Collective Learning Building on Individual Learning

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to explore individual and collective workplace learning in the contemporary industrial work. The research is based on two case studies in the Finnish packaging industry in which standardized observations and qualitative interviews have been carried out. The cases show that the socio-technical development has created learning conductive work at the individual level, but failed to create possibilities for collective learning. The still prevailing bureaucratic mentality prevents the employees from fully contributing to collective learning and work system development. The employees are able to learn at work, but they are not allowed to make the work system learn. In order to become organizations in which internal and external development may take place at individual and collective levels alike, the case organizations should directly address their shared mental models regulating employees’ participation opportunities rather than leave those models to develop in a non-reflected way. The focus of the workplace learning research should broaden from individual to collective learning. What supports workplace learning at individual level is already well-known, organizational hinders and supports for collective learning should be studied further. The paper contributes to the field of workplace learning by presenting a conceptual model on sustainable development building on concurrent individual and collective learning. With the help of this model, strengths and weakness in an organization’s approach to workplace learning can be detected.

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