Editorial

Citation

Kekäle, T. and Cervai, S. (2015), "Editorial", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-03-2015-0018

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Workplace Learning, Volume 27, Issue 4

In the great variety of articles sent to us, one type of organization comes on top year after year as the most popular environment in which to study workplace learning. There seems to be very many interesting things going on in healthcare organizations around the world. While we must couple together quite different organizations for “high-tech organizations” theme as in past issue, there is a steady stream of good research to workplace learning conducted in healthcare settings. This issue presents some of the most recent papers submitted to us for consideration and publication.

In the first article in this issue, Christine Grill et al. report on the experiences from one promising method for workplace learning, dialogue intervention. These experiences include four dialogue-learning processes and three dialogue-promoting communicative actions developed, which she explains further in the very readable paper. Our workplace learning theory mind was caught especially in the importance of reflection (“expressing and problematizing brought dialogue awareness”) and the need for a holistic view (“multiple balancing acts”).

In the second article, Margit Neher and Christian Ståhl studies the learning involved with evidence-based medicine in a Swedish Rheumatology setting. The main idea of the article is attempting to explore what opportunities for learning practitioners in rheumatology perceive of in their daily practice. The results that arose from the 36 interviews with Rheumatologists state that non-formal learning opportunities were perceived as important and that relationships in the workplace with peers, patients and others were central to learning in the workplace, while opportunities in recognized learning processes were more limited, lack of time set aside for such studies being one major hindrance.

The third article takes an activity theory approach to learning in healthcare settings. Rola Ajjawi et al. have studied situations with the triad doctor – learner – patient through videotaping the encounters, an approach that we would like to see more of. The 200 minutes of videotape and additional interview material gave the researchers good insights, e.g. in the division of the roles in learning at the patient – bedside encounters. An interesting finding is that the existence of the learner in the situation also changes the situation so much that more patient questions go unanswered. Understanding the reciprocity of the learning and the learning situation is one of the key issues activity theory brings to front. We will return to applications of activity theory in a special issue later.

As often before, we finish with a more Practitioner-oriented article, this time on Corporate Universities that seem currently to be experiencing some kind of renaissance in the new millennium. In this issue, Louis Rhéaume and Micjael Gardoni analyze the challenges involved in the development of corporate universities and examine how they can deal with open innovation. The conclusion from the study is that to create competitive advantages through a corporate university, upper management must dedicate significant resources and have a plan for building the corporate curriculum to deal with the challenges posed by open innovation.

We hope that this compilation again leads you, dear reader, into further scientific and practical discussions in these and other workplace learning topics.

Tauno Kekäle and Sara Cervai - Editors