Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of using a personal development plan (PDP) on the undertaking of learning activities and the employee's job competencies. Design/methodology/approach: Data from Dutch pharmacy assistants was collected (n=2,271). Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) as well as regression analyses were conducted on this…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is essentially to examine the contribution of reflection in providing a stronger association between explicit competences and role clarity when reflection is used as a means of articulating competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes). Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a correlational survey design…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze learning in a Swedish trade union board in a workplace, according to contemporary challenges in working life and conditions, of decentralization and local independency of trade union work and learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on ethnographic studies of two Swedish local trade…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to reveal and analyse dominant learning processes in emergency response work from the fire-fighters' point of view, and how fire-fighters develop their competence. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted an explorative approach using participant observation. The objective of this open-minded approach…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse employees' perception of a change at their workplaces and the requirements for learning, and factors supporting or inhibiting learning in the context of this change. Design/methodology/approach: Data collection included personal face-to-face semi-structured interviews with ten client advisors in the…

Purpose: Learning at work generalises through socialisation into behaviours away from the workplace. The aim of this study is to give empirical evidence of a positive relationship between job design, self-efficacy, competence efficacy and personal initiative at work, and proactive job search while under notice of redundancy and in unemployment.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a critical understanding of IT enhanced competence management and its promise to bridge operational and strategic functions with the aim of revealing potential hidden challenges. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data were gathered through interviews and observations during a longitudinal field…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding of why firms, specifically small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), participate in a programme for competence development and why firms use different strategies for competence development. Design/methodology/approach: A study of 17 SMEs that all received support from the European…

Purpose: This study of the impact of relationships on the development of practice competence in new graduates entering the workforce aims to contribute to the understanding of relational learning activities and enrich the knowledge about the overall process of learning practice skill. Design/methodology/approach: This research used a qualitative…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the learning of entrepreneurs in authentic learning environments. The research questions are: How do entrepreneurs assess their compentencies, and how do employees and external consultants assess the compentencies of these entrepreneurs? What are the competence strengths and weaknesses of…

Purpose: To identify competencies connecting personality, organizational orientations and self-reported learning outcomes (as measured by concise Likert-type scales), for individuals who are learning for their organizations. Design/methodology/approach: Five concise factor scales were constructed to represent aspects of personality. Three further…

Purpose: The paper seeks to show the relationship between organisational structure and flexibility of training has not been well researched. Focusing on the role of recognition of current competencies, this study provides evidence of the effects of the former on the latter. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper evidence was obtained by…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to assess whether the effort of consulting firms and branch organizations to establish a shared and standardized methodology as a means to professionalize consulting and as a standard for training is possible and sensible. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among Dutch management…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine employees' conceptions of the meaning of experience in job-competence and its development in workplace context. The aim is to bring out the variety of conceptions related to experience, competence and workplace learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on interview data from six Finnish small and…

Purpose: This paper examines the ways social networks, socialization, self-organizing systems, and systems thinking have influenced the gradual evolution of communities of practice into Communities of Competence. Design/methodology/approach: Proposes a Community of Competence as a new framework and a methodology to describe, assess, and combine…