Journal of Workplace Learning最新文献

Purpose

The reemergence of immersive virtual technology (IVR) provides both opportunities and challenges for workplace learning (WPL). The purpose of this study is to explore and develop knowledge about how gamification influences the WPL experience by addressing two research questions: RQ1. What characterizes a gamified immersive safety training experience with IVR technology? and RQ2. How does gamified immersive safety training with IVR technology impact the WPL experience?

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a mixed methods approach by combining a systematic literature review with a case study on an empirical project about immersive fire safety training for train operators that are used at the Swedish train operating company SJ. The case study included data from semistructured interviews, Web survey and observation studies. The data was analyzed in two stages combining inductive and deductive data analysis for identifying themes and categories.

Findings

The findings of the study are twofold: (1) themes that conceptualize the gamified immersive safety training experience based on outputs from both the literature review and the first round of data analysis; and (2) a framework with three overarching categories that are mapped with the identified themes, and which were deduced throughout the second round of data analysis.

Originality/value

The originality of the findings stresses the implications of how a body of knowledge that synthesizes gamification concepts with immersive safety training, can inform the design of WPL experiences that are facilitated with IVR technology. As such, the implications of the findings are targeted toward both the advancement of the IVR discourse in the WPL field, but also toward practical considerations for design of immersive learning experiences that enrich WPL practices and culture.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explicate how the processual third context learning approach provides new understandings and dimensions to the well-established terminology within the fields of inter-organizational learning and university–industry collaboration. These understandings and dimensions are empirically informed by an analysis of a collaboration between Aalborg University and Bang & Olufsen, a Danish loudspeaker manufacturer.

Design/methodology/approach

To fulfill the research purpose, a case study based on a participatory data collection strategy was applied in the collaboration between Aalborg University and Bang & Olufsen. Data were collected through a qualitative multimethod approach, comprising semi-structured interviews, field observations and field notes. Phenomenologically inspired content analysis revealed the themes outlined and discussed.

Findings

The third context framework was useful in outlining the complexity of a bidirectional collaboration. The inter-organizational learning processes were, for example, influenced by the actors’ recurrent inquiry of perplexities regarding the purpose and content of the collaboration. The extracted empirical findings are discussed and related to the fields of inter-organizational learning and university–industry collaboration, thereby explicating how a processual learning perspective provides new understandings and dimensions to collaboration across organizations.

Originality/value

The paper contributes empirically informed processual-learning dimensions to the literature on inter-organizational learning and university–industry collaboration.

Purpose

The professional development (PD) of teachers is vital to student learning, yet PD continues to be plagued by positivist assumptions and low teacher buy-in. Because PD is based on persuasion, and because the roles of PD providers and receivers are not as discrete as they appear, rhetorical theory offers a valuable framework for understanding teacher PD. This study applied rhetorical theory to educator PD to elucidate the complex roles that educators take on as the event unfolds, whether in person or on social media.

Design/methodology/approach

This collective instrumental case study used a holistic design structure to examine how educators embrace, resist or otherwise respond to the roles they are given in PD in person and using social media; and how educators use the affordances of X (formerly Twitter) to shift rhetorical roles in X-based PD activities. A taxonomy was developed to apply the theory accurately and consistently. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and participants’ PD-related X use. Interviews were analyzed using descriptive coding by theme. X data was analyzed in three dimensions by use type, topic and rhetorical move.

Findings

The participants exhibited enthusiasm about both receiving and providing PD. Analysis of the participants’ perceptions of their PD and of their PD-related X use revealed shifting and layered ways they embrace, resist and otherwise engage with the roles they are given in PD, as well as the complex ways they used the affordances of X to engage with all of the available roles online.

Originality/value

In examining teacher PD using an ecological model of the rhetorical situation, this case study demonstrated the usefulness of rhetoric as a framework for PD that recognizes the nuanced and powerful roles teachers fulfill in their own PD activities in person and on social media.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate work-related adaptive performance from a longitudinal process perspective. This paper clustered specific behavioral patterns following the introduction of a change and related them to retentivity as an individual cognitive ability. In addition, this paper investigated whether the occurrence of adaptation errors varied depending on the type of change content.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 35 participants collected in the simulated manufacturing environment of a Research and Application Center Industry 4.0 (RACI) were analyzed. The participants were required to learn and train a manufacturing process in the RACI and through an online training program. At a second measurement point in the RACI, specific manufacturing steps were subject to change and participants had to adapt their task execution. Adaptive performance was evaluated by counting the adaptation errors.

Findings

The participants showed one of the following behavioral patterns: (1) no adaptation errors, (2) few adaptation errors, (3) repeated adaptation errors regarding the same actions, or (4) many adaptation errors distributed over many different actions. The latter ones had a very low retentivity compared to the other groups. Most of the adaptation errors were made when new actions were added to the manufacturing process.

Originality/value

Our study adds empirical research on adaptive performance and its underlying processes. It contributes to a detailed understanding of different behaviors in change situations and derives implications for organizational change management.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how job self-efficacy mediates the relationship between online knowledge sharing and employee innovation. To fully understand this relationship, this study also tests the moderating role of an innovative climate.

Design/methodology/approach

This study gathered data from 353 full-time employees working at information technology companies in Vietnam. This study used structural equation modeling to test hypotheses.

Findings

The results showed that online knowledge sharing positively influenced employee innovation directly and indirectly through job self-efficacy. Moreover, innovative climate positively affected employee innovation as well as moderated the nexus between online knowledge sharing and employee innovation.

Originality/value

First, this study provides further evidence that job self-efficacy plays a mediator linking online knowledge sharing with employee innovation. Second, this paper confirms that an innovative climate can play a mixed moderator that not only influences employee innovation but also moderates the association between online knowledge sharing and employee innovation.

Purpose

This paper aims to answer report how mentors who onboard newcomers to a high-stress social work organization can learn about their onboarding practice by treating onboarding as a wicked problem that escapes definitive formulation and final solutions.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors follow an action research approach with three iterations of learning about onboarding with mentors in a Danish social work organization struggling with an employee turnover exceeding 30%.

Findings

The authors unfold the authors’ emerging sensitivity to wickedity over the iterations of learning about onboarding with the mentors. As the authors foreground the wickedity of the authors onboarding in the last iteration, three lessons learned could be derived: it warrants the mentors’ continuous inquiry; opens inquiry into the ambivalence of mentoring; and convenes responsibility for inquiry to a community of mentors.

Research limitations/implications

This study of problematic onboarding to high-stress social work shows the value of fore-grounding wickedity instead of hiding it with a positive framing. This wickedity rests on situated grounding and is only transferrable to other organizations with the utmost caution.

Practical implications

High-stress social work organizations without the capacity to systematically sustain best practices for onboarding may, instead, increase attention to the wickedity of onboarding as a motivation for continuous inquiry by a broader community of mentors.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to present an action research study of problem wickedity to motivate mentors’ inquiry into onboarding newcomers to high-stress social work.

Purpose

When the emergency transition started in the spring of 2020 in the USA, teachers had to quickly switch from traditional in-person teaching to distance and remote teaching, regardless of their level of preparation. The distance and remote learning environments and contexts were different from traditional classrooms, which significantly changed the way teachers communicated and engaged with students in learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the workplace learning experience of K-12 educators during their work transition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 30 qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with K-12 educators in Arkansas in the USA and synthesized their experiences.

Findings

This study identified four major themes in the workplace learning experiences of K-12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges in workplace learning, including limited time, information overload, lack of relevance and customization and balancing priorities; challenges specific to different subgroups, such as age differences, prior experience and access to technology; strategies of workplace learning, notably collaborative learning, on-the-job training and professional development; and support for workplace learning, encompassing both formal support from schools and districts and informal support from family, friends and peers.

Originality/value

The paper provides original insights into K-12 teachers’ workplace learning during the COVID-19 pandemic by understanding their adaptation strategies. It fills a research gap by highlighting both the challenges and support mechanisms in educational transitions during a crisis.

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the learning gained from the evolving adjustment experiences of co-workers in moving to home-based working during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of these experiences on re-adjusting to return to co-working.

Design/methodology/approach

Results of a longitudinal qualitative study are reported where a group of co-workers were interviewed on three occasions between 2019 and 2022. Experiences are analysed alongside the adjustment to the remote work model using a boundary management lens.

Findings

The main adjustment experiences were in work location, temporal structures, professional and social interactions, and a new adjustment area was identified around family role commitment that emerged in the home-based setting. Boundary management practices were temporal, behavioural, spatial and object-related and evolved with the unfolding of adjustment experiences. A return to using co-working spaces was driven by the need for social interaction and spatial boundaries but affected by the requirement for increased privacy.

Practical implications

This paper will help workplace managers to understand adjustment experiences and develop facilities that will support a positive shared working environment not fulfilled through home-based working.

Originality/value

Although many workers abruptly transitioned to home-based working during the pandemic, this research considers those who would normally choose to work in a community-centred working environment rather than being home-based. As such, their experience of adjustment is of greater interest, particularly in terms of their expectations for shared working spaces.

Purpose

The mental health and well-being of employees is negatively impacted by stress, anxiety and depression. There is a need to address these issues at an organisational level to enhance workforce welfare and to decrease the number of days lost due to mental health/well-being concerns. This study aimed to evaluate a mental health and well-being toolkit designed to enhance the resilience, coping and self-talk of employees.

Design/methodology/approach

The intervention was derived from counselling psychology and composed of an 8-hour programme, which was delivered over four consecutive weeks. A mixed methods approach was adopted, with the quantitative element assessing an intervention group (n = 10) and control group (n = 14) at baseline and at the end of the programme on measures of mental health and well-being. The qualitative aspect of the study involved interviews with the intervention group, which were thematically analysed..

Findings

Quantitatively, the experimental group showed statistically significant improvements in elements of resilience and well-being and a reduction in stress and anxiety. Qualitatively, participants experienced a positive effect on their well-being, benefited from the learning process, applied the taught strategies widely and found the session experience positive.

Research limitations/implications

This was a small pilot study, nevertheless, the mixed methods nature of this investigation indicates that a counselling derived online training programme can enhance the well-being of employees within large organisations.

Originality/value

A remotely delivered mental health and well-being toolkit could be a useful resource to enhance the well-being of employees in all organisations.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the driving factors for staff cohesiveness in the workplace and how they are related to workplace learning and development opportunities. Two research questions guided the inquiry: (1) What are the driving factors for staff cohesiveness in the workplace? and (2) How does staff cohesiveness influence workplace learning?

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on a phenomenological research design. The data collection involved interviews and focus group discussions with 22 lecturers in two public universities. Thematic analysis was followed to analyse and interpret data.

Findings

The findings of this study indicate that staff cohesiveness is greatly influenced by several factors. Firstly, the presence of shared visions and goals plays a significant role in fostering staff cohesion. In addition, the similarity of age and gender among employees, as well as the presence of mutual support and a sense of belongingness, trust and solidarity, managerial support and the nature of the job that requires collective action, all contribute to staff cohesiveness. It is worth noting that previous studies have not reported the influence of age, gender and job characteristics as factors influencing staff cohesiveness.

Practical implications

Employers should not only focus on the knowledge and hard skills of applicants but also on the soft skills which support teamwork and cohesion in the workplace. Managers who want to enhance workplace learning should create opportunities for social gatherings and informal contacts in the workplace to facilitate informal learning in the workplace. Researchers focusing on workplace learning should include tacit learning practices that occur in the workplace as a result of the closeness between teammates.

Originality/value

This manuscript, which the authors hereby present, is the result of own original work. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors wish to emphasise that it has not been submitted for publication in any other journals.