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The role of brokers in a workplace development programme targeting SMEs

Agneta Halvarsson Lundkvist (Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden)
Maria Gustavsson (Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University and Helix Competence Centre, Linköping, Sweden)

European Journal of Training and Development

ISSN: 2046-9012

Article publication date: 10 September 2018

Issue publication date: 29 October 2018

167

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of a workplace development programme (WPDP) targeting small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) by focussing on the people who acted as brokers providing cross-boundary connections between its collaborating partners.

Design/methodology/approach

The material, from interviews with 32 individuals and 11 meetings, was analysed in a boundary-crossing framework, which provided tools to reveal how the roles of brokers at different levels (operative, strategic and national) of the WPDP affected its development.

Findings

The findings indicate that cross-boundary connections were made by persons who acted as brokers within and between different levels of the WPDP. The brokers who provided cross-boundary connections between different levels of the WPDP were found to play the most important role for the prompt development of the WPDP.

Originality/value

Apart from unique empirical material depicting the development of a collaborative venture between national and regional stakeholders of the manufacturing industry, the value of this study is the attention given to the people behind the policymaking of publicly funded national WPDPs, revealing the complex business of developing policy-driven competence development activities to employees in SMEs.

Keywords

Citation

Halvarsson Lundkvist, A. and Gustavsson, M. (2018), "The role of brokers in a workplace development programme targeting SMEs", European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 42 No. 7/8, pp. 417-434. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-04-2018-0037

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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