Editorial

Citation

Cervai, S. and Kekale, T. (2013), "Editorial", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 25 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl.2013.08625daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Workplace Learning, Volume 25, Issue 4

The fourth issue of our celebration of a quarter of a century (Volume 25) is in its nature a “general” workplace learning issue. By this we mean that we have not tried to identify any specific theme this time, but put together four pieces of research that illustrate the workplace learning that is being conducted in different areas around the world. At the same time, we are able to push the envelope a bit and present new-for-the-world findings.

While the times call for big changes and lots of transition situations, we felt a suitable first article to be presented in this issue would be “Learning at transition for new and experienced staff”, written by Colin Miligan. In his study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 knowledge workers in a multinational company and the learning experiences of new graduates contrasted with those of more experienced workers who had recently joined or changed role within the organization. The findings suggest that the approaches to learning are similar between these two groups, but the strategies and learning modes differ. The graduate induction provides appropriate support for initial transition into the workplace, but experienced workers undergoing subsequent career transitions do not receive similar socialization support despite encountering similar challenges.

Next, we are “Reflecting on Competences to Increase Role Clarity during Service Delivery in a Third World Setting” with Florence Nansubuga. Her study of 220 managers of Ugandan District Local Governments finds that intuitive behaviour is based on tacit competences and if continuously applied on the job, it becomes difficult for a manager to trace actions that lead to successful or unsuccessful results. The study suggests that systematic reflection on competences helps managers to explicitly articulate their competences and thus increasing role clarity at work.

In the third article in this issue, Bruno Papaleo discusses the evaluation of a training course on chemicals for occupational safety and health professionals. The general questionnaires on appreciation and learning indicated that on the whole the course was appreciated and the information provided had been learned and remembered adequately. However, a qualitative evaluation brought to light some specific problems: participants’ main difficulty was the practical application of what they had learned.

The issue is completed with a look at some emerging perspectives and new challenges in the research area of workplace learning. Stephen Billett and Sarojni Choy state that because of changes in the requirements of work; conceptual understandings about the processes of learning; and elaborated views of relations between social and personal contributions to learning and development, more needs to be understood so that practices associated with utilising learning experiences through work can be maximised. Because of these new developments in the nature of the workplace, the authors state that it is imperative to reach out to disciplines such as anthropology and neurological science to broaden our understanding about the potential of the workplace as a learning environment for novice as well as experienced workers.

We hope that this selection again inspires you, Dear Reader, to expand your horizons and to invent new research areas within Workplace Learning.

Sara Cervai, Tauno Kekäle