Learning climate and work group skills in care work

Abstract

Purpose

The overall aim of the present study was to investigate the learning climate and work group skills perceived by managers and their subordinates in the municipal elderly care, prior to a development project. The specific research questions were: Are managers' and their subordinates' perceptions of the learning climate related? and Does the manager's assessment of the work group skills correlate with the work group's perception of the learning climate?

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 12 managers and 130 of their subordinates were selected, and answered a questionnaire. The subordinates belonged to work groups with five to 19 care assistants working in elderly care. The majority of the participants were women (92 per cent). The mean age was 43 years old, range 20‐63.

Findings

Results suggest that the perception of the learning climate has a correspondence between the organisational levels (managers and their subordinates) and that there is a correspondence between managers' ratings of work group skills, in particular skills for effectively managing change, and the work groups' perception of their learning climate, in particular decision autonomy and developmental and collaborative potentials.

Research implications/limitations

The manager sample was small and from one single organisation.

Practical implications

The relations between the learning climate and the assessment of staff skills are important to the actions taken in order to facilitate workplace learning and development.

Originality/value

This study contrasted the managers' assessment of skills with their work groups' perceptions of learning climate, which is quite unusual in learning climate studies.

Citation

Westerberg, K. and Hauer, E. (2009), "Learning climate and work group skills in care work", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 21 No. 8, pp. 581-594. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665620910996151