Workplace Learning Issues - Essay Example

Topic: Fuller and Unwin (2004) identify an expansive/restrictive continuum of learning in the work place. What does this concept contribute to our understanding how learning in the workplace can be enhanced. Although the fundamental objectives and orientations in workplace environments are based on the productions of products and services for the target clientele bases research has established that the workplace has been proven to be a formidable environment for learning. Coombs, P.H. (1985) notes that what has to be taken into cognisance though is the fact that although workplace sites have proved to be conducive areas for learning, the proportions to which the personnel are exposed to the very particulate opportunities of learning, together with the dynamics of these, vary significantly. The conscious development of the formal and informal learning fronts in work place sites has culminated from the management decisiveness on the aspects of competitiveness and as well product and market strategies. "The development has come from the frameworks within which decisions are taken regarding the factors of how work is organized within an organisational and also how people are managed." (Coombs, P.H. 1985) Various scholars as well as other researchers have concurred that the integration of various economic and commercial factors has had a significant bearing on the establishment of the broad parameters in which opportunities and obstacles to the effectual existence of work place learning obtain. Research outcomes have led to positions that expansive rather that restrictive environment are perceived to be pro-learning at work as well as the convergence of personal and organisational development. Expansive-Restrictive Continuum Researches into various workplace domain dynamics have culminated in the establishment of a theoretical framework that seeks to explain and contextualise the dynamics around which the manner in which new entrants into a career acquire knowledge and skills that empower them tackle the challenges posed by their career compositions. The dimension of workplace newcomers has been relished with valuable contributions from Lave and Wenger who developed the interlinked tenets of legitimate peripheral participation as well as communities of practice to explain how workplace newcomers (the valid peripheral partakers) develop to full participant status in a defined community of practice. Watkins, K. E. (2001) concur that the newcomers are perceived to embrace learning as a collective relational process which entails the cooperation of the novices with the more experienced personnel. "In our perspective , the acquisition of knowledge is not merely situated in practice like it were some independently definable prices that just occurred to be situated somewhere; the acquisition of knowledge in an integral part of generative social practice in the lived-in world". (Lave and Wenger 1991) Lave and Wenger view the situated learning theory as an essential thrust for those areas tied to social practice as well as that in has contributions to attempts at surmounting what has been called by theorists (Engerstrom 1991) as "The encapsulation of school of learning". Much interest that has been culminated from the forerunning frameworks and ideas on apprenticeship and education has been directed to the non-formal or structured environs. The interest has lead many scholars to invest into researches of workplace learning. Expansive Learning has is enunciated in Engestrom's model of expansive learning. The thrust of the theoretical framework is aimed at fostering significant changes at organisational levels of entities." the object of expansive learning is knowledge impartation process in which the learners are involved." According to the scholars, expansive learning activities generate culturally new trends of activity. Further, expansive learning at work particularly generates new forms of work activity" (Fuller and Unwin 2008, p 129) Basing on the frame work of the expansive learning models, Engestrom's devised an "intervention stratagem" aimed at enhancing efforts to accomplish organisational change. The contributions of the scholar have helped in the explorations of the surmised and existent relationship across the variables or factors of learning environment, quality of learning as well as the similar and different dynamics between workplace learning and individual learning. Livingstone, D. W. (2002) comments, "The works have also been valuable in the evaluation of the approaches directed at the implementation of staff development and various workplace learning programmes." Fuller and Unwin (Opcit: 132) have stated that the expansive approach brings with it valuable insights onto the domains of apprenticeship. The works of Fuller and Unwin (opcit) have helped unveil the features of different learning environment. The insights presented by the scholars recognise two fundamental categories of the expansive as well as restrictive feature; the ones that come from comprehension about organisational context and culture (for instance work organisation, job design, control and the distribution of knowledge and skills) and those tied to comprehensions of the manner in which personnel acquire knowledge through exposure in various participatory activities. The scholars leverage on the conceptual aspect of the expansive learning model to outline that work place individual development and organisational development will be based on the understanding of the relationship between the character and composition of an individual learning territory and how they relate to it. The scholars state that the understanding impacts on the means in which the learner will perceive and engage with the opportunities and barriers encountered in learning at work. "Expansive and Restrictive continuum thus lays a formidable framework for the assessment of the workplace learning. The Situated Learning Theory is closely tied to this conceptual paradigm." (Schugurensky, D. 2000)The theory holds in its core that learning as participation equates to the degree and worth of the given opportunities to participate. Expansive features entail the exposure of personnel to available opportunities as they get to be involved in various groups of practice and acquire broad and deep knowledge across organisational domains. The process also enlists the pursuit of knowledge-based and competence oriented qualification. Schugurensky, D. (2000) adds that the contributions of Fuller and Unwin have shed light of the features of the restrictive-expansive continuum which include off-the-job and on-the- job participatory learning activities for the personnel who must strive to build recognised status as a dynamic leaner privileged with access to career advancement and diversified job responsibilities. In other terms the scholars perceive the significance of tapping workplace learning opportunities for the personnel as constituents of personnel branding. Restrictive features are viewed as those aspects that standoff the flip side of the foregoing. Fuller and Unwin (Opcit) indicate that in firms that have embraced a restrictive approach, learners or the apprentices find it difficult to make inroads in terms of obtaining formal qualifications while on the end they have limited opportunities available for advancement and development. From another angle the scholars present that an expansive learning environment enhances a wide ranging spectrum of "key skills" through encouraging employees to go beyond borders and expose themselves to various work-related contexts. Contributors of the International Journal of Training and Development Paul Lewis et al (2008) underscore that effective and feasible use of human resources is a fundamental prerequisite for enhancing national and corporate economic performance. The scholars state that this has heightened the demand of more work place based programmes of learning aimed at developing personnel to keep pace with the ever evolving business paradigms and thus succor organisations strategically for the prospects of growth and sustainability. There are various factors in contemporarily bodies of knowledge that have triggered the confluence of studies in various domains of knowledge. The sweeping phenomenon of technological advancement has had a lion's share in the evolutions of knowledge gathering among its other capacities and merits. Overwien Bernd et al (2000) states that the developments in knowledge gathering spheres have led to the proliferation of more interdisciplinary and interdepartmental programs which have been implemented in various learning environs including the workplace domains. Ways abound of encouraging workers to participate in workplace based education. Perhaps much illumination on this dimension will draw from the proliferation of staff development programmes for contemporary and emergent technology advancement challenges. "Whilst technology advancement ideally plays into the objectives of the simplification of work, challenges exist in tuning up staff to new technology designs adopted as means to enhance a company's effectiveness and efficiencies." (Merriam, S., Caffarella et al 2007) The need to develop and keep pace with change even beyond the technology domains provides a feasible impetus for personnel and organisations to desire to exploit opportunities and surmount barriers and focus on the career development through acquiring new job-related skills. This study will make use of the United Parcel Service (UPS) case to illustrate how the foregoing provide the impetus and personnel to desire and embrace work place learning. Workplace learning and Technological developments at UPS UPS is a US based global leader in the parcel service industry and has business network coverage spanning over 200 companies. By the 1990s UPS had grown way beyond everyone's expectations. UPS growth has bee the company business network grow to cover over 200 countries the world over today. This has called for better and even more effective ways of handling and conducting delivery operations in the company's ballooning business network. They now felt the need to improve the technology they were using for the delivers. Overwien Bernd et al (2000) notes that UPS invested the funds in various programmes of staff development, training and teamwork seminars.These were aimed at developing their old and new staff to cope with work place challenges that the company faced in face of the efficient and competitiveness stratagems and goals. UPS also introduced the tracking services for the customers. UPS provided the drivers with Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), which allowed them to keep track of what was delivered and what was yet due to be delivered, and the customers would have real time information of their shipments. UPS were the first in the market to set up a website for the customers to track their orders and ensure that the customer was aware of the status of the package. This turned out to be very successful and the demand for the online package tracking grew beyond all expectations. (Overwien Bernd et al 2000) The adoption of workplace learning paradigm can well be deciphered in the conceptual thrust of organisational al change. organisation constantly have to adapt to the various environmental challenges and changes among a host of the factors pose threats to an organisation's , growth , sustainability , efficiency and competitiveness. This can be said on the part of the UPS whose workplace leaning models have been embedded in their organisational change thrust. United Parcel Service has taken steps to restructure itself from an operations-oriented company into a market driven industry basing largely on company research findings that suggested the need to achieve better external customer satisfaction. The steps taken were to improve the overall of all customers that utilize the services at UPS. Senior Vice President John A. J Duffy asserts, "Corporate Strategy is Industry leadership and growth are contingent upon anticipating customer needs and market dynamics long before they occur; and then aligning our organization accordingly". This has been the launch pad for the company's embracement of transformational leadership styles which are comparatively pro-change than the likes of structural and transactional leadership models, thus opening up through typically expansive concepts, the opportunities for personnel work place learning and development. Transformational leadership has a powerful influence on job satisfaction both directly and indirectly through its influence on a person's intrinsic task motivation (empowerment). Transformational leadership tenets that emphasise the essence of flexibility are deemed feasible for the prospects of adopting and implementing customer oriented organisational culture as well as masterminding complimentary staff development programmes. Unlike transactional leadership, which has no effect on empowerment; transformational leadership model is likely to have been adopted by UPS for the implementation of a paradigmatic shift process that enable the company to reorient its thrust towards customer satisfactions above operation. The shift should have enabled UPS personnel to move off traditional and typically product-pushing approaches to customer satisfaction inclined approaches. This new focus has been largely leveraged on the heavy reliance on the prospect of manipulating technological faculties to improve service. UPS Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President Michael L. Eskew aptly outline, "The satisfaction of our customers is the number one priority at work. Communication with loyal customers is conducted on a rotating basis. Telephone interviews are a direct route to evaluating market fluctuations. The mission statement expresses the dedication to customer care is not just in the delivery business but to develop technology that will allow UPS to continue introducing new services, to provide customers with comprehensive information about shipping and provide training to all employees." Although transactional leadership does have a direct effect on job satisfaction transformational leadership augments the effects of transactional leadership in remarkable ways. Passive management by exception is negatively related to job satisfaction and empowerment. UPS service delivery optimisation has been done in cognisance of attested relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction hence retention as well as the links between personnel communication and behavioral skills and customer satisfaction. Sustainability requires business management and leadership to be clairvoyant in a way of anticipating future hurdles and formulating feasible pre-emptive ways of surmounting them. As competition started stiffening in parcel delivery industry, UPS strived to ensure employees would have the skills, knowledge, and the experience needed to function well in increasingly complex work environments. This attests to the pro-change and predictive merits of the transformational leadership style embraced by UPS. IT can be noted that UPS leadership style together with other factors and variables has championed the fruition of the company's growth and sustainability strategies, a further testimony of the merits of the expansive workplace learning environment typifies by the UPS anecdote in its organisational change thrust. Expansive learning opportunities at UPS UPS personnel have had expanded opportunities or career development in the enunciated company's change thrust. Bryon technological development oriented staff training UPS workers shave opportunities in diversifying into other related job domains as the company diversifies to offer more functionality to the corporate and social world. Data obtained from the published company literature on UPS operations designs indicated that the company cashes in on the aspect of providing Information Businesses Need: UPS presents Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) with the information they need in their attempts to keep ahead in their global expansion strategies. By using the technological interfaces that UPS has set up UPS businesses can trace the location of their purchased orders. Schugurensky, D. (2000) expresses, "The facilities also enable customers, both businesses and individuals to research international markets and business costs as well as calculate total shipping costs. By extension the provided services also include the enabling of customers to calculate duties and taxes as well as transportation charges." A crucial dimension o the expansive framework as Outlined by Fuller and Unwin (2003) entails the participation dimension which brings an unpacking of the expansive and restrictive approaches to workforce development in relation to the ways in which personnel acquire expertise. The scholars posit that, "An expansive view of expertise entails the creation of environments which allow for substantial horizon, cross boundary activity, dialogue and problem solving. This aptly applies to the change and sustainability strategy of UPS which has expanded workplace learning opportunities for its personnel in particularly technology and customer-satisfaction related problem solving domains. Fuller and Unwin contributions on the dynamics and theoretical tenets of core work place learning models provide invaluable insights that can be applied to better under how workplace learning can perceived to be essential in complementing education as well as exploring ranging dynamics around the necessity, the efficiency and of course the limitations of the workplace learning. Expansive and Restrictive Models and Apprenticeship Fuller and Unwin (20030 have conducted various researches aimed at establishing the effectiveness of the work-place learning. Their study focused on three companies in the Engineering industry in UK. Fr the purposes of their study the companies were named as A, B, C. Their evaluations of hard data obtained from the three companies enabled them to categorise company A, B as institutions that subscribe to the expansive model of wok-place learning. "Evidence obtained from the target entities which provide models of work-place learning in form of apprenticeships illumines the various forms of apprenticeship being used by modern companies". The scholars have particularly obtained evidence from the three companies to illustrate how the restrictive and expansive models provide barriers and opportunities for effective and meaningful workplace learning. The evidence presented by the scholars shows that for companies A and B which subscribe to the expansive model of workplace learning have clear aims for their apprenticeship programs. Fuller and Unwin state; "Company A leverages on the permanence of its time-honored system and processes (into which it has incorporated the necessities of Modern Apprenticeship) to grow well-rounded 'experts' who have adequate understanding of the ways in which business works and how the activities of the various departments work as a unit and how these can be developed." The scholars point out that from another angle relatable to the expansive model, Company B has made use Modern Apprenticeship as a medium, and possibly as a one-off strategy, to tackle staffing difficulties. (Fuller and Unwin 2003). The scholars further state that in the case of company C the ambiguous objective as well as trajectory of the apprenticeship programme has functioned in a manner that undermines the learning process, "Even in case when the learner (apprentice) was afforded the opportunity to take part in the emerging community of proactive in the organisation" (Fuller and Unwin 2003). What can be deduced from the outcomes of the research conducted by (Fuller and Unwin 2003) is that the expansive model of learning in the workplace presents a better approach to enhancing the effectiveness of workplace learning. It is also deductible that modern companies still to have to make the most of the merits presented by the expansive model in championing the success of work-place related learning as can be derived from the case with company B. References Paul Lewis et, (2008) International Journal of Training and Development Leeds University Business School, The University of Leeds, Leeds, S2 9JT UK, p 123 Helen Rainbird, Alison Fuller, Anne Munro, (2004) Workplace Learning in Context, Routledge, p 129 Reichheld, F., and Sasser, W. (1990), Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Service.UPS Harvard Business Review, 68(5), p.105-111. Schlesinger, L., and Heskett, J. (1991), The Service-Driven Service Company. Harvard Business Review, 69(5), p,71-81. Shafiroff, M. and Shook, R. (1990). UPS. New York: Harper & Row., p 53 Coombs, Ph.; Ahmed, H. (1974): Attacking rural Poverty. How nonformal education can help. Baltimore Coombs, P.H. (1985). The World Crisis in Education: A View from the Eighties. 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In: International Review of Education, Vol. 46, 6, November 2000, S. 621-640 SCHUGURENSKY, D. (2000): The Forms of Informal Learning: Towards a Concep-tualization of the Field. Draft Working Paper October, Read More