Learning at work, organisational opportunities and individual engagement: A case study of a New Zealand wine company

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of the development of people’s capability at work. The case study reported here – on a wine company in New Zealand –is the first empirical phase of a large research project, Developing human capability: employment institutions, organizations and individuals. The aim of this project is to explore the optimal conditions for the development of the capability of workers in New Zealand organisations, taking account of issues at the level of government policy and practice, industrial relations frameworks, organisational HR structures and practices, and individual engagement with learning at work. The primary focus of this paper is exploring the interaction of the types of opportunities the company offers for the development of individuals’ capability, and the engagement of workers at various levels with those opportunities. The paper begins with an overview of the wine industry in which this case study is located and goes on to review literature about the workplace as an environment for learning and for the development of capability. This section concludes with the research questions to be explored through the case analysis. We then briefly describe our methodology before moving on to discuss our results, where we explore how affordances for development are differentially distributed within the company and how individual agency mediates the extent to which individuals proactively seek out development opportunities or attempt to resist them.

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