Informal Learning at Work

Triggers, Antecedents, and Consequences

Gerhard Messmann, Mien Segers, Filip Dochy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781315441948
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Informal Learning at Work reflects the growing interest in changing the way the workplace encourages and enhances learning and professional development. Due to societal, economic, and technological developments, organisations face the pressure of growing knowledge-intensity and the need for innovations. As a result, employees are expected to adapt to new situations and constantly update their skillsets within an increasingly challenging environment. This book brings together cross-disciplinary perspectives from leading international researchers, drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical studies.

Extensively researched and expertly edited, this new addition to the EARLI New Perspectives on Learning and Instruction series outlines the starting points for future research, and highlights the benefits and implications for those aiming to foster informal learning at work, covering areas such as:

• 
  
  

• professional judgement
• improving the structure of work tasks
• facilitating innovative work behaviour
• the place of informal learning within teaching

Informal Learning at Work presents original quantitative and qualitative studies as well as integrative analyses of worldwide research and is an invaluable introduction to this highly topical subject.

1
EMERGENCE, THEORETICAL FOUNDATION, AND CONCEPTUALISATION OF INFORMAL LEARNING AT WORK

Mien Segers,¹ Gerhard Messmann,² and Filip Dochy³

For many decades the topic of Learning and Development of professionals has been on the agenda of chief learning officers, learning consultants, professional trainers, managers, and staff members of human resource (HR) and human resource development (HRD) departments as well as scholars in the academic community. To an increasing extent, Learning and Development is defined and implemented as a valuable resource for organisational and employee success. The rise of interests in Learning and Development is linked to work and organisational developments in Western countries, in particular to the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial society. Its conceptualisation in terms of why, what, how, and for whom has been evolving correspondingly.

In rural society with limited school attendance and the phenomenon that most of the working-class population had to learn their job by doing, a well-developed system of apprenticeship offered important learning opportunities. Later on, this system of workplace learning – and the experiential knowledge about this system that was available – lost its status and was overruled by the upcoming formal school system. In industrial society, the core reason for providing Learning and Development was to ensure that employees possess the knowledge and skills they need for carrying out their daily work tasks. However, as organisations were confronted with increasing knowledge-intensity and need for innovations due to societal, economic, and technological developments, the work tasks became more and more complex. Consequently, organisations expected their employees to develop the necessary knowledge and skills for flexibly adapting to and anticipating the rapidly changing requirements of complex work situations and tasks. This was achieved through proper and systematic implementation of employee Training and Development programmes. The need for Training and Development was determined by the employee’s knowledge and skills deficiency or obsolescence with respect to the work tasks to be conducted. These work tasks were defined as specifically as possible (see the ‘scientific organisation and management’ ideology), and therefore, a narrow conception of skills training was the mainstream approach and Skinner’s theory of learning as drill offered a rationale.

The transition to a post-industrial society was characterised by a high value on knowledge as the source of innovation and competitive advantage. Organisations had to deal with knowledge and technological advancements at an even faster speed than before, as well as with increasing global competitiveness. Certainly, these more complex processes and products required another concept of learning than the previous skills training. With respect to the ongoing changes organisations are facing, Roffe argued:

They [the changes] are discontinuous and not part of a pattern; it is the little, unnoticed changes that make the biggest differences to our lives and the change in the way we work will make the biggest difference to the way we live; and discontinuous change requires discontinuous “upside-down” thinking to deal with it.

1999: 224

In this context of discontinuous change, employees are described as the organisations’ main asset: they help the organisation to accomplish successive growth and make it possible that current and forthcoming changes are turned into opportunities for realising a competitive advantage. In the same vein, new concepts with respect to work organisation have become popular, such as functional flexibility, stressing the importance of employees who can fulfil different tasks, roles, and functions to meet ongoing changes in their daily work (Van Den Berg & Van Der Velde, 2005).

The new landscape described above has been slowly influencing organisations’ human resource management (HRM) systems. Based on a literature review, Soderquist, Papalexandris, Ioannou, and Prastacos (2010) argue that current “HRM processes need to be centred on the flexible and dynamic deployment of employees’ competences, rather than on task-related and pre-defined sets of qualifications, as traditionally has been the case” (p. 326). Today, the key question refers to the competences that superior performers possess in order to successfully execute a range of activities (e.g., in projects, inter-functional teams, or problem-solving task forces): “In this context, competences differ from KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other characteristics) in that they shift the level of analysis from the job and its associated tasks, to the person and what he or she is capable of” (p. 327).

The transition from job-based HRM systems to competence-based HRM systems has been reinforcing the re-conceptualisation of Learning and Development in organisations. It is argued that Leaning and Development practices should encompass a wider variety of learning opportunities for employees than traditional Training and Development programmes (e.g., Manuti, Pastore, Scardigno, Giancaspro, & Morciano, 2015). In this respect, the concepts of workplace learning and work-related learning became popular again, but in a different context than before in the rural society. For Manuti et al. (2015), workplace learning refers to “the process that engages individuals in training programmes, education and development courses as well as experiential learning for the purpose of acquiring and/or implementing competences necessary to meet organisational demands” (p. 134). A similar definition is proposed by Kyndt and Baert who define work-related learning as

… the engagement in formal and informal learning activities both on and off the job, whereby employees and groups of employees acquire and/or improve competences (integrated knowledge, skills, and attitudes) that change individuals’ present and future professional achievement (and eventually also their career) and organisational performance.

2013, p. 275

Theoretical foundations of learning for and at work

The trend towards broadening the scope of employee development from a focus on training to an increasing consideration of the workplace as a resource for work-related learning is reflected in the learning theories that have been developed or adopted to address learning for and at work since the 1970s until today (Dochy, Gijbels, Segers, & Van den Bossche, 2011).

Foundational theories of learning for and at work

During the 1970s and 1980s, in order to explain learning behaviours and processes of adults/professionals, pivotal scholars such as Kolb, Mezirow, and Schön developed learning theories which became prominent in the workplace learning literature. Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory (which was first presented in 1975 and further developed in the 1990s) describes experience as a main source of learning and outlines multiple interdependent sources and paths of making and processing experiences. In a similar vein, Mezirow’s (1990) transformational learning theory (which was first articulated in 1978 and further developed in the 1990s) focuses on meaning making, and addresses experience and corresponding critical reflection as core learning processes. Likewise, Schön (1983) emphasises the importance of reflection by introducing reflection-in-action. Portraying the reflective practitioner, he describes the rather intuitive behaviour of professionals when they adjust their actions immediately as they happen. In addition, building on Kolb’s theory, Boud and Walker (1990) stress reflection as one of the key processes in learning from experience. Moreover, in the 1990s, Lave and Wenger (1991) provided a socio-cultural perspective on learning. Their situated learning theory depicts learning as an integral and inseparable part of social practice taking place in the real world.

In addition to the domain of adult and workplace learning, other strands of research provide theoretical perspectives on workplace learning, for example cognitive theories of information processing. In his theory of the Adaptive Control of Thought, Anderson (1982) presents a stage model relating to the development of professional performance through the acquisition, compilation, and tuning of knowledge and skills. Also focusing on professional performance, the theory of case-based reasoning by Kolodner (1992) describes how individuals can adjust and improve their levels of knowledge and performance through a cyclical process of retrieving, reusing, revising, and retaining experiences with similar situations and tasks. Another example is the theory of deliberate practice developed in the domain of expertise development. Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer (1993) provide an account which describes how people become professionals through deliberate practice, involving a concerted programme of excessive practice and guidance.

In addition to the aforementioned theories addressing individual professional learning, some theories focus on learning at the level of teams and organisations. A well-established example is the theory of expansive learning by Engeström (1987) which describes learning as a series of cycles, involving questioning existing standards of practice, analysing contradictions in practice, and modelling a vision for a zone of proximal development of practice. In addition, learning is defined as examining and implementing this new model of practice in organisational life in order to attain High Impact Learning that lasts (HILL) (Dochy & Segers, 2017). Likewise, in their theory of organisational learning, Argyris and Schön (1996) present two contrasting ways of coping with errors through reflection. That is, learning either includes the detection and correction of errors within the range of existing routines (i.e., single-loop learning), or it contains an additional evaluation (and potential re-definition) of underlying values, norms, and goals (i.e., double-loop learning).

Commonalities and complementarities among theories of learning for and at work

The outlined theories have many commonalities and/or are complementary regarding the phenomena they are able to explain. Firstly, all theories share the view that learning for and at work does not happen in isolation but is embedded within the context of daily work practice. This includes, on the one hand, an inextricable relation to the engagement in work tasks and, on the other hand, the relation to other persons with whom information is shared, problems are discussed, and solutions are created.

Secondly, with the exception of the outlined cognitive theories (i.e., Anderson, Kolodner), all theories more or less explicitly contain both concrete physical activities and cognitive activities (often termed “reflection”). While physical activities can be any learning activities that lead to new information or new experiences, cognitive activities refer to all mental operations through which individuals process information and experiences and, thus, actually learn in the sense of altering mental representations.

Thirdly, concerning complementarity, theories which take an activity perspective on learning (e.g., Kolb) lack an explication of the cognitive processes that take place when individuals reflect on new information or new experiences. This gap can be closed by theories which take a cognitive perspective on learning (e.g., Anderson). That is, these theories explicitly address the mental operations that take place when individuals reflect on existing information and experiences in order to facilitate the accomplishment of a current task or, subsequently, when they reflect on new information and experiences that result from their engagement in this current task.

Fourthly, a combined view of the theories shows the broad range of behaviours that immediately or indirectly refer to reflection. Different terms that are used in the theories to refer to reflection include critical reflection, reflective observation, reflection-in-action, single/double-loop-learning, or case-based reasoning. The theories thus inform about the variety of purposes for which reflection is used at work. These purposes of reflection may relate to aspects such as looking back versus looking ahead, examining products versus processes, or questioning something deeply versus at the surface.

Fifthly, the combination of the different theories also shows that learning for and at work is a cyclical process with different physical and corresponding mental or cognitive steps towards knowledge and performance development. This conjunction of physical and cognitive activities and, thus, of making and processing information and experiences is exemplified in learning behaviours such as critical questioning of practice, or detecting and analysing errors.

Sixthly, the theories are furthermore complementary in the sense that they do cover learning at different levels. That is, some theories focus on learning that takes place at the individual level (i.e., Anderson; Boud & Walker; Ericsson et al., Kolb, Kolodner, Mezirow, Schön), while other theories focus on learning at group and/or organisational level (i.e., Argyris & Schön; Engeström; Lave & Wenger).

Finally, one could state that the outlined theories are also complementary in the types of learning outcomes they address. Some theories tackle beliefs, meanings, and perspectives (including becoming more critical, reflective, and open; see Boud & Walker, Mezirow, Kolb). Others refer to knowledge and skills or competences as learning outcomes. A third group of theories is more concerned with the development of learning organisations, including the creation of new knowledge, the identification of new problems, and the development of innovative solutions for existing problems (i.e., Argyris & Schön, Engeström).

Although most of the above mentioned theories originated from the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, in research as well as in practice, activities encompassed in work-related learning have been mainly related to formal training. This is illustrated by the vast amount of research dedicated to the topic of transfer of training. Since the first review study on transfer of training by Baldwin and Ford (1988), more than thirty review studies have been published. However, as a consequence of the changing internal and external environment of organisations as described above, a growing number of scholarly as well as popular articles have stressed that people learn for work not only through formal education but by doing the job itself. Co-operating and interacting with col...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Emergence, theoretical foundation, and conceptualisation of informal learning at work
• 2 Antecedents of informal workplace learning: a theoretical study
• 3 Effects of complexity of work tasks on informal learning at work in the IT domain
• 4 Deliberate practice as a lever for professional judgement: lessons from informal workplace learning
• 5 Informal learning at work as a facilitator of employees’ innovative work behaviour
• 6 Vital but neglected: the informal learning of new teachers in Scotland
• 7 The potential and paradox of informal learning
• 8 Informal learning at work: what do we know more and understand better?
• Index