What motivates knowledge workers to learn?
Saturday, 1 December 2007
Martyn Sloman
THE development of professional workers in organisations has become a growing priority in the past few years. The acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills of employees, if properly harnessed and directed, has become a crucial difference between organisations. It is the application of knowledge and skills that drives profit in the private sector, delivers services in the public sector and achieves shared objectives in the third, or voluntary, sector.
These skills are increasingly acquired not through top-down training but through the work of the self-directed learner. In short the place of skills in the business and the way that they are acquired has changed.
The impact of this change has been particularly evident in the case of what have become known as knowledge workers. Robert Reich, formerly Bill Clinton's labour secretary, in his seminal 1991 book The Work of Nations, described today's knowledge workers as symbolic-analysts: they undertake all the problem-solving, problem identifying and strategic-brokering activities. They develop their own vocabulary and symbols - data, words, oral and visual representations. These are the people who can work anywhere if they have access to the internet. They communicate with other professionals across the boundaries of the organisation.
So how do knowledge workers learn? At best, they find things out for themselves, learn from each other and share acquired knowledge with their colleagues. All this underpins a major shift of the past decade: the emphasis has moved from training to learning. Training can be defined as "an instructor-led, content-based intervention, leading to desired changes in behaviour" and learning as "a self-directed, work-based process, leading to increased adaptive capacity". Training and learning are related but conceptually different activities. Only learners can learn: they can be made to sit in the training room or in front of a screen but they cannot be made to learn. Therefore an effective strategy to promote learning must consider management, motivation and preparedness.
What motivates knowledge workers to learn? We can say with confidence that knowledge workers learn when they enjoy the process, feel that it will advance their status and capacity to do the job, and when they care about the organisation.
Before joining the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, I worked as director of management education and training at professional services firm Ernst & Young. Senior managers on the verge of partnership were the most highly motivated group you could imagine. If they had been told at five o'clock on Friday that an ability to master synchronised swimming was a pre-requisite of partnership, by the following Monday morning they would have been able to assemble a highly competitive synchronised swimming team. All they needed was an indication of what was expected and they would get on with it.
Continuous professional development (CPD) provides a clear framework in which the professional can manage his or her knowledge and skills-enhancement. It encourages them to keep up to date and share skills within and outside the organisation.
The downside, of course, is that these acquired skills are portable. They make the individual more attractive to other employers. However, our research shows that organisations face bigger costs through staff lost by not offering development opportunities.
We can therefore expect staff development in general, and CPD in particular, to assume more importance as we advance into an increasingly competitive 21st century economy. Organisations will compete by adding value through their workforce. What is beyond question is that the same considerations, issues and solutions are taking place throughout the world.
In 2006 we undertook a major piece of research on learning, training and development in organisations across the world. We looked for differences in approach to learning and development, possibly reflecting different cultural backgrounds. We found no fundamental differences: the underlying model proved to be the same throughout the world.
Those involved in learning, training and development are intervening to develop the knowledge and skills of the workforce to allow the organisation to deliver high-value products and more efficient services. The only real difference is that we need to intervene in different ways depending on the prior experience of the learner.
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Martyn Sloman is learning, training and development adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
THE development of professional workers in organisations has become a growing priority in the past few years. The acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills of employees, if properly harnessed and directed, has become a crucial difference between organisations. It is the application of knowledge and skills that drives profit in the private sector, delivers services in the public sector and achieves shared objectives in the third, or voluntary, sector.
These skills are increasingly acquired not through top-down training but through the work of the self-directed learner. In short the place of skills in the business and the way that they are acquired has changed.
The impact of this change has been particularly evident in the case of what have become known as knowledge workers. Robert Reich, formerly Bill Clinton's labour secretary, in his seminal 1991 book The Work of Nations, described today's knowledge workers as symbolic-analysts: they undertake all the problem-solving, problem identifying and strategic-brokering activities. They develop their own vocabulary and symbols - data, words, oral and visual representations. These are the people who can work anywhere if they have access to the internet. They communicate with other professionals across the boundaries of the organisation.
So how do knowledge workers learn? At best, they find things out for themselves, learn from each other and share acquired knowledge with their colleagues. All this underpins a major shift of the past decade: the emphasis has moved from training to learning. Training can be defined as "an instructor-led, content-based intervention, leading to desired changes in behaviour" and learning as "a self-directed, work-based process, leading to increased adaptive capacity". Training and learning are related but conceptually different activities. Only learners can learn: they can be made to sit in the training room or in front of a screen but they cannot be made to learn. Therefore an effective strategy to promote learning must consider management, motivation and preparedness.
What motivates knowledge workers to learn? We can say with confidence that knowledge workers learn when they enjoy the process, feel that it will advance their status and capacity to do the job, and when they care about the organisation.
Before joining the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, I worked as director of management education and training at professional services firm Ernst & Young. Senior managers on the verge of partnership were the most highly motivated group you could imagine. If they had been told at five o'clock on Friday that an ability to master synchronised swimming was a pre-requisite of partnership, by the following Monday morning they would have been able to assemble a highly competitive synchronised swimming team. All they needed was an indication of what was expected and they would get on with it.
Continuous professional development (CPD) provides a clear framework in which the professional can manage his or her knowledge and skills-enhancement. It encourages them to keep up to date and share skills within and outside the organisation.
The downside, of course, is that these acquired skills are portable. They make the individual more attractive to other employers. However, our research shows that organisations face bigger costs through staff lost by not offering development opportunities.
We can therefore expect staff development in general, and CPD in particular, to assume more importance as we advance into an increasingly competitive 21st century economy. Organisations will compete by adding value through their workforce. What is beyond question is that the same considerations, issues and solutions are taking place throughout the world.
In 2006 we undertook a major piece of research on learning, training and development in organisations across the world. We looked for differences in approach to learning and development, possibly reflecting different cultural backgrounds. We found no fundamental differences: the underlying model proved to be the same throughout the world.
Those involved in learning, training and development are intervening to develop the knowledge and skills of the workforce to allow the organisation to deliver high-value products and more efficient services. The only real difference is that we need to intervene in different ways depending on the prior experience of the learner.
............................................
Martyn Sloman is learning, training and development adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.