Workers in the studied workgroups tended to manage their learning needs to minimise their supervisors' involvement, with supervisors not the contacts of first resort for learning¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2003 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across four workgroups, workers generally avoided involving supervisors in their learning except when supervisors were part of the work flow or needed for strategic awareness. → David Boud and Heather Middleton 2003

Evidence¶

David Boud and Heather Middleton 2003¶

David Boud and Heather Middleton. (2003). Learning from Others at Work: Communities of Practice and Informal Learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15, 5, 194-202. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665620310483895

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Cross-site qualitative finding from interviews and social network analysis in four workgroups of a large Australian vocational education organisation. The article reports workers "tended in general to manage their learning needs to minimise their supervisors' involvement" in learning.

"Workers in the sites examined tended in general to manage their learning needs to minimise their supervisors' involvement in their learning process except when they were clearly a part of the work flow (and thus not avoidable)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Domain Context — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• A common learning pattern: workers first consult documentary sources, then nearby peers, then distant peers or more senior roles, then supervisors — related
• Informal learning in the studied workgroups clustered into three areas: mastery of organisational processes, negotiating the political, and dealing with the atypical — related
• Workgroups in the study could generally not be regarded as communities of practice, though subsets operated as communities of practice for specific issues — related
• The range of communities of practice and opportunities for informal learning available to an employee increases with seniority in a large organisation — related