Search results
11 – 20 of over 126000Marianne Döös, Peter Johansson and Lena Wilhelmson
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of learning-oriented leadership as being integrated in managers’ daily work. The particular focus is on managers’ efforts to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of learning-oriented leadership as being integrated in managers’ daily work. The particular focus is on managers’ efforts to change how work is carried out through indirect acts of influence. In their daily work, managers influence the organisation’s learning conditions in ways that go beyond face-to-face interaction. Neither the influencer nor those influenced are necessarily aware that they are engaged in learning processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was part of a larger case study. The data set comprised interviews with nine middle managers about ways of working during a period of organisational change. A learning-theoretical analysis model was used to categorise managerial acts of influence. The key concept concerned pedagogic interventions.
Findings
Two qualitatively different routes for indirect influence were identified concerning social and organisational structures: one aligning, that narrows organisational members’ discretion, and one freeing, that widens discretion. Alignment is built on fixed views of objectives and on control of their interpretation. The freeing of structures is built on confidence in emerging competence and involvement of others.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to managers’ descriptions in a specific context. An issue for future research is to see whether the identified categories of learning-oriented leadership are found in other organisations.
Practical implications
The learning-oriented leadership categories cover a repertoire of acts of influence that create different learning conditions. These may be significant for the creation of a learning-conducive environment.
Originality/value
Managerial work that creates conducive conditions for learning does not need to be a specific task. Learning-oriented elements are inherent in aspects of managerial work, and managers’ daily tasks can be understood as expressions of different kinds of pedagogic intervention.
Details
Keywords
Thuy Thu Nguyen and Diep Ngoc Do
This study aims to investigate the structural relationships between pedagogy methods, creativity and entrepreneurial intentions. This study theorizes that work-integrated and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the structural relationships between pedagogy methods, creativity and entrepreneurial intentions. This study theorizes that work-integrated and active learning methods positively influence personal creativity, which in turn positively influences entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, entrepreneurial inspiration moderates the impact of creativity on entrepreneurial intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 701 valid questionnaires from university students is used to investigate the proposed research model empirically. As the methodological approach, structural equation modelling with multigroup analysis is used.
Findings
The statistical results confirm the positive impacts of work-integrated and active learning methods on individual perceived creativity and of creativity on entrepreneurial intentions. Further, inspiration towards entrepreneurship moderates the link between individual creativity and entrepreneurial intentions.
Originality/value
This research fills the gap in the realm of examining the structural relationship among learning methods, creativity and entrepreneurial intentions in an emerging economy context. Specifically, this study confirms experiential teaching methods as important predictors of the development of students’ creativity capability and the moderating role of entrepreneurial inspiration in the relationship between perceived creativity and entrepreneurial intention. These results add to the academic literature on entrepreneurial intentions in emerging economies and provide new insights into how universities in emerging economies can foster the entrepreneurial intentions of their students.
Details
Keywords
This article presents an integrated model of the learning organization. It is based on empirical research of the learning organization literature, as well as on practitioners’…
Abstract
This article presents an integrated model of the learning organization. It is based on empirical research of the learning organization literature, as well as on practitioners’ understandings of the concept where learning organizations were often described in terms of four distinct individual aspects – no more and no less. This article argues these aspects cannot be treated as separate, and that the four aspects have to be combined in order to create a true learning organization. The four aspects are: learning at work; organizational learning; developing a learning climate; and creating learning structures. The article suggests that only those organizations that have implemented all of the aspects should be called “learning organizations”, and those organizations that have implemented only one aspect should be called “partial learning organizations”.
Details
Keywords
Stan Lester and Mandy Crawford–Lee
This paper examines how the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital developments in apprenticeship and work-based learning in higher education (HE), focusing on practices that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital developments in apprenticeship and work-based learning in higher education (HE), focusing on practices that have ongoing value.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was carried out on the theme of HE work-based and work-integrated learning during the pandemic, followed by minimally-structured interviews with UK university staff responsible for apprenticeship and other work-based programmes.
Findings
The pandemic has accelerated adoption of online and digital methods to support work-based and apprenticeship learning. There has been progress from emergency measures to more pedagogically consistent ones. A blended approach is becoming common, with the learning and logistical benefits from digital methods ensuring their continuing use. Progress is uneven and there is still a need for improved digital pedagogy and better integration of theoretical and practical learning.
Practical implications
More attention is needed to digital pedagogy and to effective use of online methods to support work-based learning with corresponding implications for staff development. There are institutional implications in terms of ensuring that systems and structures support what is, particularly for work-based learners, likely to be a permanent move towards digital, blended and online learning.
Originality/value
There has been limited research on the impact of the pandemic on work-based learning, with most of the literature focusing on placements and projects. This paper presents findings at a point when universities are considering how technologically-supported methods will be employed on a more permanent basis.
Details
Keywords
Tobias Ley, Armin Ulbrich, Peter Scheir, Stefanie N. Lindstaedt, Barbara Kump and Dietrich Albert
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way to support work‐integrated learning for knowledge work, which poses a great challenge for current research and practice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way to support work‐integrated learning for knowledge work, which poses a great challenge for current research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first suggest a workplace learning context model, which has been derived by analyzing knowledge work and the knowledge sources used by knowledge workers. The authors then focus on the part of the context that specifies competencies by applying the competence performance approach, a formal framework developed in cognitive psychology. From the formal framework, a methodology is then derived of how to model competence and performance in the workplace. The methodology is tested in a case study for the learning domain of requirements engineering.
Findings
The Workplace Learning Context Model specifies an integrative view on knowledge workers' work environment by connecting learning, work and knowledge spaces. The competence performance approach suggests that human competencies be formalized with a strong connection to workplace performance (i.e. the tasks performed by the knowledge worker). As a result, competency diagnosis and competency gap analysis can be embedded into the normal working tasks and learning interventions can be offered accordingly. The results of the case study indicate that experts were generally in moderate to high agreement when assigning competencies to tasks.
Research limitations/implications
The model needs to be evaluated with regard to the learning outcomes in order to test whether the learning interventions offered benefit the user. Also, the validity and efficiency of competency diagnosis need to be compared to other standard practices in competency management.
Practical implications
Use of competence performance structures within organizational settings has the potential to more closely relate the diagnosis of competency needs to actual work tasks, and to embed it into work processes.
Originality/value
The paper connects the latest research in cognitive psychology and in the behavioural sciences with a formal approach that makes it appropriate for integration into technology‐enhanced learning environments.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to discuss the teaching and assessment strategies for an organisation‐centred curriculum.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the teaching and assessment strategies for an organisation‐centred curriculum.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a case study. Data were collected from interviews and a focus group with worker‐learners enrolled in a Graduate Certificate in Education (Educational Leadership) course.
Findings
The study finds that a project that piloted an organisation‐centred curriculum framework where learning was integrated in the context of the workplace met the needs of both individuals and their workplace. The success of such learning for a cohort of worker‐learners was contingent on especially designed teaching and assessment strategies, aligned learning and assessment to the strategic goals of the organisation where the cohort was based and to needs of the individuals. The evaluation of the strategies in the framework shows their potential to optimise learning outcomes for other cohorts and courses. It also highlights the importance of skilling learners for work‐integrated learning and making explicit the pedagogies and affordances available in the workplace.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates the transition from university‐centred to organisation‐centred curriculum that employs work‐integrated learning to meet the needs of the workplace and the learners.
Details
Keywords
Yvonne Lagrosen and Frederick Travis
The purpose of the paper is to examine variables to be included in a measurement instrument which measures workplace learning related to recent research into quality management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to examine variables to be included in a measurement instrument which measures workplace learning related to recent research into quality management and brain functioning.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was conducted, investigating measures of workplace learning as well as the connections between brain functioning and management. Further studies will use the brain integration scale to compare levels of brain integration with measures of workplace learning.
Findings
The variables “empathy”, “presence and communication”, “continuity”, “influence”, “development”, “work-integrated learning” and “flow” were found to be relevant from the literature review to be tested for inclusion in the measurement instrument. A measurement model with these variables included has been developed.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is conceptual in its nature. Empirical studies are needed to validate the propositions.
Practical implications
The proposed measurement instrument can be used by managers to gain insight into underlying mechanisms in the organizational culture that influence employees’ learning and potential for development. Thus, it can aid managers to achieve profound learning in their organizations, which is necessary for continuously maintaining high quality of products and services.
Social implications
For society, the implementation of the proposed measurement instrument in companies could lead to better health and higher job satisfaction among employees.
Originality/value
Traditional ways of measuring working environment are rarely connected to brain functioning of the employees. Only requiring small resources, this approach adds to an understanding of underlying mechanisms.
Details
Keywords
Jan Gustafsson and Per-Olof Thång
This chapter deals with aspects of the overall criticism in regard to higher education and its growing discrepancy between theory and practice, and the meaning of problem-based…
Abstract
This chapter deals with aspects of the overall criticism in regard to higher education and its growing discrepancy between theory and practice, and the meaning of problem-based and authentic learning. The chapter is based on two specific cases that illustrate how higher education is organized in Sweden, and how education could be organized to correspond to the demands of authentic learning and a new form of knowledge production. Work-based learning started as an alternative to the ordinary three-year nursing program at a university college in the western part of Sweden. One main finding was that the students experienced the relation between the different types of teaching in the program as weak, and the different learning contexts in the program as being separate from each other. Higher Vocational Education (HVE) is a market-oriented vocational higher education program with close cooperation between an educational provider and working life. Work-based learning is a cornerstone of HVE, and authentic learning in a real-life setting constitutes a single course governed by its own syllabus. One main finding, was that students experienced a lack of progression in the work tasks and the subject content of the school-based education was not advanced enough. Workplace learning can serve as a structuring resource in education, but it can also be problematic because knowledge is inherent in routines and technologies.
Details
Keywords
Hermine Scheeres, Nicky Solomon, David Boud and Donna Rooney
The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of “learning” through what we have termed “integrated development practices”. These are common organisational practices that both…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of “learning” through what we have termed “integrated development practices”. These are common organisational practices that both enhance organisational effectiveness and contribute to organisational and employee learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses the ways in which learning and being a learner were talked about and enacted with regard to one of the integrated development practices identified in a study of four different organisations – safety practices, and how learning and being a learner regarding safety were legitimate in one of the organisations. Data are drawn from semi‐structured interviews with members of a variety of workgroups in one major division of the organisation.
Findings
Interviewees' responses reflected that learning was fully embedded as an accepted part of a necessary function of the organisation. This use of a learning discourse is discussed in the light of findings from an earlier study on informal learning at work that suggested that learning and the identity of being a learner were sometimes resisted in the everyday culture of work.
Originality/value
Using the theorisations of practice of Schatzki and the lifelong education framework of Delors the paper discusses the implications of these findings to examine when it is acceptable to articulate learning as part of work and be identified as a learner at work.
Details
Keywords
Judith McNamara and Catherine Brown
The purpose of this paper is to examine how online discussion can be used in work‐integrated learning as a vehicle for students to demonstrate their learning in the workplace and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how online discussion can be used in work‐integrated learning as a vehicle for students to demonstrate their learning in the workplace and to facilitate collaborative learning where face‐to‐face classes are not feasible.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper evaluates the use of assessable online discussion in facilitating collaborative learning and scaffolding reflection in work placement subjects. It reviews the literature regarding the use of online discussion, particularly for work placement subjects, and evaluates the use of an online discussion forum in a case study subject in the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) undergraduate law course.
Findings
The paper suggests that assessable online discussion forums are appropriate to facilitate student collaboration and collaborative learning in work placement subjects.
Originality/value
The paper is original in its examination of the assessment of online discussion in a work‐integrated learning context.
Details