In a contemporary business environment where change is often regarded as continuous, the ability of people or organizations to be able to successfully adapt and respond to change is key. Change often involves not only the learning of new behaviours, ideas, or practices but also giving up or abandoning some established ones. Despite both these elements generally being important to change, academic focus on processes of abandoning or giving up established knowledge and practices, that is, unlearning, is lacking. This conceptual article draws on a range of literature to suggest that the process of individual unlearning may have particular features. The review defines the concept of unlearning, differentiates between two different types of individual unlearning, and suggests that each type of individual unlearning may have its own distinctive features and dynamics. This article builds from this insight through developing a typology, which distinguishes between four types of individual unlearning. It concludes with an agenda for future empirical research to examine and validate the concepts presented.
Problems of retention and turnover of allied health professionals are under‐researched. A longitudinal (two‐year) study of four allied health professions (AHPs) in the British health‐care system sampled from three categories – stayers, leavers and returners. Qualitative data identified respondents' (n = 1925) own reasons for staying within the National Health Service (NHS), leaving it or returning to it. Data at the second stage of the study (n = 719) additionally identified reasons for staying in non‐NHS employment. Responses show key differences among stayers, leavers and returners for their employment choice decisions. Differences between AHPs in the NHS and those working outside it are also identified. Longitudinal data revealed the influence of the changing employment context on employment choice decisions. Findings are related to the policy context and relevant theoretical literature. Recommendations for future research, particularly focusing on stayers so as to enhance retention strategies, are made.
This project was designed to examine university graduates' expectations and experiences of employment in small organizations in the UK and the Netherlands. Specifically, three predictions were made on the basis of existing literature and tested using self-report questionnaire data gathered from 126 graduate employees in small organizations (67 in the UK; 59 in the Netherlands). Where possible, comparisons are made with an earlier study of graduates in large UK-based organizations. Graduates reported positive experiences in many areas. These often exceeded their expectations, and in general over-met expectations were much more common than under-met ones. The graduates' work appeared to offer quite high autonomy, the chance to develop a wide range of skills, and to progress towards career goals, at least in the short term. In line with previous research, there were some signs that pay, training and within-organization career prospects were relatively weak areas. Taken as a whole, the results challenge some of the more negative images of employment in small organizations, and also the preoccupation with under-met expectations in the literature on new entrants to organizations.
From a constructionist perspective, we examine how non-managerial employees make sense of the part played by other people in shaping their careers. Taking as our starting point the methodological limitations of existing research into career shapers and arguing for a perspective that starts with actors’ situated understandings, we use a life story method to develop a new typology of career shapers. Grounded in our data, we distinguish and contrast the shaper categories of adviser, informant, witness, gatekeeper and intermediary in terms of their perceived impact on individuals, including their career aspirations, career enactment, and their career world-view and career self-concept. At the level of practice, locating themselves within this framework will enable line managers, human resources staff and professional careers advisers to be explicit about the career support they can offer, and to identify other potentially valuable career shapers.
This article is concerned with parents' experiences and perceptions of being involved in a family literacy programme. The research, which was conducted from
Purpose -The aim of this paper is to describe a study of online, asynchronous dialogues between tutors and nine work-based postgraduate learners on learning through work (LtW) programmes. Design/methodology/approach -Adopting a constructivist perspective and using a qualitative approach, 670 messages were segmented into semantic units and categorised by activity and content. Analysis borrowed from content and discourse approaches and categories were grounded in the data. Findings -Online exchanges were found to mirror those of effective face-to-face learning encounters. Learners asked questions, reported on their progress and plans, sought and gave feedback, and disclosed personal information and feelings. Tutors gave direct answers, advised and made suggestions, explained and elaborated, offered signposting and referral and provided feedback. Dialogue content was categorised as administrative/organisational, technical, affective, social, academic or relating to programme design. Research limitations/implications -Learners embarking on undergraduate level study may raise different issues from those working at postgraduate level. Practical implications -The individual categories and the framework as a whole may help new online tutors to anticipate and prepare for their role. Originality/value -The study is unusual in focusing on one-to-one online dialogues between university tutors and work-based learners. The unique contribution is a hierarchical analytical framework of dialogue topics in which "hard" and "soft" topics underpin academic dialogue.
Cost-effectiveness, patient safety, quality of care, potentially contested role boundaries and patient attitudes are among the issues that policy-makers, commissioners and those responsible for workforce development and training need to consider in relation to HCAs in general practice. There is also a need for more in-depth evaluation of this role.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.