Digitalisation of Work: Between Affordances and Constraints for Learning at Work

Government Workers’ Stories about Professional Development in a Digitalized Working Life

“…The above described factors can also be found in the demand-control-support model (DCS) (Johnson and Hall 1988;Karasek 1979; see also Fisher et al 2018), which proposes that for attaining high levels of learning opportunities, workplaces should afford their workers with highly demanding work activities, high levels of job control and social support. In the DCS model, a demanding job consists of high task variety, task complexity and a requirement for problem solving.…”

“…In all, advances in technology and an expanded knowledge economy require individuals to "adapt to working within newly structured, distributed, dynamic environments that are technologically-mediated" (Littlejohn, Milligan, and Margaryan 2012, p. 227). Adopting new technologies changes work tasks and work practices in many ways, which further influences the factors affecting learning at work, such as job demands, job control and social support (Fisher et al 2018). Thus, digital changes pose new challenges for workers and require them to learn and develop constantly in order to maintain and improve their capacity for effectiveness.…”

“…Although several institutions have provided possible scenarios in relation to the impact of digitalization on working life (e.g., Muro et al 2017), empirical research investigating digitalization and professional development is still scarce (e.g., Eteläpelto 2017;Fisher et al 2018;Harteis 2018). Overall, professional development research has traditionally focused on professional development programs and training courses.…”

Engineering students' learning during internships: Exploring the explanatory power of the job demands‐control‐support model

“…On the one hand, internships aim at providing practice-based learning that connects areas of theory taught in institutions of higher education with areas of vocational practice that constitute workplaces outside of schools (Maertz, Stoeberl, & Marks, 2014;Resnick, 1987;Sides & Mrvica, 2017). On the other hand, internships give students access to technological advancements that are not yet incorporated in educational curricula, and this is particularly important in domains such as engineering that are subject to rapid developments (e.g., current digitalization trends; Harteis, 2018;Tynjälä & Gijbels, 2012). The overall aim of internships is to enable students to develop competences that prepare them to become competent professionals capable of coping with current and future job demands.…”

“…If an individual perceives social support, they can rely on others when facing tasks and problems that cannot be solved alone. Furthermore, access to colleagues, supervisors, or mentors allows incumbents to discuss and thereby further develop newly acquired working strategies as well as to receive feedback about the efficacy and efficiency of both old and new work behaviors that would not have been available otherwise (Fischer, Goller, Brinkmann, & Harteis, 2018). Feedback in particular has been shown to be highly relevant for professional learning (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993;Kyndt, Dochy, & Nijs, 2009;Tannenbaum, Beard, McNall, & Salas, 2010) since it essentially works as a catalyst for reflection processes (Schley & van Woerkom, 2014).…”