Though commuting is often seen as a source of stress, commuters may take advantage of travel time to pursue learning and developmental goals—a concept we refer to as Commute-Based Learning (CBL). We draw on self-regulation and learning and development theories to define CBL in terms of its context, content, and process and present the findings of a systematic review of multitasking activities in the transportation literature. This review demonstrates that (a) travel-based activities related to learning are increasingly prevalent, (b) people enjoy being productive during their commutes, and (c) commute mode and environmental characteristics impact multitasking and evaluations of the commute itself. We then integrate these review findings with psychological theories to propose a framework specifying the predictors of CBL, its benefits, and drawbacks, and the commute mode's moderating influence. These efforts yield several practical implications and future research directions to increase CBL's potential benefits while reducing potential harm. Plain Language Summary Although commuting can often be a source of stress, commuters may also take advantage of travel time to pursue learning and developmental goals—a concept we refer to as Commute-Based Learning (CBL).To emphasize the potential benefits and pitfalls of CBL, we draw on learning and development, self-regulation, multiple-goal pursuit, and multiple resource theories to define CBL in terms of its context (where it occurs), content (what it includes), and process (how it is done). Next, we present the findings of a systematic review ofresearch on multitasking activities in the transportation literature to gather evidence of the learning activities that commuters may pursue.This review demonstrates that (a) travel-based activities related to learning are increasingly prevalent, (b) people enjoy being productive during their commutes, and (c)commute mode and environmental characteristics impact multitasking and evaluations of the commute itself. We then integrate these findings from the transportation literature with psychological theories to propose a framework specifying the predictors of CBL (individual and organizational), its benefits (expertise, need satisfaction and well-being) and drawbacks (depletion, reduced safety), and the critical role of commute mode as a moderator of these relationships. Our definition and framework of CBL inform practical implications for improving the benefits of learning during the commute, while mitigating its potential drawbacks. We also present suggested directions for future multidisciplinary research. We hope this review provides insight into the state of the literature on commute-based learning and a clear research agenda for advancement in this broadly important, yet underdeveloped area.
Hayes et al. (2020) raised the million-dollar question in the midst of the #metoo movement: Why has antidiscrimination/harassment training to date been mostly ineffective? They contended that this is likely a reflection of misalignment among training content, goals, and effectiveness criteria. They proposed adopting novel perspectives beyond traditional applied psychology theories to refocus both research and practical efforts to tackle this all-important issue. Although we commend the vast array of perspectives and associated research questions raised by the authors, one factor that also merits consideration is the degree to which existing antidiscrimination/ harassment training representatively and accurately reflects the daily occurrences in the workplace. Specifically, we believe that current sexual harassment (SH) training often portrays these issues to be gender specific (i.e., heterosexual men harassing heterosexual women), and such misrepresentation is likely to impact trainees' attitudes and training transfer negatively. In this commentary, we draw from intersectional research on SH and the training literature to argue that current training should represent a more extensive set of minorities whose intersecting stigmatized identities make them especially vulnerable to SH. Furthermore, although we acknowledge that SH is a specific manifestation of discrimination, we are focusing our discussion on SH because this is often a separate category of training in both research literature and organizational settings while operating under some of the similar mechanisms as discrimination. Sexual harassment-who else besides (White) women? The typical portrayal of SH tends to be heterosexual (and often White) women being harassed by heterosexual men; hence, SH is primarily viewed as a women-specific and sexual-desire-driven problem. Indeed, women make up a considerable portion of harassment victims, and they also tend to report more cases of SH than men do (Quick & McFadyen, 2017). According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in 2011, 83.7% of the sexual harassment claims were made by women (EEOC, n.d.). Additionally, survey work examining firefighters found 84.7% of women were treated differently because of their sex, and 30.2% of women experienced sexual advances in the workplace (Hulett et al., 2008). However, this is an oversimplification of the reality of the issue: Women are not the only gender being harassed. The intersection of one's gender with other stigmatized social identities (e.g., race, sexual orientation) can further exacerbate the degree to which he or she is harassed. Sex-based harassment (SBH), as proposed by Berdahl (2007), is a more accurate, inclusive portrayal of the issue. Traditional SH tends to frame The first four authors contributed equally to this article.
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