The Importance Of Informal Workplace Learning And Collaboration

Factors that enable or constrain informal workplace learning

The smartest of employees can collaborate together by means of electronic media and work together on a problem to identify the solution. A collaboration in this way can also be termed ‘networks of experts’. There were days when communities of practice were more or less an isolated concept for the organisations. Now, things are getting changed. Companies across the globe have started showing serious concerns to the concept. Hence, communities of practice is now getting integrated into the formal management structure of the companies (Green, 2017). The workplace learning is not a new concept. It is into the existence since a long span of time in the form of structured and formal mode of training. However, there is a shift in ownership of the so called workplace learning. Employees are increasingly getting inclined towards informal mode of learning. They are shifting away significantly from augment formal training. Despite this it is becoming a matter of issue to those organisations who are not prepared for it or lack the strategy making skills to promote an ineffective workplace learning at the workplace.

This assignment analyses a lot of things about the workplace learning. It first identifies how individuals learn at the workplace. It discusses the factors those enable or constrain the informal workplace learning. This study also identifies the personality characteristics, which influences the effectiveness of an informal workplace learning. It talks about the potential benefits of enhancing informal workplace learning to individual and the case study organisation. This study folds up recommending ways to enhance informal learning within the case study organisation.

Individuals learning at the workplace

Training attracts a huge investment every single year. It significantly affects the overall operational cost. The overall productivity of the organisations depend entirely on how fresh employees are nurtured and experienced are encouraged to be innovative (Marsick & Watkins, 2015). These organisations constantly seek cost-effective and innovative ways to train their workforce. The old model of learning is in existence in the organisations for a long span of time. The model was about following traditional means of learning in the workplace. Formal training and development programs have been the commonest of all traditional means followed to facilitate and promote the workplace learning. 

Learning can be considered as a knowledge-creation process. This can be facilitated in the workplace with collaboration between individuals, the human resource manager and the top management (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016). All have distinguished roles to play. An individual can promote learning by being dedicated to informal forms of learning such as knowledge sharing between him or her and a senior employee. The human resource manager can play their part in promoting a learning environment by identifying various and proven ways of informal learning. The top management can contribute in promoting the learning environment by supporting every potential modes of informal learning and by allocating the required resources. Moreover, this can be said that an informal learning environment can be created with a collaborating effort from individuals, the HRM and the top management.

Personality characteristics that influence the effectiveness of informal workplace learning

Apart from formal training there are many other ways that individuals use to learn while being in the workplace. Interactive training is one of these ways (Kyndt et al., 2016). Interactive training is further divided into several sub-categories like brainstorming, Q&A sessions, and think, pair and share. Brainstorming sessions are good ways to encourage employees to produce a range of unique ideas. One or few of these ideas are later on recognised as the idea to be implemented to perform more efficiently. In this way it benefits the organisations. Employees get to know about many new things, which they might not have heard before. Hence, brainstorming sessions are like educative sessions to employees where they learn new things in an engaging way (Kyndt et al., 2016). Similarly, in Q&A sessions, employees get an opportunity to ask direct questions to the Company’s manager, and senior managers etc. In think, pair and share, employees have opportunities to perform different roles, and learn new things from their personal experience of being a part of such discussion and listening and observing to other participating colleagues (Kyndt et al., 2016).  

Factors that enable or constrain informal workplace learning

Enable:

Informal workplace learning can be embedded into daily activities to make it a routine practice for both new and experienced professionals. This will serve a learning opportunity for new employees. New employees get opportunities to learn about the work nature, the social and cultural context of the organisation and the technology. On the other hand, experienced professionals find these as opportunities to further their skills and knowledge. Factors that possibly enable informal workplace learning are (Manuti et al., 2015):

• Desire to learn: Both new and experienced professionals should have desire to learn to be able to identify ways to learn informally. For an example, individuals can learn about the workplace culture and also know about their team members by taking part in extracurricular activities. On the contrary, if an individual does not take part in such activities the person might not be able to mix up with the team.  
• Work environment: Effective organisational policies and practices affect the workplace environment and so the informal learning. For an example, in some companies tenured employees are encouraged to take initiatives out of their work responsibilities like helping new employees learn the process. This can be helpful for new employees in gaining confidence into the work. On the contrary to this, if there is no such policy there will be more work pressure on the shoulders of the supervisors. Additionally, new employees will be under work pressure and carry low morale till the time they become used to with the system.
• Organisational policies and practices: An integrated system of the HRM and management can make the difference to the workplace learning. They can do it by identifying and implementing policies in the organisational setting. For an example, a knowledge management policy can be designed to promote the highest standard of knowledge sharing between the employees and management. On the contrary, if knowledge sharing has a limited or no existence in the organisational setting can lead to the unproductive workforce and growing attrition.

Constrain:

• Ignorance: If new employees are ignorant towards learning new things, nothing much could be done to it. Ignorance to learn can also lead to incrementing attrition.
• Uncooperative work environment: An uncooperative work environment will have an impact on the individual’s learning.
• Ineffective leadership: A lack of leadership skills in managers is a kind of constrain to informal learning in the workplace. Effective leaders encourage and facilitate innovation to identify new ways to promote informal learning. Moreover, they will adapt to and implement new and effective policies (Rogoff et al., 2016).

There are a few individual characteristics, which influences the effectiveness of informal workplace learning. These five characteristics are also called the big five personality dimensions of the “Big Five Personality Theory”. These big five dimensions are Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness to experience (Davies, 2017). Agreeableness reflects and expresses the extent to which individuals are flexible, polite, cooperative, tolerant and trusting. This means if individuals have agreeableness in them they are most likely to participate in creating informal workplace learning. Moreover, they will also be tolerant towards its challenges like an increased work pressure due to few times being invested to help others teach (Davies, 2017). Conscientiousness shows the extent to which individuals are organised, self-disciplined, dependable, responsible, dutiful and behave in such a manner that fulfills others’ expectations of him or her. It shows the importance of being organised in promoting and practicing informal workplace learning. An individual being organised is more capable in helping others to learn while not hampering their personal learning as well. The feeling of being responsible encourages continuing to learn new things and guiding others the ways to learn effectively in the workplace. Such individuals possess high motivation to achieve difficult and challenging work goals. 

Benefits of informal learning for individuals and organizations

Emotional stability expresses the extent to which individuals are calm, secure, confident, and feel in a total control of their surroundings. Individuals with emotional stability generally have a receptive characteristic towards new and innovative ways of informal learning. They feel secure and stay calm in any situation that might or might not be according to them. Whatever be the surroundings they tend to be in control and possess an adaptable character that gives them opportunities to explore their excellence. Extraversion indicates the extent or a limit to which individuals are gregarious, ambitious, active, sociable and assertive. The characteristics of being ambitious encourage individuals to keep learning and facilitate knowledge sharing. Such individuals are an asset to a company as they are not just supporting the workforce but also strengthening it by enabling others to teach (Davies, 2017). Openness to experience reflects to or denotes whether individuals are cultured, broadminded, curious and creative. Individuals those who are creative think of inventing ideas to further their knowledge on problem-solving. Individuals being broadminded have openness to creative thoughts. They back up any creative idea being implemented by the management (Davies, 2017). They being curious follow a life-long learning process and in course of the action also become path-guiders to many.  

For individuals:

There are many potential benefits of informal learning for individuals. In informal learning, learning is more focused and to the target as it is entirely driven by the learner and his or her interest to learn. Informal learning is more fulfilling as it provides individuals an opportunity to avail control and autonomy. Moreover, individuals have full control of what they are exploring. Informal learning is full of fun and happens to be at faster rate than the formal learning. This makes it more engaging and entertaining for individuals. Informal learning can begin without any prior plan for this. Individuals now have access to a huge range of distinguished information in the form of various media that they use such as the mobile phones. They just need to use the internet to find what they want to know about on the world of web. Instead, learning can now be facilitated constantly on a regular basis. There is no pressure of clearing a test as it is required on the completion of the formal training. This is lot easier to adapt and attain a sustainable momentum in context to informal learning. For a colleague or a mentor there is no need to pre-prepare for informal learning (Khaddage, Müller & Flintoff, 2016). They can fall into a discussion to facilitate an exchange of knowledge sharing at any point in time. They can do it by sharing their experience or a best practice, which helped them solve a problem or understand something very new. They can also help a new inductee who is struggling to understand the usage and application of in-house Project Management tool. The ways to deal with the tool could be learnt in less time as compared to formal training and with much perfection as well.   

Ways to enhance informal learning within organizations

For the organisation:

Informal learning can produce a range of benefits to an organisation such as to the case study organisation. The case study organisation has struggled to facilitate a learning environment due to its financial incapability to encourage its employees participate in the training programs. The first benefit of informal learning for the case study organisation is the creation of the blueprint for a learning environment. Hence, the CEO of the company who was worried of how to facilitate a learning environment will now feel relieved from the challenge. One of the greatest benefits for the organisation is a fact that informal learning encourages collaboration between employees (Grosemans et al., 2015). This will make the workplace environment friendlier. Teamwork will also improve as employees feel dependable on others to learn thing that they are unaware of.       

Informal learning has few limitations as well. Employees may take an advantage of the freedom that they have in the form of informal learning. They may waste their time on doing unnecessary activities like surfing the internet, engaging in socialization more than it is feasible and may lose their concentration of learning objectives. If such things happen then this will become difficult for the management to decide whether to continue with informal learning. To an organisation that has no other option than to facilitate informal learning, this could be a big loss to them. Few employees may feel reluctant to share their knowledge (Kendal et al., 2016). They may feel threatened of losing their position in the company as the learner will become richer in particular skill-set leading to enhanced asset for the company. Now, this tendency can affect the workplace culture and team spirit. There can be unwanted and unfruitful competition between employees. The creativity of the workplace can also be affected from such competition. For an example, individuals can compromise on part of the quality of work just for the sake of becoming more productive in terms of numbers.

Knowledge shared can be incorrect or incomplete. This can happen that the senior individuals have missed on communicating or sharing some important points. Indeed, learning in this way can be incomplete. The learner will carry an incomplete set of information that may affect their capability to perform and the organisational productivity. This may affect their capability to solve the problems. Such individuals will carry less meaning to their teams as they have incomplete knowledge of the subject. There will be the necessity to facilitate formal learning in the form of training programs to help individuals understand their problem areas (Kendal et al., 2016). This is both time-consuming and an additional burden on the financial resource of the company. This will also affect the organisational productivity as for a significant span of time individuals will have no contribution in the company’s production. The knowledge thus derived from informal learning cannot be considered as completed until the individuals have adequate amount of knowledge about the task. This is especially in cases when the colleagues or the mentors have missed on a few points or have wrongly communicated a few things (Kendal et al., 2016). Additionally, the knowledge or skills learned from informal learning may be needed to undo with a formal training. For an example, individuals have learnt how to handle a project; however, need an assistance of a tenured professional who could formally train them learn a few uncovered things. They can learn about how to handle the complex phases of a project in such formal training. 

• Individuals learning:It is being found under the individual learning section that individuals adapt to a variety of learning modes to learn. Some of these are interactive training, through think, pair and share and Q&A sessions.
• Enable and Constrain factors:Enablers of informal learning in the workplace as found in the discussion section are Desire to learn, work environment, and organisational policies and practices. This shows that both individuals and organisations need to contribute to facilitate informal learning in the workplace.  Factors of constrain as found in this study are Ignorance, Ineffective leadership and Uncooperative work environment. It majorly highlights the involvement of managerial leadership in identifying the needs to promote informal learning in the workplace.
• Individual characteristics (personality characteristics):Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Openness to experience and Emotional stability are a few set of personality characteristics, which influence informal learning in the workplace.
• Potential benefits:For individuals the potential benefits of informal learning are focused, fun, fulfilling, plan, pressure and pre-prepare. They learn at a faster rate. For organisation, blueprint and collaboration. Teamwork will exist strengthening the workforce capability to identify solutions for a given problem.
• Potential limitations:Informal learning developed in the form of one senior individual is helping others to understand a matter can have some flaws in it. The share of knowledge would further require to be assessed in training whether a correct message was delivered earlier.  

Conclusion

To conclude, this can be said that the case study company can develop informal learning by focusing on several areas of its influencers as highlighted in this study as well. The finding section gives a clear indication towards both advantages and disadvantages of informal learning. Hence, the case study company should learn ways to manage the challenges of executing informal learning in the workplace.

Informal learning requires a leadership intervention. It should be backed up by the managers, so that, the quality of shared knowledge between the people could be assessed. If this could made to happen then informal learning could prove to be a faster and engaging way to learning in the workplace. 

References 

Davies, L. (2017). Informal learning: A new model for making sense of experience. Routledge.

Green, L. (2017). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Routledge.

Greenhow, C., & Lewin, C. (2016). Social media and education: reconceptualizing the boundaries of formal and informal learning. Learning, media and technology, 41(1), 6-30.

Grosemans, I., Boon, A., Verclairen, C., Dochy, F., & Kyndt, E. (2015). Informal learning of primary school teachers: Considering the role of teaching experience and school culture. Teaching and Teacher Education, 47, 151-161.

Kendal, R. L., Kendal, J. R., Mursic, Z., Bailey-Ross, C., Rudman, H., Lloyd, A., & Ross, B. (2016). Designing for creativity and innovation in informal science learning. Informal learning review., (137), 20-24.

Khaddage, F., Müller, W., & Flintoff, K. (2016). Advancing mobile learning in formal and informal settings via mobile app technology: Where to from here, and how?. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(3).

Kyndt, E., Gijbels, D., Grosemans, I., & Donche, V. (2016). Teachers’ everyday professional development: Mapping informal learning activities, antecedents, and learning outcomes. Review of educational research, 86(4), 1111-1150.

Manuti, A., Pastore, S., Scardigno, A. F., Giancaspro, M. L., & Morciano, D. (2015). Formal and informal learning in the workplace: a research review. International journal of training and development, 19(1), 1-17.

Marsick, V., & Watkins, K. (2015). Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Rogoff, B., Callanan, M., Gutierrez, K. D., & Erickson, F. (2016). The organization of informal learning. Review of Research in Education, 40(1), 356-401.