Master of Arts (Instructional Design & Technology)

This project investigates a personal training dilemma with IT support personnel. From my position as a middle level manager, I noted that despite the provision of training opportunities, there appears to be little or no change in staff's work performance. To investigate this observation, I identified the learning events that occur in my workplace to see how these events reveal the actual learning applied in the workplace. Three levels of stakeholders (HR personnel, supervisors and staff) were either surveyed or interviewed for their views on formal and informal learning events.

The findings from studying the occurrence of formal learning events indicate that there is a degree of learning 'passivity' amongst staff and the misuse of training courses as a form of work reward. The findings from a parallel study on informal learning events also indicate the presence of learning 'passivity' at both individual and team levels. There is an apparent misplaced assumption that that workplace learning occurs naturally.

The study concludes with recommendations to help address the learning 'passivity' by deliberately cultivating team learning skills, and setting-up of mechanisms to enhance the transfer of knowledge and skills gained in a training room to the workplace.