Informal Learning in the Workplace - Essay Example

Running Head: INFORMAL LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE Topic Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The concept of learning has been transformed over time from the conventional view point of schools as the only place where people can acquire or increase their skills. In the contemporary organizations, employees are exposed to workplace learning whereby they acquire skills continuously as they undertake their day to day activities. The operating environment for businesses has become highly competitive as the production techniques continue to change due to innovation and work-related changes, which necessitate the continuous upgrading of the employees’ skills for organizational productivity to be maintained. Moreover, organizations tend to engage in a variety of activities thereby requiring extra skills among the human resources. Some of the skills may be acquired in the workplace other than incurring additional costs for formal training. For example, problem solving and effective communication are skills that can be acquired in the workplace through informal learning. This paper presents a critique of the statement that informal learning in the workplace is a more significant, effective and superior form of learning to formal classroom-based learning. It focuses the underlying principles of this kind of learning in organizations in relation to the likelihood of accomplishing productivity and competitiveness. It highlights the strengths that give it an upper hand over formal learning in classrooms and the benefits that organizations derive from the adoption of informal learning in the workplace. Nevertheless, there are a few negative aspects of this type of workplace learning. These features that make some organizations to prefer the formal classroom based learning have been discussed. Informal Learning in the Workplace versus Formal Classroom-based Learning Informal learning is an arrangement whereby skills are acquired without any programmed curriculum. The learner pursues knowledge without a prearranged procedure and can virtually acquire information from any source. The employees in the workplace acquire new knowledge through interacting with others, handling equipment and brainstorming with team mates in establishing solutions to emerging problems in the workplace. As Cross (2007) observes, knowledge acquired when a person knows what he/she desires to accomplish a particular goal leads to efficiency than the skills acquired through a set of courses that are mandatory for learners to undertake for them to be qualified. Most of the skills acquired through informal learning are through unexpected encounters in the workplace. The employers do not control what is to be learnt. Work experience is usually a strong characteristic of capable employees. In most cases, when organizations need to recruit human resources, they require several years working experience in the particular industry, an indication that employers lay more emphasis on the knowledge acquired in the workplace than the skills attained through a formal curriculum. The fact that informal learning is continuous throughout the life of the employee in the workplace makes it better than formal classroom-based learning whereby the curriculum is arranged in a manner such that the learners are restricted to only the predetermined information that has been found to be useful in the particular profession. If they study other information outside the curriculum, there are chances of failure to accomplish the course and they may not acquire the required qualifications over the given time. In other words, classroom studies are usually set up under the discernment of a particular person/people regarding a particular profession. Beckett & Hager (2002) argue that the time that learners require to accomplish professional qualifications is usually short and they may not exhaust all the information that is available. Moreover, this kind of learning does not involve much brain storming and problem solving in the workplace. It mainly involves identifying the concepts that are necessary for the basic understanding of the systems in place. However, their real application of equipment and organizational systems requires knowledge and problem solving skills, which a person has to acquire while on the job. When workers encounter difficulties as they undertake their day to day activities, they learn how to solve them through trying to seek information from knowledgeable people, or through trial and error. In other words, informal learning involves learning by chances in the workplace. The workplace environment usually has various sources of information such as the internet, magazines, operation manuals, inter-organizational collaboration and the various professionals among other resources. Each of them usually presents a unique source of information that helps workers to upgrade their skills. For example, a newly employed engineer is knowledgeable regarding the use of machines for production. However, the professional acquires proficiency in applying the different machines through informal learning in the workplace. Overwien (2000) argues that people learn better when they are able to visualize and relate the knowledge acquired with its application in the workplace. When they interact with others in the workplace, they learn the procedures while applying them in the organizational operations. They usually have ample time to learn, apply and understand the various difficulties that they may encounter, and they are able to understand the best practices in the workplace. When an organization repairs it’s broken down systems, employees who might have been engaged long after its establishment are able to learn in depth regarding the systems. They have a chance to know what causes problems and how to avoid them. On the other hand, the classroom based learning may not offer a chance to acquire such information. Rainbird et al. (2006) argue that informal learning is mainly concerned with acquiring the appropriate skills for the work at hand. Employees are presented with learning opportunities in the workplace without wasting much time studying too much information that may be irrelevant to their responsibilities. This kind of learning is significant especially to small businesses that may not have enough resources to sacrifice for sponsoring formal training to the employees. In other words, formal classroom-based learning is costly and in many cases requires the learner to concentrate on studies to accomplish the desired qualifications, which means that he/she may be forced to stop working within the period that learning takes place. The organization in such a situation incurs losses in terms of man power as well as the expenditures of sponsorship. Informal workplace learning helps in utilizing the maximum potential of the worker while on the other hand he/she acquires expertise. Moreover, the employee can continue learning for as long as he works for the organization, which allows continuous upgrading of skills compared to the short lived and costly formal training (Small Business Council, 2003). The experienced employees through informal workplace learning are significant for the organization’s future workplace training needs. Informal workplace learning is holistic in the sense that the employees acquire a wide range of information regarding the organization, which is better than school based learning where the information is limited to integral parts of organizational operations due to lack of sufficient time to study all the aspects of organizations. Evans et al. (2006) observe that it is usually difficult to determine precisely which information is integral and which is not, indicating that formal learning may sometimes fail to cover some important information regarding it as less useful to the learners. However, it is important to allow them to acquire as much information as possible to ensure that all aspects of organizational operations are taken care of. In addition to being holistic, informal workplace learning is based on the organizational context, which means that the driving force towards learning is necessity. Employees desire to learn for them to accomplish a particular need. Organizations do not have to incur the costs of engaging teachers or trainers for learning to be accomplished. In essence, informal workplace learning under normal circumstances is inadvertent and the main objective may not be learning. It is facilitated by mutual respect rather than competition among employees. They collaborate to accomplish a common objective contrary to the nature of class-room-based learning where competition is rife. Each learner strives to accomplish the best leading to individualism rather than co-operation. Generally, informal learning encourages teamwork in the workplace as workers tend to know each others strengths. Smith et al. (2002) argues that a good organizational structure is that which allows knowledge transfer whereby the employees are in a capacity to identify their weaknesses and match them with the strengths of their workmates. In other words, employees capitalize on the strengths of their peers to deal with their own weaknesses. The significance of informal learning in the workplace is the fact that all the employees can not share a common weakness; neither can an organization have a workforce comprised of all new workers in the industry. Organizational informal learning is therefore immanent unless the management is unable to facilitate learning. In contrast, formal training of employees in school based curriculum is dependent on their ability in terms of age, family responsibilities, willingness time and resources among other issues. For example, young employees may be discontented and unwilling to undertake classroom-based training far from their families, which may hamper their efforts to accomplish a work-life balance. However, if they acquire knowledge through informal learning in the workplace, job satisfaction may be accomplished. Alred and Garvey (2000) argue that in informal learning, the learner strives to acquire the knowledge that is possessed by a particular person without any form of documentation. In essence, for such information to be acquired there has to be interactions between the two people. Since it is the quest for the knowledge that drives the learner to identify an opportunity for interaction, the information acquired may not easily be lost, and it may be passed over to future employees through informal learning. An example of knowledge acquired through this type of learning includes situations whereby there happens to be a legendary leader in an organization whose style of work is adored even long after he/she has left the organization. The people who are inspired by the leader continue practicing and motivating new recruits to work according to the leaders teachings. For instance, if the leader’s name was John, the older employees may help the new employees to solve workplace problems through statements such as “John used to do it this way when he was faced with such a difficulty”. Such learning instills confidence in the learner than what is learnt inside the formal system in classrooms. Constructive aspects of organizational culture are maintained through being imparted to new employees even after the current leaders leave the organization. Informal workplace learning also helps in enhancing employee satisfaction and confidence while undertaking their responsibilities since they are guided by the mentors. They remain open minded and also maintain a wide scope of thinking, which helps them to cope with the day to day challenges, and is also beneficial to the organization in terms of employee productivity. Dawe (2003) observes that informal learning in the workplace allows effective organizational communication since the management is able to receive feedback and communicate the organizational progress to the employees. The interactions between management and the work force helps in performance management since managers can tell whether the employees have acquired the desired skills. In formal school-based learning, the learner is expected to dedicate his/her time and efforts towards accomplishment of the learning objectives, which the interested parties can only proof by checking the qualifications, which on the other hand can only be achieved through taking exams. For this reason, there might be a tendency for the learner to focus on passing exams than understanding the application of the concepts learnt in school. In essence most formal class-room based systems of learning involve learners taking a number of subjects which they are expected to pass for them to proceed to the next stage (Felstead and Ashton, 2000). For example, the curriculum leading to the accomplishment of a certificate in accounts requires the learner to pass one stage, failure to which he/she can not proceed to the next. In other words, if for some reason an organization sponsors an employee to undertake a specialized course such as CPA and he/she fails in the final exam or in a particular stage, there will be no measure for determining whether it was a worth course of action, and it may also hinder any future efforts for the organization to offer formal learning opportunities for workers. In reality, such a failure may jeopardize the employee’s tenure or promotion in the organization. It may lower the morale, which may lead to productivity. Overwien (2000) argues that when people are compelled to study to satisfy other influential persons, they remain overwrought until they pass their exams. The outcome may not satisfy the demands for skills but may satisfy the demands of other people. This may not be beneficial to the organization and the resources sacrificed for the course may have been wasted if the professional fails to upgrade his/her skills for the purpose of improving organizational productivity. In some educational institutions, some academic offences such as plagiarism and cheating in examinations have been reported as learners strive to accomplish the best to please their seniors in their workplaces. It puts the learner in an awkward position when he/she is accused of such offences leading to termination or suspension. Informal workplace leaning helps in the avoidance of such conflicts in the organization because the employee is expected to improve in performance rather than being subjected to tests. There is usually no need for premises for informal training, which makes it less costly compared to the formal training that requires standard premises where learning takes place. Moreover, classroom based learning is prone to the control of particular groups that possess power within the organization. Merriam et al. (2007) argue that in any organization that operates in a hierarchical structure, power is distributed in an ascending manner, and the influence of the organizational operations follows the same trend. In situations whereby the organization has opportunities for upgrading employees’ skills through formal training, there is the likelihood of the influential groups in the organizational hierarchy interfering with the selection process. Selection of the employees to undertake the studies may be done not because of need but to serve the interests of the powerful. In other words, the organization does not benefit from the undertakings because the training is not need driven. Informal training mainly serves the interests of the lowest people in the organizational hierarchy for improvements in workplace performance, which increases organizational productivity. Every employee in the workplace is given a learning opportunity regardless of his/her position in the hierarchy, which promotes fairness in the organization leading to employee satisfaction. The formal school-based learning is focused on educating the employees to acquire a higher level of knowledge that is designed to suit a particular rank in the organizational hierarchy. For example, a junior employee may be recommended for a management course to acquire the qualifications of a manager. There is a tendency for organizations to promote employees to a higher level in the organizational hierarchy after completion of the upgrading course. In other words, these school based courses followed by promotions are characteristic of the contemporary workplaces, and hence the status quo of organizations is maintained. On the other hand, as Findlay et al. (2000) observe, informal workplace learning leads to empowerment of the employees which leads to organizational transformation and advancement to greater productivity. For this reason, organizations that encourage informal workplace learning are able to maintain a dynamic and inventive workforce. Informal workplace learning allows employees to set the most suitable pace for learning, which allows flexibility. This helps in eliminating stress that may emanate from rigid learning rules that may hinder understanding. On the other hand, the employees learn comfortably through their own style and therefore they can comprehend the various aspects or operations without the feeling of coercion (Marsick & Watkins, 2001). Moreover, learners are able to change their way of learning for convenience purposes once they realize the need to acquire skills from the various resources available. For example, an employee may choose to review the company news letters, magazines and other sources of information over the lunch breaks or when the systems are under repair. They are also able to model their own projects in the process of practicing. Classroom-based learning is highly structured and in many situations, employees are required to wait for the admission time for them to begin studies. Sometimes this presents inconveniences since if the time for admission is not near, workers may have to wait for a long period to acquire the desired skills. Any delay in such organizational arrangements delays improvement in productivity. Problems might also arise when there lacks an appropriate school for the desired course near the organization, which may necessitate the relocation of employees and the organization undertaking the expenditures. Informal learning helps in eliminating such difficulties that may be encountered if formal classroom-based learning was to be adopted. Evans et al. (2006) observe that there are usually more social interactions in when employees engage in informal learning. Such interactions enhance interpersonal skills and workplace relationships, which are important in establishing teamwork that is essential for the organizational goals to be accomplished. Through the interactions, workers diversify their reasoning as they try to emulate the critical thinkers in the organization. They are challenged to improve their performance through positive criticisms. The solidarity in the workplace resulting from employee interactions makes it easy for the managers to implement policies and also to ensure that workers own organizational objectives and strive to accomplish a shared vision. With such arrangements in the workplace, each person tries as much as possible to ensure that he/she is not the cause of failure in the team. Performance management becomes possible since the focus is on the employees as a single organizational unit. Workplace conflicts are easy to solve when employees work as a group since there lacks many differing opinions that might confuse the managers. Promoting informal organizational learning in the workplace helps in the identification of more learning opportunities as everyone is inspired to help each other to learn, and different people have varied sources of information that can form an important resource for learning when combined for the benefit of all. Each employee is motivated to participate in the process and contribute information to help others in their quest to learn. The emergent technological developments, mergers and acquisitions as well as the changing nature of consumer tastes and preferences are major drivers for organizations to adopt informal learning in the workplace (Overwien, 2000). For instance, technological changes in communication technology are occurring at a relatively high frequency, whereby an organization may install new communication systems and be compelled to change within three months after installation. In other words, it means that for an employee whose education was purposely sponsored to acquire skills in organizational systems and communication in particular, the knowledge acquired in the course of two years of school-based learning may be obsolete at the time of graduation. In such a situation, the business can not accomplish its objectives of sponsorship in education. These issues can be avoided through informal learning in the workplace whereby inventions generate the need to learn so that employees can understand the emerging technologies and apply them. This is different from studying to acquire skills for general understanding of concepts in the workplace. In other words, informal learning in the workplace is specific to a particular situation and therefore can lead to creativity (Ashton & Sung, 2002). Colley et al. (2003) observes that management teams in many situations have found that the conventional courses may not help the employees to cope with the high speed at which new technology is becoming obsolete. In essence, the emergence of information technology and its continuous adoption in organizations has strengthened the opinion that informal learning is better than the formal training. For example, the software providers upgrade their products virtually every month. This is evidenced by the software that companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have produced over the last 3 years. Organizations continue upgrading the software as they emerge, meaning that the most appropriate way for workers to understand them is to read manuals while applying them, learn to solve problems and brainstorming with others to understand the best way to apply the new technology before it becomes outdated. The conventional training in such cases would only cause time wastage and may not add to the organizational productivity. Billett (2001) argues that formal training of employees is focused on giving them procedural knowledge whereby they have no opportunity to input any new decision. Generally, it is meant to fit the professionals in the organizational systems where they become part of the process. For example, an employee is trained on operating a particular system where he/she has a duty to start and to stop by pressing a switch. He/she becomes part of the system in the sense that even if the system is in order, it can not work until one of its integral parts is provided, and that is the operator. In case of a breakdown, the operator waits for the system to be repaired to get back to work. In organizations with such arrangements, there is a certain trend whereby in case a new system is purchased; technical experts are hired to offer formal training to the operator on the particular system, meaning that if it breaks down and a new one has to be purchased, there has to be arrangements for training. In essence, such organizational strategies lead to wastage of time and resources. It would be better to promote informal learning in the organization whereby experienced workers share knowledge with the new employees, which eventually may lead to the entire workforce having various skills in the organizational operations, which helps in the avoidance of having a highly specialized workforce. For this reason, they are able to learn as a group regarding the use of new technology. They act as participants in the pursuance of knowledge rather mere recipients of knowledge (Purcell, 2002). Even though there are substantial arguments regarding informal learning in the workplace, it does not apply without a few negative aspects. Too much emphasis on informal learning reduces the chances of employees being sponsored for further education, which is the basis of advancement in terms of ranks in the workplace. Formal learning has been the core to industrialization and therefore its contribution to the profitability of organizations needs not be ignored. It is the core to research and development and when employees are sponsored for higher education, they are exposed to the opportunity of meeting with experienced scholars who may change their perspective regarding organizational issues. They gain knowledge of establishing the fundamentals of development and also have a critical reflection of their career and establish synergies of development. Moreover, Beckett and Hager (2002) argue that not all informal learning in the workplace has positive results. There is need to combine formal and informal learning to ensure that the employees have skills first, which the supplement with informal learning. It might be detrimental to the organizational productivity when unskilled employees engage in workplace learning, lacking the theoretical perspective of the organizational operations. Formal classroom-based training offers employees the capability of understanding concepts and their applications. Workplace learning comes later, and is an added advantage to the organization. Conclusion Informal learning occurs without a predetermined curriculum and is mostly through chances. It is a kind of lifelong learning whereby employees continue learning as long as they remain in a particular organization. The workplace is a significant source of information, and employees also learn from each other. The knowledge acquired may not be documented especially when it comes from an experienced person. Informal workplace learning helps employees to acquire problem solving skills as they encounter challenges in the workplace. In contrast to school-based formal learning, informal workplace learning is holistic and is based on participation of the learner. On the other hand, school based learning is focused on educating the learner to follow procedures and may not contribute much to the learning process apart from receiving new knowledge. Informal learning generates teamwork in the workplace and is preferable to school-based learning whereby learners strive to accomplish qualification as individuals. Informal learning requires no premises or hiring teachers, which makes it cheaper than school-based learning. Informal learning allows the employees to learn at their own convenience and also allows workplace interactions that are important for employees to acquire inter-personal skills. It also allows the employees to remain competitive even in the continuous technological advancements. Even though informal learning is significant for employee productivity, the significance of formal school-based learning can not be ignored. It has been fundamental to industrialization through research and development. Informal workplace learning can be successful when employees have understood the theory of organizational operations and upgrade their knowledge through informal learning in the workplace. It is true that informal learning in the workplace more effective than classroom-based learning. 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