Shifting Practices in Digital Workplace Learning: An Integrated Approach to Learning, Knowledge Management, and Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

No one can dispute the impact that technology innovation, especially the rapid development of information technology (IT), has on our work and life. It has not only created performance improvement opportunities for individuals and organizations (Purcell & Rainie, 2014) but also challenged Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals to critically examine the applications of IT and determine their unitizations in the areas of learning, performance enhancement and organizational development (Benson, Johnson, & Kuchinke, 2002; Leonardi, 2013). As importantly, increased technology innovation provides an impetus for HRD professionals to investigate concomitant changes in the social/work environment of the digital workplace in order to understand their impact on employees' learning behaviors, to develop innovative HRD solutions that will fit and support the new socio-technical relationships in organizational systems, and to move beyond a linearity metaphor and think instead in terms of simultaneity in the design of learning and development interventions (Li, 2016). Innovation is no stranger to the field of HRD, especially in the area of training and development. Many forms of innovative interventions have been introduced over the decades. These have been aimed at improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of learning and training delivery, and include process-oriented approaches (i.e. instructional design processes and performance improvement systems), training delivery technologies (i.e. educational CD-ROMs, eLearning, game based learning, and MOOC platforms), and incorporating equipment and products (e.g. overhead projector, audio/visual equipment, personal computer, PDA, tablet and smart phones). Innovation has taken place to create new material products or production processes, and more importantly, to shape new skills and capabilities that allow us to do things that could not be done before and do them in a better or more effective way. As a result, innovation shifts the collective awareness, knowledge and actions of the individuals and organization in practical settings (Lanzara, 2016); a new set of socio-technical processes, entailing new norms and behaviors, is established in the workplace powered by digital technology. Digital technology is an all-encompassing term that includes methods, systems, devices and knowledge that use digital and computerized methods to transmit data and deliver information. The advancement of digital technology has been driving the changes in the workplace, learning process included. Digital workplace learning can be simply defined as learning supported by digital technology for the purpose of enhancing learning and job performance. Through the affordance of a wide range of tools and equipment, digital technology has allowed learners to personalize their learning space, to gain extended access to learning opportunities, to enhance individual and group

Preparing Workplaces for Digital Transformation: An Integrative Review and Framework of Multi-Level Factors

“…Employees might also benefit from personalized learning and training within increasingly digitalized environments. The advancement of digital technology has also led to changes in workplace learning environments, such as the increasing use of platform-based technologies that allow learners “to personalize their learning space” and gain increased access to learning opportunities ( Li and Herd, 2017 , p. 186). For example, studies have found that personalized professional development within the education sector, such as digital badging, supported teachers in selecting their own learning goals and customizing learning activities and training ( Gamrat et al, 2014 ).…”

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Strategic human resource management technology effect and implication for distance training and learning

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Demographic Factors of Corporate E-learning among E-learners in an Oil and Gas Company

“…In many ways, the use of technology for learning at the workplace yields positive results. It enables learners to access quality information on demand, facilitates collaboration amongst colleagues in multi-location offices, increases capabilities while simultaneously decreasing costs, and extends information access beyond the boundaries of the organization (Li & Herd, 2017; demographic factors of corporate e-learning and organizational learning in the literature. Therefore, this research aims to: 1.…”