A survey of factors influencing the engagement of two professional groups in informal workplace learning activities

Abstract

A survey was conducted to describe the informal workplace learning experiences of 318 public school teachers and HRD professionals. Analysis of the data found that teachers rely to a greater extent on interactive learning activities while HRD professionals rely to a greater extent on independent learning activities. Both professional groups reported that two environmental factors frequently inhibit their engagement in informal learning activities: a lack of time and a lack of proximity to colleagues' work areas. Three additional environmental factors were found to inhibit HRD professionals from engaging in informal learning: an unsupportive organizational culture, the unwillingness of others to participate in informal learning activities, and the inaccessibility of subject matter experts. One additional environmental inhibitor was found for teachers: a lack of funds. Seven personal characteristics were found to enhance the motivation of both professional groups to engage in informal learning: initiative, self-efficacy, love of learning, interest in the profession, commitment to professional development, a nurturing personality, and an outgoing personality. Implications of these findings for HRD theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 256 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.