Managing learning in the workplace: a study of the perceptions and practice of local government managers
type: CreativeWork
description: In 1995 the Australian Government commissioned the report Enterprising Nation ‘: renewing Australia’s managers to meet the challenges of the Asia-Pacific century (Karpin, 1995), which emphasised the change that was necessary in Australian business to remain competitive in the global and growing economy. The development of flexible organisational cultures, where managers increasingly displayed leadership and developed their staff to generate innovative cultures, was a central premise of the Karpin Report Task Force’s vision. Twenty years later, this study explored the extent to which managers have moved from being ‘cops to coaches’ and integrated the facilitation of employee learning within their roles. Currently, there is still a lack of empirical research into the role that managers play in the learning of employees. This study asked managers to reflect on how they value their role as managers of learning and what activities they undertake to operationalise these responsibilities. This study was developed by gathering clusters of manager and employee perceptions about their experiences of the facilitation of workplace learning. A local government context provided a revelatory and purposeful case study, as government agencies were at the fore-front of management change initiatives in the early 2000’s and have been subject since to considerable and continuing change through structural re-alignment and increasing social demands. The study began with a collection of contextual data and subsequently moved to in-depth interviews, which were used to focus on how learning is being facilitated in the workplace by managers and what roles they are taking. The study used well-established theories of workplace learning (Billett, 2004; Marsick & Watkins, 1999; Poell, Chivers, Van Der Krogt, & Wildemeersch, 2000; Senge, 1990; Van der Krogt, 1998) to form the instrument protocols and shape the analysis process. A comparison of viewpoints showed the real and perceived barriers and …
abstract: In 1995 the Australian Government commissioned the report Enterprising Nation ‘: renewing Australia’s managers to meet the challenges of the Asia-Pacific century (Karpin, 1995), which emphasised the change that was necessary in Australian business to remain competitive in the global and growing economy. The development of flexible organisational cultures, where managers increasingly displayed leadership and developed their staff to generate innovative cultures, was a central premise of the Karpin Report Task Force’s vision. Twenty years later, this study explored the extent to which managers have moved from being ‘cops to coaches’ and integrated the facilitation of employee learning within their roles. Currently, there is still a lack of empirical research into the role that managers play in the learning of employees. This study asked managers to reflect on how they value their role as managers of learning and what activities they undertake to operationalise these responsibilities. This study was developed by gathering clusters of manager and employee perceptions about their experiences of the facilitation of workplace learning. A local government context provided a revelatory and purposeful case study, as government agencies were at the fore-front of management change initiatives in the early 2000’s and have been subject since to considerable and continuing change through structural re-alignment and increasing social demands. The study began with a collection of contextual data and subsequently moved to in-depth interviews, which were used to focus on how learning is being facilitated in the workplace by managers and what roles they are taking. The study used well-established theories of workplace learning (Billett, 2004; Marsick & Watkins, 1999; Poell, Chivers, Van Der Krogt, & Wildemeersch, 2000; Senge, 1990; Van der Krogt, 1998) to form the instrument protocols and shape the analysis process. A comparison of viewpoints showed the real and perceived barriers and …
author: Rogers, Jenna
keywords: managers, learning, local government, Western Australia, Business Administration, Management, and Operations, Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods, Public Administration
date published: 2017-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:22:16Z
provider: Edith Cowan University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia