Electronic human resource management: organizational responses to role conflicts created by e‐learning

Abstract

Could enthusiasm for e‐learning be dampened because it is detrimental to the relationships between those undergoing e‐training and their direct managers or colleagues? Interviews conducted in four French banks provide material to explore this question. We see that e‐learning has increasingly been adopted because it goes beyond the role limitations imposed by traditional training formats. Initially, however, the uptake of e‐learning was hampered because it imposed a role on trainees which did not correspond to their socialization needs. The companies in question responded to this problem by proposing ‘blended learning’ (that is, alternate sessions of e‐learning and in class face‐to‐face sessions). Nevertheless, the development of e‐learning remains limited today partly because of the role conflict it creates in the workplace: should an employee engaged in e‐learning in his office workstation be considered ‘at work’ or ‘in training’? This role conflict is detrimental to the relationships between the e‐learners, their colleagues and the direct manager. Solutions offered by companies may address this particular problem, but all of these reduce the efficiency of e‐learning sessions, and thus contribute to limiting its future development.

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