Editorial

Citation

Cervai, S. and Kekale, T. (2008), "Editorial", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl.2008.08620eaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Workplace Learning, Volume 20, Issue 5

Bring on the cake! With this issue we are completing our first year as Editors. From this you will have worked out that in May 2008 we are considering what to put in the 2009 (Volume 21) first issues!

In this “first year” issue we have a fitting theme: the early stages of workplace learning. These are the articles we possibly should have read before taking on our Editor roles! First, there is a study of the impact of relationships on the development of practice competence in new graduates entering the workforce by Catherine Lombardozzi and Andrea Casey. We can, from our first-year experience, agree with their finding. Our process of learning through relationships with authors has also involved an “iterative interplay between specific developer-led activities, learner-led activities in interaction with others, and learner action and cognitive processing.”

Next there is a case study conducted in the Dentistry Faculty of a University Medical Centre in The Netherlands, which discusses the pitfalls of coaching by colleagues. Karin J.P. Truijen and Marianne van Woerkom found that typically coaches merely discussed their own knowledge and experience. This, thankfully, has not happened to us. The third paper, by a team of Italian writers (Milena Atzori, Luigi Lombardi, Franco Fraccaroli, Adalgisa Battistelli, and Sara Zaniboni), discusses socialization in nontraditional career choices; their example being women in the army. The final thematically-chosen paper is by Samuel O. Salami and it suggests that formal mentoring should be introduced into various work organizations and career counselors employed to counsel the workers on what they stand to gain from developing mentoring relationships. From our own formal mentoring during the first year, we again would like to thank the people at Emerald, especially Paula Fernandez and Nancy Rolph; we feel quite well-established, closely mentored and socialized into the Emerald family.

One piece of development news is that we are reconsidering the editorial policy whereby empirical papers only are accepted. With this in mind we are exploring the possibility of adding two or three good conceptual papers under a provisional heading “Theoretical corner”. We kick this idea off with, in our own opinion, a high quality conceptual paper by Holly M. Hutchins and Dennis Hutchison. In this they develop an e-learning design model that mixes theoretical insights from human resource development, workplace learning, educational technology and instructional communication. We hope that this kind of paper can both delight practitioners and inspire researchers.

Sara Cervai, Tauno Kekäle