Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 42

Employee Motivations for Workplace Learning and the Role of Elearning in the Workplace
training included getting a better job,
personal improvement, being better at work,
and improving skills. These motivations for
learning are reflected in Kyndt, Govaerts,
Keunen, and Dochy’s (2012) work that
identifies learning intention as an
employee’s plan to remedy perceived needs
in knowledge, skill, or attitudes necessary
to perform their jobs. Knowledge workers,
which encompass an ever-increasing number
of the modern workforce, are shown to have
similar learning motivations to low-skilled
workers. Batalla-Busquets & Pacheco-
Bernal (2013) identify learning motivations
for skilled workers as including personal
growth, belonging to the organization, and
expected career progress.
These similar motivations across
employee categories identifies that
addressing concerns of professional
advancement and personal growth are
necessary to effectively deliver learning
opportunities for an organization. The
positive aspect of this is that employees
recognize the need for continued learning
opportunities and also identify the value that
potentially comes from such activities. The
challenge to the modern firm is to create an
environment that successfully delivers that
experience to the worker.
Organizational Involvement in Workplace
Learning
Organizations, as the ultimate
beneficiaries of workplace learning, have
an important role in the overall learning
environment and the motivation of
employee learning. To retain the best
employees, organizations in today’s market
must provide a positive climate for both
work and learning (Govaerts, et al., 2010).
Kyndt, Raes, et al. (2012) explain that for an
organization it is, “…important to know how
employees learn and which factors contribute
to a stimulating learning environment”
(p 272). This one statement speaks to two
important roles of the firm in delivering
workplace learning. The first is to provide
proper motivation, through a supportive
environment, and the second is to deliver a
valuable learning product to the employee.
The core factor in providing
motivation for employees to engage in
learning activities is the design of the job
itself. Kyndt, Govaerts, et al. (2012) identify
five job characteristics that influence
employee learning motivation:
• The degree of autonomy
• The content and complexity of the job
• The learning potential
• The task variety
• The mobility opportunities the job offers
– p 183
Thus, at the very beginning of an
organization’s role in the workplace learning
process the fundamentals of organizational
behavior are in play. Job design plays a
critical role in preparing employees for
motivation and participation in workplace
learning and includes such diverse ideas
as organizational structure, job expansion,
job rotation, and retention and promotion
policies. This point should not be surprising.
As organizations transition to being
learning organizations and all employees
are impacted by the demands for continuing
learning it is natural that the fundamental
design of the firm will be influenced by the
changes occurring everywhere else. The first
step in being effective in workplace learning
is to design and operate a workplace that
aligns with the modern structure of a
learning organization.
Moving from job design to specific
elements of organizational culture that
can motivate employee learning there are
three organizational learning environment
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