To read this content please select one of the options below:

When is it OK to learn at work? The learning work of organisational practices

Hermine Scheeres (Research Centre for Learning and Change, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
Nicky Solomon (Research Centre for Learning and Change, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
David Boud (Research Centre for Learning and Change, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
Donna Rooney (Research Centre for Learning and Change, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

Journal of Workplace Learning

ISSN: 1366-5626

Article publication date: 23 February 2010

3757

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of “learning” through what we have termed “integrated development practices”. These are common organisational practices that both enhance organisational effectiveness and contribute to organisational and employee learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses the ways in which learning and being a learner were talked about and enacted with regard to one of the integrated development practices identified in a study of four different organisations – safety practices, and how learning and being a learner regarding safety were legitimate in one of the organisations. Data are drawn from semi‐structured interviews with members of a variety of workgroups in one major division of the organisation.

Findings

Interviewees' responses reflected that learning was fully embedded as an accepted part of a necessary function of the organisation. This use of a learning discourse is discussed in the light of findings from an earlier study on informal learning at work that suggested that learning and the identity of being a learner were sometimes resisted in the everyday culture of work.

Originality/value

Using the theorisations of practice of Schatzki and the lifelong education framework of Delors the paper discusses the implications of these findings to examine when it is acceptable to articulate learning as part of work and be identified as a learner at work.

Keywords

Citation

Scheeres, H., Solomon, N., Boud, D. and Rooney, D. (2010), "When is it OK to learn at work? The learning work of organisational practices", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 22 No. 1/2, pp. 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621011012825

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles