Learning and the digital workplace: What? So what? Now what?
| Pages | 267-273 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-09-2017-0061 |
| Date | 13 November 2017 |
| Published date | 13 November 2017 |
| Author | Melissa Noonan,Gina Richter,Larry Durham,Eric Pierce |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
Learning and the digital workplace:
What? So what? Now what?
Melissa Noonan, Gina Richter, Larry Durham and Eric Pierce
Melissa Noonan is
Consulting Managing
Director at the St. Charles
Consulting Group, St.
Charles, Illinois, USA.
Gina Richter is Director of
Curation Services at the
St. Charles Consulting
Group, St. Charles,
Illinois, USA.
Larry Durham and Eric
Pierce are both based at
the St. Charles
Consulting Group, St.
Charles, Illinois, USA.
Abstract
Purpose –The paper aims to describe the macro-level realities driving change for learning
organizations and professionals including: volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA)
environment; information explosion; flattening organization; mobile and virtual workforce; and
generational mix. It also describes implications for these realities and the critical shift from learning
development to enablement via practices like learning curation, learning personalization, social
learning and new and diverse learning modalities.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper opted for a review of marketplace, business and industry
trends, as well as reviews of specific primary research and current publications, to support its viewpoint.
Findings –The VUCA of global; social; governmental; and economical systems is catalyzing the need
for systemic change in the learning and development (L&D) industry. This will change the learning
content that organizations will need to offer and the processes by which L&D leaders will need to identify
and curate it.
Originality/value –This paper fulfills the need to explain the necessity of changes required in skill sets
and best practices for the modern learning organization.
Keywords Learning and development, Social learning, Informal learning, Digital workplace,
Learning curation, Learning personalization
Paper type Viewpoint
The only thing more certain than death and taxes is constant change. The digital
workplace and all things digital it brings continues to expedite the pace of change
and amp up the complexity in how we work and live. As learning and development
(L&D) veterans, who have monitored and engaged in the changing landscape of work and
learning over the past 20 years, we are seeing, now more than ever, that the velocity of
change is creating both opportunity and disruption to age-old standards of learning. How
people learn, when and how often people need to learn and what learning looks like is
being completely redefined.
There is no doubt about it that the lines of work and learning are now blurred, and we
believe that there are five significant trends that are working together to issue a wake-up
call regarding learning in our highly- digitized workplace. The trends are as follows:
The VUCA environment: The volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) of
our global; social; governmental; environmental; and economical systems results in an
absence of certainty in what will be considered the critical competencies and skills of
“tomorrow”. The average shelf life of a business competency is no longer decades but
rather just a few years. These forces continue to change how organizations are
structured, led and managed, and how they engage with their employees, causing a
dramatic change in the knowledge, skills and capabilities employees need to succeed.
The information explosion: People and organizations are creating information at a
staggering rate. Multiple channels (individuals, groups, organizations, etc.) generate
DOI 10.1108/SHR-09-2017-0061 VOL. 16 NO. 6 2017, pp. 267-273, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 STRATEGIC HR REVIEW PAGE 267
To continue reading
Request your trial