Learning to Work and Working to Learn - Literature review Example

Running Head: Summary Name: University: Course: Date of Submission: Summary of the two articles Human Resource Development (HRD) is an outlined framework that helps employees to develop their personal as well as organizational skills, knowledge and abilities. Human Resource Development therefore includes much more opportunities such as employee training, employee career development and organizational development. The main purpose of Human resource development is to ensure that individual employees actually accomplish their work goals to their service customers. Human Resource development maybe through many forms such as classroom training, college course or through planned organizational change. Also Human Resource Development may involve informal ways such as employee coaching, monitoring and evaluation (Aamodt,pp.233-248). The research papers on How Nurses Experience Their Work as a Learning Environment as well as Routine-Generating and Regenerative Workplace Learning are two articles which discusses the issue of workplace learning and Human Resource Development in industrial manufacturing work. The two articles adopts a qualitative as well as an interpretive approach in which they concludes that work place learning has two main purposes thus routine-generating which mainly helps employees on the issue of job mastery. Job mastery is very much important on new employed job learners since it gives them an overview of how they are expected to work as well as behave while they are on work and when with other individuals at work place (Billett, pp.272-283) . Additionally, the articles concludes that work place learning enhanced through human resource development is more important as it acts as a form of regenerating learning which in the end helps in promoting employee ongoing competence hence helping the learners to develop new skills as well as new work methods. The articles states that Routine –generating learning occurs in cases where a new employee is employed by an organization and in the process of inducting the new employee on various tasks and activities of the organization, the employee is well supported as well as assessed as per organizational learning company assessment. The articles emphasize the need for employee job rotational as this gives them an opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge on other organizational tasks. This is stemmed from the mere fact that lack of job rotational is a key hindrance to routine-generating learning since regenerative learning normally takes place at an employee individual basis hence need for it to be adequately supported by the employers (Billett, pp.272-283). The articles therefore tries to put the idea of work place learning in industrial work and how it can be achieved through analysis of the true meaning of nurse’s experiences in relation with their learning environment. In article one qualitative research design was used hermeneutic approach was used through which eleven nurses were interviewed from which it was concluded that job description, employee participation in learning environment is more important in developing a given employee’s interpersonal relations as well as when it comes to employee accessing knowledge resources (Ashton,pp.43-53).. From the articles it’s clear that informants play a great role in helping employees to understand their work learning environment as it gives them directions on how to interact well at their workplace and how their workplace influence their participation in work activities as well as other personal activities. From the articles it’s clearly that Human Resource development through work place learning is more important in developing employee’s skills and knowledge at work place since it can be deduced from the study that the n employees tend to became more aware of their responsibilities through continuous learning at work. Moreover, through work learning, employees are able to develop advanced professional skills which they obtained from the support they received from co-coworkers. Human Resource Development through work learning is more important as it helps the employees to gain more knowledge on the issue of resource usage as it gives the employees a chance to learn from their mistakes hence making right decisions while at work (Andrew, pp.246-252). From these articles it can be deduced that in order for an organization to effectively enhance proper workplace environment then it implies that workplace characteristic such as community of workers, hierarchical structures, cultural practices and personal relations on learning should be clearly upheld given the fact that these factors have a great impact on Human Resource Development employee learning. The articles therefore summarizes that for effective development Human Resource Development in organization is necessary that the organization put in place proper measures that enhance employee learning. Moreover, the creation of employee learning environment in an organization is very much important for strategic growth as it reflects the importance of focusing on learning process as part of employee professional development in an ever changing industrial work system. Why are these important for HRD As per the research established in article on How Nurses Experience Their Work as a Learning Environment, Nurses tends to work in an ever-changing health environment, this implies that work learning plays a very important role in professional development. From the perspective of Human Resource Development continuous job satisfaction and improvement of patient care is more important to the nursing occupation. Since the nursing profession is more involving as well as technical nurses consider themselves as lifelong learners hence they are meant to actively seek socially orientated learning activities through exchanging, sharing and adhering to the knowledge. From this it can therefore be concluded that acquiring of knowledge from co-workers in some situations of uncertainty is more important to any employee since it seeks to improve professional nursing skills. For nurses it’s very much important to understand all the work factors as way of sustaining the demanding work environments through individual as well as collective learning processes in various work activities (Andrew, pp.246-252). Work learning is very important in building up community relationships as these kinds of relationships tend to give work place identity and meaning to various professional individuals. Belonging, participation and collaboration are very much important towards professional sustainability as well as community practice. The article puts more emphasizes on the need for an employee to understand the their daily work in relation to the community as the way nurses should as way of achieving effective work contribution to the community (Andrew, pp.246-252). According to the article job autonomy, co-worker and job commitment are very essential to any job mastery in the field of nursing. This is due to the fact that hospital environments as well as interprofessional relationships are more important for effective delivery in nursing since they positively influence the nurses. Given the fact that most of the nurses try as much as possible to show positive consideration for the community members through avoiding conflicts it proves a fact that a social environment is more important for the nursing profession. This is because provision of a social environment tends to provide proper state for the nurses to learn though at the same time it helps them to engage in social complex activities and relationships in their work. The article therefore is developed on the mere fact that work learning is a process which takes place on two levels thus an individual as well as socially shared level. Learning and Learning and Work The research on this article argues that there is a relationship that exists between an individual engaging in an organizational work as well as learning about that work. This because learning is considered as a process through which individual workers may interact with their social work as well as their experience at workplace. According to the article there is a big distinction between socio-cultural perspective on learning and thinking at workplace as well as work learning (Ashton, pp.43-53). From the argument an individual engaging in social activities is more important for his or her work when it comes to constructive learning process about a particular activity. Through social participation an individual is able to develop the desire for continuous learning through his or her working period with a specific organization (Andrew, pp.246-252). The article states that social environment has a heavy influence on an a worker as it enables individuals to construct more meaning towards their profession by engaging in various active processes that are meant to develop their work practices. Various factors have been proved to have a heavy influence on the employee learning process and these factors include; activities, goals and co-workers guidance. Lifelong Learning at Work The study on Routine-Generating and Regenerative Workplace Learning indicates that Lifelong learning today is considered as the answer to how individuals can perfectly cope up with various challenges at their workplace and the ever increasing pressures from the society. With the era of industrialization, individuals cannot only rely on formal acquired skills and knowledge gained through initial vocational training instead they are required to keep on learning in order to perform their work as well as how to undertake new tasks. The mere fact that companies are becoming more and more developed new skills and knowledge by its employees is being needed for the companies to sustain high levels of innovation and competitiveness (Billett, pp.272-283). Lifelong learning is issue of concern hence it cannot be found only through classroom rather through work learning as well as everyday activities at workplaces. This is because workplace learning is very much important since it provides more opportunities for continuous learning hence supporting individual well-being, development, and sustainability. The creation of conducive workplace learning as well as organizational learning environment for employees both individually and collectively has become a major issue of concern for many companies today. There are various models which have been developed that can assists organizations in promoting learning for its employees as they critically help employers in assessing possibilities for learning and the likely barriers that may hinder learning (Andrew, pp.246-252) According to the research conducted both articles conducive work activities and social interactions are very much important in contemporary industrial work as they help in gathering empirical data for supplier packaging. The article indicates that workplace learning mainly is concerned with routine-generating and this mainly contributes to the initial learning of employees within a specific work area or job that is new to them individually. This implies that routine- generating learning is very important as it helps an individual to specifically formulate basic professional competence and individual appropriation of routines that are needed for a particular kind of work (Ashton,pp.43-53). To Engage in Interpersonal Relations For an employee to effectively understand the true meaning of work it’s important for an individual to relate well with other employees as this gives an individual an opportunity to learn from fellow staff members. The study carried out on nurses indicated that interacting with other staff members gives them the courage or confidence to perform certain tasks effectively (Bell,pp.280-283). Feedback and comments from other colleagues is very much important since it gives an individual an opportunity to make corrections and make perfection when performing that particular task or work. Supportive environment is very much important since it influences the process of continuous improvement among employees hence making them more professional when performing their work especially nurses. Since nurse’s have a responsibility to take full care of patients, it implies that creating a working environment between the patient and the nurse is very important for career development (Bell,pp.280-283). Accessing Important Knowledge Resources According to the research, knowledge of resources is very much important at work places. This is because when an individual accesses the resources its considered as a form of learning experience. Good strategies to manage work challenges should be implemented despite the nature of work at hand. Varying kind of knowledge is very much important in responding to as and meeting complex situations of patient care (Barnett,pp.29-43). The structure of work place has a great influence on a certain nurse since it influences the nurses’ ability to research and discover how various physicians are also involved in patient care. For a nurse to stay more current then there is need for an organization to put in place resources such as internet through which they can access more research as well as knowledge that is applicable to their work. Questions that arises Since learning is considered as an open process for each and every individual at workplace the question that rises from this concept is the mere fact that whether learning is consequence of performing work activities or in itself can be considered as an activity performed at work place on its own. From this perspective it can be concluded that workplace learning is informal learning process as it is considered as a by-product of certain work processes as opposed to the normal formal learning process in relation to educational contexts. Work learning therefore is seen as informal process that mostly related to Human Resource Development since it encompasses the employee participation in group processes, team work where individuals are given an opportunity to work alongside others, handling challenging tasks, roles and lastly working effectively with clients (Barnett,pp.29-43). Individual learning therefore is more connected to the way an individual actively participates work activities, personal experiences of trust and confidence as well as the kind of support he or she receives from the support staff in challenging work activities. For an individual to understand effectively work place structures its important workplace curriculum be implemented as an alternative way towards understanding organizational structure as well as the sequence of the activities related to work goals and practices. How these issues relate to HRD As per the articles individuals who tend to engage in more complex work activities and they are in a position to access both direct and indirect guidance are more likely to develop high vocational skills, work understanding and knowledge more than those who are not. Workplace participation therefore is more important since it provides opportunities for various individuals to take part in various work activities that may develop his or her knowledge which is the main purpose of HRD.Though life long learning is more important, most of the professionals face certain challenges that connected to this process when it comes to individual responsibility maintaining as well as professional expertise (Barnett,pp.29-43). From this it can be deduced that professionals should possess the ability to facilitate knowledge creation as well as share the knowledge created by them. Since nursing profession is more involving, connection between individual engagement and individual desire to learn is required to achieve successful profession development. Though personal experiences and work experiences are a high influence on learning process, it’s necessary that individuals look beyond accounts of learning and development too (Billett, pp.272-283). Most of the nurse graduates normally experience problems in socialization process in their work processes due to the lack of cohesion within their work profession which implies that supportive environment full of respect and trust is very important for professional participation. For an individual to overcome this barrier, especially the nurses it’s more important the fresh nurse graduates to understand and acknowledge their work limitations related to the job mastery in various specialized fields by seeking guidance and assistance when they need it (Eraut, pp.113-136). This is because when nurses seek support they become more confident in certain challenging work situations after acquiring the required skills. The study therefore summarized that an individuals learning process affects to a large extend professional nursing practice. Implications for practice From the two articles it’s clear that nurses are required to constantly learn as way of staying current with new development revolving around their career. Through this they can effectively manage their own responsibilities related to their work and the patient’s too. This clearly indicates that professional learning of nurses is much very important as it involves a particular nurse belonging to, participating and collaborating with communities of practice. Various work places have different work characteristics, resource allocations as well as structures that are of much importance in influencing an individual’s workplace learning (Alvsvåg, pp.14). The composition of work is of great importance as communities of other kind of professions and the presence of co-workers improves the learning process of a nurse since, nurses use their co-workers as mentors, role models who make their work more possible and manageable. References Aamodt, Havnes. Factors affecting professional job mastery: quality of study or work experience? Quality in Higher Education,pp. 233–248, 2008. Alvsvåg, Harvin. The nurse’s learning through the patient’s encounter with death. Klinisk Sygepleje, pp. 14, 2008. Andrew, Tolson. Building on Wenger: communities of practice in Nurse Education Today,pp.246–252, 2008. Ashton, Nelson. The impact of organizational structure and practices on learning in the workplace. International Journal of Training and Development,pp. 43–53,2007. Barnett, R. Learning to work and working to learn. In D. Boud & J. Garrick (Eds.), Understanding learning at work (pp. 29–43). London: Routledge, 2006 Bell, C. R. Informal learning in organizations. Personnel Journal, pp. 280–283 & 313, 2006 Billett, Sam. Guided learning at work. Journal of Workplace Learning. New York: Wily and Sons, pp.272–283, 2000. Eraut, Merlin. Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. British Journal of Educational Psychology, pp. 113–136, 2007. http://www.springerlink.com/content/l8l521w6481r707u/.accessed on 31st August 2010. http://www.springerlink.com/content/232q708m717v8tut/ accessed on 31st August 2010. Read More