The impact of the manager on learning in the workplace

Abstract

Our research focused on the development of knowledge and skills in employment (Eraut et al., 1998a). Briefly, our study involved double interviews, 6 to 12 months apart, with 120 people operating at a professional, management or technician level in 12 organisations. These organisations were in the engineering, financial services and healthcare sectors. The approach adopted was that of finding out what kinds of work activity our respondents were currently conducting, what kinds of knowledge and skill were entailed, how they had acquired the capability to do what they now did, and what factors had affected this learning process. Our findings showed that:• Formal education and training provide only a small part of what is learned at work. Indeed, most of the learning described in our interviews was non-formal, neither clearly specified nor planned. It arose naturally out of the demands and challenges of work-solving problems, improving quality and/or productivity, or coping with change – and out of social interactions in the workplace with colleagues, customers or clients. Responding to such challenges entails both working and learning – one cannot be separated from the other. In retrospect it may be described as learning from experience. Although this leads to the development of knowledge, skills and understanding, such learning is often difficult to explain to others.