The main thrust of the research effort into workplace learning has been to identify the characteristics of workplace learning as experienced by the learner. The impact of the wider organisational process in which that learning is embedded have been played down. This paper, building on the work of Koike and Darrah, uses research conducted in a major multinational corporation (MNC) in South‐East Asia, to explore the impact of the wider organisational structures on the process of learning. The model it develops not only shows how these processes impact on workplace learning but also helps explain why workers acquire different levels of skill.
The dominant view today is of a global knowledge-based economy, driven by the application of new technologies, accelerating the shift to high-skilled, high-waged European economies. This view is reflected in the expansion of higher education and the key role of higher education in national and European economic policy. The Lisbon agenda seeks to make the European Union 'the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion' (European Commission, 2003, p. 2) Not only is education believed to hold the key to international competitiveness but to the foundations of social justice and social cohesion. This article will outline the underlying assumptions of this mantra, which in many respects has changed little since the 1960s when human capital theory gained increasing prominence in education and economic policy (Halsey, 1961). It will then examine the prospects for the creation of high-skills economies throughout Europe in light of new realities of the global economy. This analysis is based on interviews with senior managers and executives in leading transnational companies and government policy makers in seven countries including China and India. In conclusion, we will outline a series of issues as a contribution toward a new agenda for education and the knowledge economy within the European Research Area. Technological Evolution and the Rise of the Knowledge Economy A striking feature of what Grubb & Lazerson (2006) call the 'educational gospel' is the continuity in thinking about economic development and the role of education. It is consistent with a technocratic model of evolutionary social change that has a long tradition in the social sciences. Clark Kerr and his colleagues (1973) highlighted the progressive nature of industrialisation since it depended on a greater role for science and technological innovation that demanded high levels of education and meritocratic opportunity. While some sociologists have been critical of economic theories of human capital because of their emphasis on economic rationality (Fevre, 2003), they have shared a similar model of industrial progress that runs through the writings of Comte, Durkheim, Parsons and Bell. Societies are assumed to move from simple to complex divisions of labour driven by scientific knowledge that accelerates the pace of technological innovation. These trends are mirrored in the transformation of the education system-from mass elementary to mass higher education-as the demand for Phillip Brown et al 132 skilled workers increases due to what economists call 'technological bias', which asserts that at the same time that new technologies eliminate some jobs through automation they create new higher skilled employment and up-skill existing jobs (Lauder et al, forthcoming). The transformation of work is also assumed to change the relationship between employees and employers. As high skills (including individual expertise, knowledge and creativity) become...
T his article focuses on the impact that organisational innovations ± new management practices or high performance work systems, as they are variously termed ± have on employers' skill demands. There has been considerable debate about the extent to which these innovations and practices merely represent another management fad, how far they have been adopted by organisations across the economy and, more recently, what impact they have had on organisational performance and pro® tability. During these debates it is sometimes assumed that such practices automatically call forth new skill demands, such as problem solving, communication and teamworking. Yet, apart from a few case studies, there has been no systematic attempt to identify the existence and distribution of these skills within the labour force and to link them to the existence of new organisational forms.The article begins by critically reviewing the existing literature on this topic. It goes on to outline a new source of survey data which offers the prospect of con® rming or denying the link between organisational structure and skills used at work. The methods used to identify these new organisational features and the skill demands they are said to call forth are then presented. The results are based on interviews carried out in 1997 with 2,195 employees in Britain. The article argues that these results provide robust evidence of a relationship between the adoption of these new organisational practices and the demand for new types of skill among sections of the labour force. 1 It concludes with an examination of some of the implications that these ® ndings have for practitioners, policy makers and academics. Changing organisational formsThe processes of globalisation, technological change and the intensi® cation of international competition have produced a series of changes in organisational forms which are well established in the literature. These include the delayering of organisations, the greater use of techniques such as total quality management (TQM), quality circles (QCs), teamwork, the more widespread adoption of information technologies , multiskilling, improved communication systems and more participatory forms of management. These are adopted as organisations struggle to reduce costs while increasing the quality of their products (Ezzamel et al, 1996). The introduction of competitive tendering and the more extensive use of market mechanisms in the delivery of public serv ices have produced similar consequences in the public sector and among not-for-pro® t organisations.Yet there is a lack of agreement in the literature about the precise terminology to be used to denote these new practices. In the US, Ichniowski et al (1996) refer to them as `workplace innovations' (ibid: 300). In the UK, Bacon et al (1996: 87) drawing on the work of Storey (1992) refer to similar innovations under the umbrella of the `new management' model or the `new management agenda'. This consists of the following: a culture change programme, devolved management, teamworkin...
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