addition, we discuss how older workers need to see the relevance of tasks to be individually motivated to learn and explore the need for personalized learning programs (Seo et al., 2019).

Workplace learning strategies, enablers, and challenges in the context of digital innovation

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to scrutinise individual learning strategies in their workplace when they were experiencing digital innovation. Moreover, the respective enablers and challenges of each category of strategies were explored to conceptualise supporting features needed in the digital learning environment.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a qualitative inquiry to understand employees’ workplace learning strategies and the respective enablers, and challenges in each category of strategies. Twenty employees across different industries were interviewed, and a two-cycle inductive coding analysis was adopted to identify the categories of learning strategies.FindingsFour categories of workplace learning strategies were identified: self-driven, social-leveraged, enterprise-oriented and information and technology-enhanced (IT-enhanced) strategies. Enablers and challenges of each category were also presented in this study.Practical implicationsThe findings provide insights for individuals to establish a repertoire of learning strategies. The inadequate use of IT-enhanced strategies is additionally addressed.Originality/valueThis study examined workplace learning strategies in the context of digital innovation. Based on the empirical findings and existing literature, this study proposes a framework with the supporting features for a digital learning environment.

Facing Disruptive Changes With Informal Workplace Learning Strategies: The Experience of European Companies.

Industries are currently experiencing several kinds of disruptive changes, including digital transformation and environmental and health emergencies. Despite intense discussion about disruptive changes in companies, the impact of such changes on workplace learning is still underexplored. In this study, we investigated the impact of disruptive changes on informal learning practices according to the perspectives of employers, employees and adult educators. Informal learning was operationalised along a continuum between organised informal learning (led by an instructor and intentional) and everyday informal learning (led by contextual factors, accidental, and unintentional). Fifty-five companies’ representatives (average age = 43.2 years; SD = 11) from three European countries (Finland, Switzerland, and Italy) and four industrial fields (bioeconomy, tourism, textile and building sectors) were interviewed. The interviews were further triangulated with questionnaires collected by employees from the same companies (N = 141; average age = 40.2 years, SD = 17.8). Questionnaire data were used to collect detailed information on individual informal workplace learning (IWL) strategies and digital technologies adopted in organised informal learning. The interview data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. A coding scheme was developed with five macro-categories organised into 23 sub-categories. Occurrence and co-occurrence analysis were performed to identify which individual and organisational factors and approaches support most learning, according to interviewees. Interviewees reported the possibility of interacting with colleagues and being autonomous as the main sources of everyday informal learning processes. Employees from the same companies reported model learning, vicarious feedback, and applying someone’s own ideas as the most frequent IWL strategies. Organised informal learning was mainly based on knowledge transfer, which reflects passive cognitive engagement by employees. Specifically, digital technologies in organised informal learning were poorly used for supporting reflection, constructive processes, and collaborative knowledge construction. The results suggest that participants believed that higher forms of cognitive engagement are possible only within face-to-face organised informal training or in everyday informal learning. Possible explanations of the results and practical implications are discussed.

Designing and Implementing a Novel Virtual Rounds Curriculum for Medical Students' Internal Medicine Clerkship During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

IntroductionDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, third-year medical students were temporarily unable to participate in onsite clinical activities. We identified the curricular components of an internal medicine (IM) clerkship that would be compromised if students learned solely from online didactics, case studies, and simulations (i.e., prerounding, oral presentations, diagnostic reasoning, and medical management discussions). Using these guiding principles, we created a virtual rounds (VR) curriculum to provide IM clerkship students with clinical exposure during a virtual learning period.MethodsHeld three times a week for 2 weeks, VR consisted of three curricular components. First, clerkship students prerounded on an assigned hospitalized patient by remotely accessing the electronic health record and calling into hospital rounds. Second, each student prepared an oral presentation on their assigned patient. Third, using videoconferencing, students delivered these oral presentations to telemedicine VR small groups consisting of three to four students and three tele-instructors. Tele-instructors then provided feedback on oral presentations and taught clinical concepts. We assessed the effectiveness of VR by anonymously surveying students and tele-instructors.ResultsTwenty-nine students and 34 volunteer tele-instructors participated in VR over four blocks. A majority of students felt VR improved their prerounding abilities (86%), oral presentation abilities (93%), and clinical reasoning skills (62%). All students found small group to be useful.DiscussionVR allowed students to practice rounding skills in a supportive team-based setting. The lessons learned from its implementation could facilitate education during future pandemics and could also supplement in-person clerkship education.

Peer and informal learning among hospital doctors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse everyday interactions in a workplace from the point of view of organisational learning, informal learning and peer learning, as well as the possible relationships that can be established between all three.Design/methodology/approachInsights from nine months of ethnographic study provided an operational definition of equality in an organisation, a better understanding of interactions and informal learning between peers, and about psycho-social determining factors or contexts that favour the exchange of knowledge in an organisation.FindingsThe findings demonstrate the importance of articulating the three elements (organisational learning, informal learning and peer learning) in a joint interpretative framework. With the results generated, it is proposed to move away from the traditional organisational learning based on knowledge and know-how, to a new perspective focused on sharing and participatory opportunities. In other words, without opportunities to participate, without the support and equal access, the fostering of informal learning can be debatable in terms of democracy.Originality/valueThe results bring the authors closer to being able to design workplace learning strategies that carefully includes the value of participation opportunities and the influence of a dynamic concept of equality. The ethnography in a hospital setting has allowed the authors to gain a better understanding of the contribution of informal learning to the organisation. The focus on the social context and the roles of relationships in informal learning offers new insights into a complex phenomenon.

How to design and deliver an inclusive workplace learning strategy

How to design and deliver an inclusive workplace learning strategy

Conditions for workplace learning in professional work

PurposeThis paper aims to examine and discuss learning conditions for teachers, in the context of choice and decentralisation reforms.Design/methodology/approachThis article is based on analyses of 30 interviews with Swedish upper secondary teachers focusing on their experiences of their conditions for learning.FindingsThis paper shows how teachers at upper secondary level identify their subjects as the most important to learn more within. Secondly, we also show that spatial and temporal aspects of organisation of work seem to influence the conditions for subject learning, where the interviewees in many ways contrast their own view to how they describe their work being organised.Research limitations/implicationsOur findings may have currency for other professional groups with similar governance-contexts, and teachers in other similar governance-contexts.Practical implicationsThese findings indicate the need to further develop workplace learning strategies founded upon the understanding of schools as workplaces, taking occupational values into account. Furthermore, these strategies should be seen as a core Human Resource Management issue, as they can potentially enhance the work environment, thus increasing the profession’s attractiveness.Originality/valueWe show that spatial and temporal aspects of organisation of work seem to influence the conditions for the sought after subject learning, and that the teachers and the school management seem to identify with different and clashing ideals in terms of what, when, how and with whom to learn.

Organisational metacognition: creating a culture of intentioned learning

Intentioned learning in the workplace is best influenced within a culture that explores both individual and organisational metacognitive awareness and practice. The purpose of this manuscript is to propose an emerging framework based on the Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS (ATLAS) Learning Strategy Spectrum that can be applied throughout an organisation to achieve specific workplace learning objectives at optimum performance, productivity and engagement levels. The ATLAS 4-Step Workplace Learning Strategy Framework can be used to guide organisational leaders and trainers through a culture-creating process designed to explore, identify and leverage individual and organisational metacognitive processes.

Workplace learning strategies and professional competencies in innovation contexts in Brazilian hospitals

Competencies mobilized by service providers form an element of hospital services insofar as scientific and technological procedures that are part of the service become tangible. In view of the fact that hospitals have adopted Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), it would be logical to assume that learning contributes towards acquiring competencies related to changes in hospitals resulting from the adoption of new technologies. This paper aims to analyze relationships between workplace learning strategies and professional competencies after the adoption of innovations supported ICT in hospitals. Eleven interviews were carried out with professionals from three different hospitals and identifying the professional competencies resulting from innovations supported by ICT. This was followed by a cross-sectional survey involving 425 employees at the hospitals surveyed. The data analysis was undertaken by means of structural equation modeling (SEM). The results confirm the hypothesis and indicate that the performance of professional competences based on new ICT is determined by the way the respondents think, change and apply their knowledge, skills and attitudes in the workplace by use of new information and communication technologies.

Strategies for employee learning in professional service firms: A study of community pharmacies in Australia

The study investigated employee learning strategies in community pharmacies in Australia and the factors that explain differences among pharmacies in the strategies employed. A qualitative methodology was applied, involving semi-structured interviews with owners, managers, or senior employees of 12 pharmacies. The findings revealed learning on-the-job as the most prevalent source of employee learning. Micro-size pharmacies enhanced employee learning through job variety, while in the small and medium-size pharmacies employee learning also occurred during staff meetings. Several formal employee workplace learning strategies were evident, especially among the small and medium-size pharmacies, and were complemented by compulsory and selected learning programs external to the pharmacies. Differences in employee learning strategies among the pharmacies appeared to be associated with size of the pharmacy, number of pharmacies owned by a pharmacist owner, association with a franchise group, previous management experience and goals of the pharmacist-owner, the owner’s role in the pharmacy, and employee attitude.

Workplace learning strategies, barriers, facilitators and outcomes: a qualitative study among human resource management practitioners

Recently the role of human resource management (HRM) practitioners has become more professionalized and more strategic. Consequently, HRM practitioners have had to develop new competencies in areas such as change management, influence and technology. Workplace learning, which is important for professional development, is examined for 13 HRM practitioners in government, healthcare, post-secondary education and business organizations in the Halifax Regional Municipality area. Of particular interest were learning strategies, barriers to and facilitators of learning and outcomes of learning. To obtain rich data, practitioners were interviewed face to face using an interview guide. Results indicated that these practitioners are mostly similar to other professional groups in terms of workplace learning, with a few key differences. The similarities and differences are presented, and implications of these findings for HRM practitioners and future directions for research are discussed.

Talking up learning at work: Cautionary tales in co‐opting everyday learning

Learning in workplaces is always mediated through talk. It is tempting for management to seek to utilise everyday talk as part of learning and therefore enhance productivity. This paper examines the responses of workers to interventions that aim to formalise informal conversations at work as part of an explicit workplace learning strategy. It draws on interviews with managers and workers in a public sector organisation to examine their experience of these practices. The paper raises questions about whether interventions in the name of fostering informal learning may well be hindering what they seek to promote.

Canadian accountants: examining workplace learning

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine workplace learning strategies, learning facilitators and learning barriers of public accountants in Canada across three professional levels – trainees, managers, and partners.Design/methodology/approachVolunteer participants from public accounting firms in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick completed a demographic survey, a learning activities survey, a learning barriers survey, and a learning facilitators survey. Quantitative analysis provided total scores for key variables and compared these across the three levels.FindingsThe paper finds that accountants across different levels use a variety of formal and informal learning strategies, although informal strategies predominate. Accountants encounter numerous facilitators and barriers. There are variations in strategies, barriers and facilitators based on professional level; for example, trainees make more use of e‐learning than do either managers or partners.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could focus on the efficacy of accountants' formal and informal learning strategies as well as how e‐learning can be appropriately managed and utilized.Practical implicationsAllocation of work and relationships with people are important to the learning process and should be considered in work assignments. One implication is to encourage informal learning and provide appropriate learning activities and feedback so that informal learning is maximized. There could also be more emphasis placed on assisting partners and managers in developing their roles as coaches and mentors.Originality/valueThe paper provides information on workplace learning for an understudied group of professionals in a Canadian context.

Workplace learning by action learning: a practical example

Leaders of organisations are seeking new ways of developing capacities in their organisations to learn and re‐learn. Describes an action learning approach to facilitating the implementation of a workplace learning strategy to assist a group of managers enhance their capacity to learn and respond to organisational issues more effectively. Outlines the methodology used and the attempt to measure behavioural and organisational performance improvements as a result of the intervention. Lessons learnt that may be useful to others responsible for implementing workplace learning are detailed.

Workplace Pedagogic Practices: Co–participation and Learning

This paper advances tentative bases for understanding workplace pedagogic practices. It draws on a series of studies examining learning through everyday work activities and guided learning in the workplace. These studies identified the contributions and limitations of these learning experiences. However, whether referring to the activities and interactions arising through work or intentional guided learning, the quality and likely contributions of these learning experiences are underpinned by workplace participatory practices. These practices comprise the reciprocal process of how workplaces afford participation and how individuals elect to engage with the work practice, termed co–participation. Workplace experiences are not informal. They are a product of the historical–cultural practices and situational factors that constitute the particular work practice, which in turn distributes opportunities for participation to individuals or cohorts of individuals. That is, they shape the conduct of work and learning through these practices. However, how individuals construe what is afforded by the workplace shapes how they elect to engage in that practice and learn. There is no separation between engaging in conscious thought – such as when participating in socially derived activities and interactions – and learning. Learning is conceptualised as an inter–psychological process of participation in social practices such as workplaces. It is not reserved for activities and interactions intentionally organised for learning (e.g. those in educational institutions). Nevertheless, particular kinds of activities are likely to have particular learning consequences, regardless of whether they occur in the workplace or in educational institutions. The significance of co–participation is discussed in terms of the affordance of the workplace and individuals’ construction of that affordance and subsequent engagement. Co–participation is proposed as a platform to build an understanding of workplace pedagogic practices. This includes understanding the likely contributions of learning through everyday work activities and the use of intentional workplace learning strategies, such as guided workplace learning (e.g. modelling, coaching, questioning, etc.). Instances of co–participatory practices are illustrated and discussed. Following this, a tentative scheme, founded in socio–historical activity theory, is advanced as a means for describing the requirements for work and bases for participation. The scheme comprises two dimensions: activities and interdependencies.