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Workplace Learning : Theory and Practice
Supaluk Payungwong1
Overview
Since the emergence of human capital theory, the idea of
investing in human beings as a form of capital has fuelled growing
interest in workplace learning theory and practice (Boud & Garrick
1!"#he burgeoning literature on workplace learning (e"g",Billett
$%%!, organi'ational learning (e"g", asterby)Smith 1*! and the
learning organi'ation (e"g", Senge 1%! is evidence of this growing
interest in making workplaces into e+ective learning environments"
#here are numerous descriptive accounts of organi'ations striving to
become learning oriented (ar-uardt 1.,/iBella & 0evis 1,
arsick & 2atkins 1!"2hy has learning at and through work
become so important 3 any commentators argue that learning has
become increasingly important to the survival of organi'ations
(Senge 1%, 4rgyris 15, Schein 15, 0evis, /iBella & Gould
16, Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell 1*, #annenbaum 1*, arsick
& 2atkins 1, Poell, 7hivers, 8an der 9rogt & 2ildemeersch
$%%%!" #hey (and others! argue that the importance of learning is
primarily because of the need for organi'ations to respond to rapid
and continuous change in the organi'ation:s e;ternal environment
(Pedler, et al" 1*, Gardiner,
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=mplementation of change initiatives in organi'ations, such as the
introduction of new technology, products or processes, usually
re-uires the ac-uisition of new knowledge and skills" Somecommentators believe that organi'ations that learn faster will be
able to adapt -uicker and thus avoid the economic evolutionary
>weeding out? process (Schein 15!" 4ccording to /e Geus (1!,
learning is important, not only for organi'ational survival, but also
because the ability to learn faster than competitors may be the only
sustainable competitive advantage"#here is also wide agreement that
having entered the knowledge based era, there is increasing
emphasis on human capital, rather than @nancial and physical
assets (/i;on 1%, Alrich 1!" or e;ample, 0onaka (11!
contends that, in an economy where the only certainty is
uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is
knowledge" 9nowledge is thus, regarded as a key asset of
employees, and their ability to ac-uire and use it is considered a
source of competitive advantage (4rgyris 11, /rucker 1$!"
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determinants of their employability elsewhere (Ghosal, Barlett &
oran 1!" #hus, employability is the >new security?" oreover, it
is argued that, as part of the >new deal? in employment, goodemployers will ensure that their employees remain employable by
keeping them up to date through learning and development
(Swanson & Dolton $%%1!"
4rguments for the importance of learning and development in
the workplace setting are not limited to economic considerations"
4nother line of reasoning emphasi'es learning at work as part of
general education for citi'enship and fuller participation in society as
a whole" mployees develop skills of e;pression and communication
that spill over into their personal lives" #hey learn new ways of
collaborating and planning that they apply in the families and
community organi'ations to which they belong" #hey not only
become more e+ective in their present responsibilities, but help
transform the nature of work in which they are engaged creating
new work practices and forms of production (Boud & Garrick 1,
p"1!"#hese arguments for the importance of learning suggest that
learning in organi'ational settings should be continuous, if both the
economic and social goals of enhanced participation in learning are
to be reali'ed"
The Growing Importance of Workplace Learning
4shton, /" and Sung, F" ($%%$ *)$%! emphasi'ed that
workplace learning has become increasingly important during the
last decade" ven there are a number of di+erent types of
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workplace learning but they are especially interested in that which
takes place in high performance work organi'ations (DP2Es!"
#hese organi'ations are relatively new phenomena, which havearisen in a large part as a conse-uence of the process of
globali'ation"#hey focused on how to understand the reasons
behind their growth and the bene@ts they o+er for both employers
and employees" 4lthough they are still somewhat unusual, they do
provide a range of bene@ts for both groups, ranging from higher
levels of pro@tability and productivity for employers to higher earning
and more challenging work for employees" 2hich could be reviews
their concepts that this phenomena not Hust the result of another
management fad, but rather represent a maHor change in the way
in which we organi'e the production of both goods and services"
Types of workplace learning
Ever recent years, the use of the workplace as a learning
e;perience has been transformed" #here are three main reasons for
this" #he @rst relates to the growth of the knowledge economy" #he
second refers to the impact of the Inew economyI and information
and communications technology (=7#! in improving productivity" #he
third and related reason is the growing use of high performance
working practices (DP2Ps! that are transforming the ways in which
work is organi'ed" #his is being facilitated by developments in =7#"
4 great deal of space has been devoted to the growth of the
so)called knowledge economy in recent years" 9eep, " ($%%%!"
argues that there are at least two de@nitions present in the
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literature and public discussion, the @rst of which is based on the
high)tech industrial clusters in the Anited States along the lines of
those which developed in 7alifornia" #his provides knowledge)based Hobs for the labor force, but these Hobs only represent a minority of
the total 7alifornian and AS labor force" #he second is a broader
de@nition which is more inclusive, suggesting a realm of economic
activity characteri'ed by a foundation of mutually reinforcing factors
which together form the core of a high value)added economy where
knowledge is a key to economic success and where skills and
learning are valued and productively employed" #hese factors
include,among others,a general demand for sophisticated products,
high levels of research and development especially in new
technology, a high value on learning throughout life and an eJcient
and open educational system and labor market" 7entral to this
de@nition is a highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce"
#he growth of the Inew economyI is also seen as a reason
for the e;pansion of knowledge)based Hobs" #he idea of a Inew
economyI focuses attention on the role of =7# and its impact on
technological progress" Dere we are talking about technology)driven
change leading to the knowledge)based economy or, as a minimum,
providing support for more rapid knowledge creation and di+usion"
Dowever, the E7/ report on the Inew economyI points out that
our knowledge of the impact of =7# is still largely con@ned to its
impact on the AS economy" 2hile it does not identify any maHor
impact of the Inew economyI on employment, it does point to the
http://www.ilo.org/pubcgi/links_ext.pl?http://www.oecd.orghttp://www.ilo.org/pubcgi/links_ext.pl?http://www.oecd.org
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importance of the accumulation of knowledge and human capital
and the importance of government action in e;panding the
knowledge base re-uired for the Inew economyI" #his serves as anote of caution, for while the new high)tech economy is growing it
still forms only a small proportion of total employment" 4s such, it
is not as yet a maHor cause of the growth of knowledge)based Hobs"
#he third, and most important, source of the growing
importance of workplace learning is the spread of high performance
work organi'ations (DP2Es!" #he spread of high performance work
places (DP2Ps! which characteri'e these organi'ations has created
the opportunity for all employees within them to develop their skills,
not Hust those in professional, managerial or craft occupations" #he
growth of these organi'ations has been facilitated by both the
spread of the knowledge economy and the use of =7# associated
with the Inew economyK" Dowever, the dissemination of these
DP2Es cannot be e;plained away Hust by reference to these
factors" 4s we shall see later, they are linked to e-ually profound
changes in the nature of competition in world markets"
#he conse-uence of all three factors has been the growth in
the proportion of the working population who utili'e the application
and manipulation of knowledge in their everyday work tasks" Dere
we are referring primarily to the professionals, scientists and
managers" 2hile we encounter diJculties in identifying precisely
who are these Iknowledge workersI, we do know that as a group
professional, scienti@c and managerial workers are increasing as a
.
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*
proportion of the total labor force" #his shift in the direction of more
highly skilled white)collar workers is of course part of the more
general shift in the occupational structures of the advancedeconomies from manufacturing to the service sector" #he =
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e;tending the opportunity to e;perience continuous workplace
learning to a new group of employees, namely the Hunior white)
collar and manual workers, a much larger proportion of the totallabor force" or the @rst time, we have the radical prospect of the
maHority of the labor force being presented with the opportunity to
e;perience work as a source of lifelong learning" or the traditional
knowledge workers in professional, technical and managerial
occupations, workplace learning has tended to be associated with
formal courses" #hese are the most highly educated workers who
also have the greatest chances of further education and training
once they enter work" =t is therefore not surprising that they are
pioneering continuous professional development, encouraged by the
activities of professional associations" Dowever, while formal training
courses are an important component of continuous professional
development, they may represent only the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to lifelong learning and development" Lecent research by
raut et al" (1!" has shown that for technicians and professionals
most learning is informal, taking place through everyday interaction
in the workplace" #hus, recent research is revealing that for this
group the workplace may well be the most important source of
learning"
4part from professionals, the other groups who have
traditionally e;perienced the workplace as a source of learning are
the craft workers" =n the past, craft workers in their initial years at
work combined both o+)the)Hob theoretical learning with on)the)Hob
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practical e;perience" =ndeed, for many years the German dual
system, which was the most highly developed form of
apprenticeship system, was seen as the model to which all formsof training should aspire" Dowever, with the increased speed of
technological and economic change, especially the impact of =7#
together with the introduction of new working practices, the
apprenticeship system is now being subHect to modi@cations" #here
is a growing body of opinion that it is no longer possible to provide
all the necessary knowledge and skills on a one)o+ basis at the
start of a person:s career" #he speed of technological change and
the application of =7# to the workplace mean that this type of
Ifront)loadedI learning e;perience is no longer suJcient on its own,
even for this group" Given the speed of change, it is now seen as
increasingly important that employees should continue to learn
throughout their working life" 4s we shall see that the governments
throughout the world are now introducing reforms to support the
use of the workplace as a source of lifelong learning"
or those employees in semi)skilled and unskilled work in the
manufacturing and service sectors, the situation has been very
di+erent" #hey have never e;perienced much in the way of either
initial training or of formal work)based learning" #his is not to say
that they did not learn at work" =ndeed, the te;tbooks are full of
e;amples of workers who have learned to impose their own
controls on the workplace, in spite of attempts by employers to
control their behavior" Studies dating back to the Dawthorne
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e;periments have shown how workers developed their own norms
of behavior, either increasing or restricting output and controlling
their working environment, sometimes at the e;pense of theeconomic eJciency of their organi'ation" 4part from this informal
activity, these Hobs have short learning times and are characteri'ed
by few other opportunities for the ac-uisition of skills or personal
development"
#he introduction of DP2Es is now transforming these
occupations" #he use of =7# has provided the basis for more
e+ective ways of sharing information and introducing devolved
management" =n addition, practices such as multi)skilling and use of
self)managed work groups, all characteristics of DP2Es, have
meant that in these organi'ations the workplace has become a
source of continuous learning for all employees" =n addition to any
technical skills they ac-uire, workers have to use their intellectual
faculties to tackle une;pected problems for which there is no
immediate recourse to technical specialists" #hey have to resolve
day)to)day production problems, they have to communicate solutions
to colleagues and clients and they have to learn how to work
e+ectively in teams" Anlike employees in more traditional
organi'ations who can legitimately claim that any problem which
a+ects their Hob and is outside the operation of their narrowly
de@ned tasks is not their responsibility, this new breed of high
performance worker has to take these and other problems and
issues on board" =t is the use of these practices which are making
1%
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the workplace a crucial source of learning for all employees in
modern organi'ations"
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