An evaluation of social learning and learner outcomes in a massive open online course (MOOC): a healthcare sector case study

ABSTRACT

This paper responds to calls for new inquiries into the use of technology in HRD. We examine how, and to what extent, social media tools contribute to learner experiences and learner outcomes in an HRD intervention in a workplace context. We analyse qualitative and quantitative data relating to a massive open online course (MOOC) in a healthcare sector case study setting. We examine the interaction between the MOOC programme, social learning through social media tools and learner outcomes. The results of our evaluation show that usage of social media tools does not significantly affect knowledge outcomes but social media usage enhances affective outcomes. We conclude that social media tools can foster productive social learning processes. We also find evidence of some reluctance to engage with the technologies and declining patterns of interactivity using social media over the duration of the MOOC programme. We conclude that a more nuanced theorization to take account of personal and professional workplace context is necessary to explain how learners regulate their engagement with social media tools and the effect of social technologies for sustained social learning in HRD interventions.     

Collaboration with Caveats: Research–Practice Exchange in Planning

Abstract

Researcher and practitioner collaboration in urban planning is both critical to good outcomes and problematic to achieve in reality. Collaboration has the potential for new partnerships, better research problem definition, improved research design and greater impact on practice and policy. However, politics, stakeholder agendas and funding bodies bring pressures and constraints, for which research professionals require a broader set of skills to manage. We examine researcher–practitioner collaboration as part of an action research project on urban greening in Australia. Focusing on a stakeholder engagement workshop, we examine the mechanisms used to overcome barriers to research-practice exchange. We find overt consideration of common barriers to access and use of research when planning collaboration exercises can help facilitate more productive engagement, creating spaces for mutual understanding and generating shared objectives. However, we also find that efforts at collaboration challenge traditional research practices, involve tensions and caveats, and require a different mode of researcher engagement.     

The Role of Positive Psychology in Enhancing Satisfaction,Motivation, and Productivity in the Workplace

Abstract

Positive psychology offers scope for enhancing satisfaction, motivation, and productivity in the workplace. Wiegand and Geller (2004, this issue) point to a number of strategies to enhance individuals' success orientation and conclude their discussion with the actively caring model which appears to be a useful means of representing pivotal facets of a positive and supportive workplace climate. The discussion in this article extends some of the concepts presented in their paper, adapts a model of motivation to develop the Occupational Motivation and Engagement Wheel, and also further discusses some particularly key strategies alluded to by Wiegand and Geller. These include a discussion of workplace resilience, authoritarian versus authoritative leadership/management styles, motivating workplace climates, personal bests, staff morale, flow in work, the value individuals attach to tasks and outcomes, and the centrality of relationships in the performance context. The article concludes with a multi-level “broaden and build” framework for enhancing satisfaction, motivation, and productivity in the workplace.     

Transfer interest: measuring interest in training content and interest in training transfer

ABSTRACT

Motivational influences are important predictors of training effectiveness and transfer of training to the workplace. The present study introduces the Transfer Interest Questionnaire (TIQ) to measure trainee interest. Grounded in the person-object theory of interest, the construct encompasses two dimensions: interest in training content and interest in training transfer. The results of exploratory factor analyses of questionnaire data from 203 trainees provided strong support for the proposed scales. Based on the perspective of age-related motivational maintenance, socioemotional selectivity theory, the gender-similarities hypothesis, and research on training motivation and motivation to transfer, a series of moderator analyses tested the effects of six trainee and training-design characteristics: trainees’ age and gender, work experience, number of semesters completed, training course’s content area, and voluntary vs. mandatory training participation. Furthermore, based on social cognitive theory, the theory of planned behavior, and the expectancy-value model of achievement motivation, the study tested the TIQ scales’ associations with utility value, self-efficacy, normative beliefs, control beliefs, and transfer intentions. Implications for theorizing the role of interest in transfer of learning, screening training participants’ interest profiles in training evaluations, and future research directions on the role of interest in adult education, corporate training, and human resource development are discussed.     

The Professional,the Personal,and the Ideal Worker: Pressures and Objectives Shaping the Boundary between Life Domains

Abstract

Both scholarly literature and popular accounts suggest that modern organizational practices have moved toward encouraging employees to “integrate” or blur the boundary between their personal and professional domains, for example, through self-disclosure at work, company-sponsored social activities or providing on-site child care. Concurrently, an ideology underlying U.S. professional norms discourages integration practices such as referencing non-work roles during workplace interactions, expressing emotions in the workplace, and/or displaying non-work-related items in workspaces. In this review, we posit that these two norms firmly coexist because they differentially serve two objectives corresponding to the parallel bodies of research we examine: one addressing boundary management as a tool for handling role responsibilities, and the other considering boundary management as a tool for shaping workplace identity and relationships. Specifically, we posit that segmenting personal and professional domains facilitates the management of role responsibilities, whereas integration is more beneficial for managing workplace identity and relationships. Furthermore, both objectives serve the “ideal worker” imperative of work primacy. We identify key contingencies that help us to further understand existing research findings, and prompt future research directions informing theories for understanding the attractiveness and efficacy of different personal–professional boundary management strategies for both organizations and individuals.     

Transfer of training: A review and new insights

Even successful training programs cannot guarantee that newly learned knowledge and skills will be transferred to the workplace. This has led to researchers’ interests in understanding the transfer process. Notwithstanding that transfer issues have been studied for several decades, the recent emphasis on ‘workplace learning’, especially the so‐called ‘situated learning’ approach, suggests that conventional training transfer research may be inadequate to understand the dynamics of performance improvement through training. Against this, the authors point to the increased policy emphasis on the development of transferable generic skills, which underscores the ongoing importance of training transfer. This review paper suggests that the role of trainees themselves has not been dealt with sufficiently in research, which leads to a new direction for studying the transfer of training.     

Learning organization,organizational culture,and affective commitment in Malaysia: A person–organization fit theory

ABSTRACT

Based on person–organization fit theory, this article moves beyond theories of motivation and social exchange relationships that have often been used in commitment literature. This article contributes to understanding perceptions of organizational culture (OC) and affective commitment (AC) through perceptions of a learning organization (LO). Such understanding helps to tackle current commitment issues in Malaysia through strategic human resources development (HRD) planning and deploying organization development activities. We examined: (a) the extent to which organizations with an embraced LO mediated OC and AC, (b) the most influential component of OC in promoting employee AC, and (c) the most important component of LO for influencing OC and AC. We obtained 516 respondents (64.5% response rate) in selected Malaysian private organizations. It was concluded that LO mediated the relationship between OC and AC. Respect for people was an influential factor of OC for AC, while empowerment played a significant role in LO culture mediating the relationship between OC and AC. HRD practitioners should strategically plan organizational activities, norms, and policies that promote organizational learning processes and a learning culture to enhance AC.     

Work-related episodic memories can increase or decrease motivation and psychological health at work

ABSTRACT

Research on the psychological mechanisms underlying employee motivation and psychological health at work has been limited to general and chronic workplace factors, such as job strenuousness or management style. In two studies, we examine how unique and time-specific work life events encoded as episodic memories can influence employee motivation and psychological health at work as a function of how these events are recalled having been experienced in terms of need satisfaction. In Study 1, participants described a self-defining work-related memory and rated it for need satisfaction. They also completed scales of need satisfaction at work, self-determined motivation, and positive and negative indicators of psychological health (i.e. work satisfaction and burnout). In Study 2, participants completed the same tasks and scales, but they did it again two years later. Results revealed that need satisfaction in self-defining work-related memories was associated with self-determined motivation and indicators of psychological health at work, over and above demographics (age, sex, weekly hours worked, education) and general perceptions of need satisfaction at work. Moreover, it predicted increases in self-determined motivation and in work satisfaction and decreases in burnout over two years. The present findings underscore the importance of considering unique work life events encoded in memory.     

6 Three Perspectives on Team Learning

Abstract

The emergence of a research literature on team learning has been driven by at least two factors. First, longstanding interest in what makes organizational work teams effective leads naturally to questions about how members of newly formed teams learn to work together and how existing teams improve or adapt. Second, some have argued that teams play a crucial role in organizational learning. These interests have produced a growing and heterogeneous literature. Empirical studies of learning by small groups or teams present a variety of terms, concepts, and methods. This heterogeneity is both generative and occasionally confusing. We identify three distinct areas of research that provide insight into how teams learn to stimulate cross-area discussion and future research. We find that scholars have made progress in understanding how teams in general learn, and propose that future work should develop more precise and context-specific theories to help guide research and practice in disparate task and industry domains.     

Interaction and effectiveness of corporate e-learning programmes

This study was conducted in a large Mexican organization running a virtual corporate university. It aimed to evaluate students' perceptions of three types of interaction (learner–teacher, learner–content and learner–learner) and their views on the effectiveness of online courses in terms of satisfaction, learning and behaviours. Twenty-six employees who had studied at least one online course within the organization answered an online survey. Four of them were interviewed. Results show that: (1) Learners value their interaction with the content the most. (2) Online learning is generally perceived as an effective method for delivering corporate training. (3) There is no perceived relationship between online interactions and training effectiveness. The findings are limited to the specific context of the participating organization. Further research into online learning in corporate settings is needed to understand training interactions and changes in job performance.     

Will the Truth Set Us Free? An Exploration of CSR Motive and Commitment

This article examines why firms engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Specifically, it investigates the relationship between a firm's motivation to engage in CSR and the depth of its commitment. I propose that the enduring debate over CSR and financial performance is misaligned, and that scholars should instead focus on the underlying components of CSR engagement. This research sheds light on the motivational antecedents of a firm's engagement in CSR and their effect on CSR commitment. Despite calls for scientific investigation of this linkage, it has received scant attention in the literature. Pursuing this area of research requires the construction of measures of CSR motivation and CSR commitment, as prior work generally lacks objective analysis. I present measures and a research methodology that test hypotheses about how CSR motivation relates to different levels of CSR commitment. The results of this research both validate and challenge current theory. This refined understanding of CSR engagement may enhance firm transparency and accountability to stakeholders. It may reduce the uncertainty in both internal and external assessments of firm CSR and the potential for social and financial impact.     

The benefits of embedding experiential learning in the education of planners

Abstract

In a future of complexity, uncertainty and fragmented governance we envision planning graduates who will be better prepared for the real world of planning as a result of an experiential learning (EL) approach in undergraduate tertiary education. In this paper, we present the findings of an Australian research project in which planning educators developed and tested a range of experiential planning principles based on sound pedagogical theory. Embedding EL principles and activities within the planning curriculum provides a structured programme of engagement between theory and practice over the four years of an undergraduate Australian planning programme, including opportunities for work-integrated learning. Students gain experience in negotiated decision-making involving a wide range of interactions with planning practitioners. Students become more adaptable—cognizant of mechanisms influencing change, and recognize the value of lifelong learning founded on critical reflection. We propose that a more systematic approach to integrating experiential learning in tertiary planning education culminating in ‘work integrated learning’ would provide a vehicle for further partnerships with responsive local practitioners and communities. Finally, this paper also argues that applying experiential learning does not compromise the quality of planning education based on greater academic rigour.     

9 Creativity in Organizations

Abstract

In this chapter, I review contemporary theories and research on creativity in organizations. After discussing key definitional issues in this domain, I review the contemporary scholarly literature proceeding from the most molecular of perspectives focusing on within-individual processes to the more molar perspective of the collective creativity that can take place in work groups. While the within-individual process featured most prominently in the extant literature is intrinsic motivation, after a treatment of some fundamental issues surrounding the intrinsic motivation construct, I review research on conscious and unconscious thinking and positive and negative affect as key internal processes relevant to understanding creativity. Next, I focus on contextual influences on creativity including safety signals, creativity prompts, supervisors, leadership, and networks. Lastly, I focus on creativity in groups (from both an input and a process perspective). In closing, I reiterate a recurrent theme throughout the review. This is an exciting era for research on creativity in organizations with many intriguing questions awaiting future scholarly inquiry.     

Job resources and emotional exhaustion: The mediating role of learning opportunities

The Job Demands-Resources model predicts that job demands increase and job resources decrease emotional exhaustion in employees. In this study, we investigated one possible mechanism for this, in order to provide a deeper insight into the role of job resources in this energy-depletion process. We assumed that job resources (autonomy and task variety) reduce emotional exhaustion through the promotion of opportunities for personal growth and development, especially workplace learning. Moreover, we expected that job demands (workload, cognitive and emotional demands) would be positively related to work-related learning opportunities. Our research model was tested in a large and heterogeneous sample out of the Dutch working population (N = 4589), following a cross-validation procedure. Multi-group structural equation modelling revealed that autonomy and task variety promoted learning opportunities, which in turn partially mediated between these job resources and emotional exhaustion. With respect to job demands, our study showed mixed results: cognitive demands promoted learning opportunities, workload frustrated such opportunities, and emotional demands were not significantly related to learning opportunities. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the interplay between job demands, job resources and learning opportunities in the energy-depletion process, and support the need for the promotion of learning opportunities in the workplace.     

Measuring exposure to bullying at work: The validity and advantages of the latent class cluster approach

Abstract

This paper addresses the construct and predictive validity of two methods for classifying respondents as victims of workplace bullying. Although bullying is conceived as a complex phenomenon, the dominant method used in bullying surveys, the operational classification method, only distinguishes two groups: victims versus non-victims. Hence, the complex nature of workplace bullying may not be accounted for. Therefore a latent class cluster approach is suggested to model the data, which was obtained by using the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ) administered to employees in Belgium (n=6,175). Latent class modelling is a method of analysis that does not appear to have been used in occupational health psychology before. In this study, six latent classes emerged: “not bullied,” “limited work criticism,” “limited negative encounters,” “sometimes bullied,” “work related bullied,” and “victims.” The results show that compared to the traditional operational classification method, the latent class cluster approach shows higher construct and higher predictive validity with respect to self-assessments and indicators of strain and well-being at work. The consequences of these results for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.     

Job insecurity,perceived employability and targets' and perpetrators' experiences of workplace bullying

Abstract

We aimed to investigate (1) the association between job insecurity and workplace bullying from the perspective of both targets and perpetrators and (2) perceived employability as a moderator of these relationships. We argue that job insecurity is associated with social or interpersonal strain as in the case of workplace bullying. Furthermore, workers who feel that they have alternative opportunities for employment may find it easier to cope with insecurity. Stated differently, we aimed to investigate whether the relationship between job insecurity and workplace bullying depended on the level of perceived employability. Hypotheses were tested among 693 workers who participated in a survey on the quality of working life. They were employed at establishments of two Belgian organizations from the textile industry (N=189) and financial services (N=505). We found that that job insecurity was associated with targets' and perpetrators' reports of workplace bullying. The interaction between job insecurity and perceived employability did not contribute to targets' reports of workplace bullying. However, it was related to perpetrators' reports of workplace bullying. Interestingly, the relationship between job insecurity and workplace bullying was stronger under the condition of high versus low employability. This hints at the idea that there could be a “dark side” to employability.     

The relationship between organisational change and being a perpetrator of workplace bullying: A three-wave longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

While research has unravelled the association between organisational change and being a target of workplace bullying, scholars have still to shed light on the perpetrator perspective of this association. In the current study, we further the literature by investigating the relationship between exposure to organisational change and being a perpetrator of workplace bullying. We introduced perceptions of psychological contract breach as a mechanism that accounts for the process in which exposure to organisational change leads employees to direct bullying behaviours to other members of the organisation. Using three-wave longitudinal data from 1994 employees we estimated a between-subjects mediation model controlling for autoregressive effects. Results confirmed our hypothesis that exposure to organisational change at Time 1 was positively related to being a perpetrator of workplace bullying at Time 3 through perceptions of psychological contract breach at Time 2. These findings suggest that organisations should invest in factors that lower employees’ likelihood to perceive psychological contract breach in the aftermath of organisational change because these perceptions may indeed result in the enactment of workplace bullying towards other members of the organisation.     

10 Learning and Strategic Alliances

Abstract

Various researchers have suggested that an important explanatory factor for the growth in strategic alliances is that alliances provide a platform for organizational learning, giving firms access to the knowledge of their partners. The notion that alliances are a vehicle for learning is the basis for an important and cross-disciplinary stream of research. This chapter examines theoretical and empirical research in the alliance learning area. We have two central objectives. The first is to integrate a large body of research by examining the key research questions addressed. The second objective is to critically examine the existing research as the basis for establishing a research agenda. Although the alliance learning area has generated a substantial amount of research interest and spawned wide-ranging types of inquiry, many important and substantive managerial issues remain underexplored.     

Conceptualizing reflection in experience-based workplace learning

This paper seeks to understand key dimensions of reflection in experience-based workplace learning for research being collaboratively undertaken by scholars in Dutch and US research institutions. We systematically explore and compare Tara Fenwick’s analysis of five perspectives on cognition to distinguish among constructivist, psychoanalytic, situative, critical-cultural, and enactivist perspectives on reflection. Our aim is to examine how to conceptualize reflection so that one or more perspectives can complement our understanding of learning through experience at work. We position reflection not only from a practical but also from a theoretical perspective that moves beyond the individual focus of the constructivist perspective. Fenwick’s five perspectives are described in terms of whether and how reflection is utilized, key activities in the process of reflection, relative focus on the individual and/or the context, triggers for reflection, role of power and positionality, role of emotions, and reflection outcomes. We conclude that adding other lenses to the dominant constructivist perspective helps expand our understanding of reflection as well as identify and attend to other tools, people, and factors in the work situation that influence reflection processes and learning outcomes. The paper closes with a discussion of promising new approaches that have emerged since Fenwick’s analysis.     

Managing emotions in mergers and acquisitions

Motivation in HRD has traditionally been conceptualized as motivation to learn or motivation to train. This paper argues that this concept of motivation is too limited because it does not incorporate motivation to use learning to improve performance. Instead, a higher-order construct called motivation to improve work through learning proposed. The theoretical rationale for this higher-order construct is presented along with proposed measures. A confirmatory factor analysis is reported which provides initial evidence of validity. Implications for HRD research and practice are discussed.