Employee learning provides significant competitive advantage for organizations. Understanding how employees learn in different work contexts can support continuing, effective, and frequent learning. Although most workplace learning is done informally, the characteristics of that learning are minimally reported and the criteria used to define learning as informal are inconsistent. Research into continuing professional development in knowledge-intense environments or distributed workforces is sparse. The pharmaceutical sales industry is a previously unexamined knowledge-intense environment with a geographically distributed workforce. This qualitative case study sought a better understanding of how pharmaceutical sales representatives learn for work by documenting and describing those ways of learning reported as most effective and most frequent. Twenty sales agents from 11 organizations participated in a Delphi collaboration to create a comprehensive list of 64 ways they learn for work. In-depth individual interviews with five agents provided deep detail about learning in this industry, including the ways of learning that the participating agents perceive to be most effective and most frequent. The Colley, Hodkinson and Malcom (2003) framework was interpreted, applied, and extended in order to identify attributes of formality and informality and other characteristics inherent in the ways of learning reported as most effective and most frequent. This study showed that agents learn in a wide variety of ways and that most of those ways are self-initiated, self-directed, minimally structured, and often involve intentional incidental learning: agents are constantly alert to capture learning while engaged in work activities. Learning during customer interactions on the job was reported as particularly effective and frequent. Other reported effective ways of learning varied with the agent but usually involved self-directed learning with mixed formal and informal attributes. It was determined that learning plays a special role in this industry: much of what is learned for work is not being applied directly to the job of sales promotion. Instead, agents use learning to develop themselves as resources for physicians in order to gain the customer-access required to promote their products. In this way, learning on the job is the job. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-23 16:16:11.431

No description available.

Filipino internationally educated nurses (IENs) constitute a major portion of the IENs in Manitoba and Canada. Acculturating to Canada can be difficult and can affect job satisfaction and retention. The focus of this research is on Filipino IENs’ acculturation to Canada, sources of workplace support and perceived job satisfaction. Berry’s (1997) acculturation framework guided the study. A cross-sectional descriptive-correlational method was used. An on-line survey resulted in a study sample of 124 participants. Quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques were used to determine relationships among the variables and to identify recommendations to assist other IENs. Job satisfaction was positively associated with one dimension of acculturation and informal sources of workplace support by immigrants and Canadian co-workers, administration, and the union. When these independent variables were entered into a multiple regression model, only administration support significantly predicted job satisfaction. Implications for nursing practice, leadership and research are discussed.

AECI Bioproducts implemented the team concept as its management structure in it first ventures the lysine plant. The plant is AECI's first venture into Biotechnology. After a successful commissioning phase the plant was hampered by significant technological problems that prevented the plant from reaching design capacity. To compound matters the implementation of the Team Concept was not fully conceptualised resulting in poor implementation. The poor implementation resulted in teams being uncoordinated and often resulted in conflict between management and teams. The benefits that were envisaged from applying the team concept did not occur. The poor lysine prices and the inability to produce at design, resulted in significant losses being generated. This resulted in significant retrenchments at management level. The team structure remained intact despite the negative results achieved. The company recommitted to the team concept and structures were overhauled to ensurer the success of the teams. In 2001 Bioproducts is a vibrant thriving organisation. The productivity is above design and all benchmarks have been attained if not bettered. The organisation is one of the forerunners in the Biotechnology field and possesses skills and capabilities, which can be maximised in the future. The management question is how effective are teams and what is their relationship to job satisfaction. In this study we look at how effective teams are at Bioproducts and what is the level of job satisfaction among employees. We then determine the relationship using correlation analysis between perceptions of teamwork and job satisfaction. We also investigate the relationship between teamwork and organisational commitment, teamwork and work demands and teamwork and stress. Employees that were part of teams were given a questionnaire prepared by the author using the literature review conducted. There are seventy employees in the organisation and fifty-seven employees that belong to teams took part in the research. It was discovered that teams at Bioproducts are performing well within the organisation. Teams have high levels of autonomy, responsibility and accountability. There is a high degree of teamwork. Teams are interdependent and are co-operating and communicating well. There is a significant focus on job enrichment by management. The organisation is supporting and reinforcing teamwork well. The employees are committed to the organisation and there are high levels of job satisfaction among employees. Areas of concern that need to be looked at are the stress among employees, the insecurity surrounding ownership, communication within the organisation and training. The correlation analysis between teamwork and job satisfaction reveals that as individuals perception of teamwork increases job satisfaction increases and similarly as individuals perception of teamwork decreases job satisfaction decreases. The correlation between perception of teamwork and organisational commitment also reveals that as teamwork increases organisational commitment increases. One can conclude that team members that are happy in teams are more likely to be committed to the organisation and have increased job satisfaction. Stress of individuals increase as a result of teamwork, this is evident in the correlation analysis carried out. Organisations need to take heed of this since most individuals are not adequately equipped to deal with increases in stress levels. Teamwork places an increase in demands on employees and this factor together with stress levels need to be monitored. Overall the organisation is well equipped to deal with the ever-changing future and in terms of its human capabilities is well set to take advantage of its competitive edge once the issues that have been identified have been dealt with. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

With the global trend of transnational migration, a huge influx of highly skilled immigrants has been influencing Canadian society and economy. However, there is little literature that illuminates highly skilled migrants’ workplace experiences and their identities in terms of second language acquisition. This multiple case study explores three highly skilled Korean immigrants’ experiences, focusing on the interplay of their language learning, identity, and workplace communities. Grounded in the notion of “imagined communities” (Kano & Norton, 2003) and the theory of “communities of practice” (Lave & Wenger, 1991), this study analyzes the process of how highly skilled migrants have constructed their imagined workplace communities. By revealing the multiple dynamic negotiations co-constructed by the workplace contexts and the individuals, this study shows the interlocked relationship between second language learning, identity, and the given community. This study also argues the importance of membership and positive social arrangements in a community for language learning.

Mental stress resulting from a traumatic event in the workplace has a noteworthy impact on employees. Psychological debriefing is offered to TTC employees as a means of immediate trauma support, however, the usefulness of the intervention is unknown. This thesis explores the debriefing intervention using a mixed methods approach. TTC employees who have experienced a traumatic event were recruited. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptom development and time lost from work were compared between debriefed and not debriefed employees. In addition, purposively selected employees were qualitatively interviewed. The quantitative analysis showed no significant differences in PTSD symptomatology or lost time from work between the groups. Despite these results, however, employees who were debriefed had an overall positive perception of the intervention. Further exploration in this area of study would be beneficial to not only the TTC, but to all workplaces at high risk of exposure to traumatic events.

Evolutionary psychological principles were applied to the issue of sexual harassment to investigate whether the gender, power, and mate value of harassers were related to perceptions of sexual harassment. One hundred and sixty heterosexual men and women were given descriptions of a target individual whose mate value and power was manipulated, and three behavioural vignettes involving imagined interactions with the target individual. Participants rated their perceived level of sexual harassment (the dependent variable) stemming from the imagined interactions. Participants also provided ratings of their self perceived level of attractiveness, attitude towards social-sexual communication in the workplace, and experience with social-sexual communication in the workplace. As predicted, females perceived higher levels of sexual harassment than males, and participants perceived higher levels of sexual harassment from low mate-value target individuals than high mate-value target individuals. Against predictions, no result was found for power. Additionally, self perceived level of attractiveness was found to moderate the relationship between gender and perceived sexual harassment, and attitude towards social-sexual communication in the workplace was found to moderate the relationship between mate value and perceived sexual harassment. Implications and explanations are discussed with reference to workplace issues, and evolutionary psychology.

The objective of the present study was to examine the perceptions of employees who have participated in workplace health promotion (WHP) initiatives, more specifically, whether the employees perceived the WHP initiatives to have an impact on their well-being, general health or work. Furthermore, the effect of WHP initiatives on the relationship between job demands-resources and positive work outcomes, namely employee resilience, engagement, well-being and affective organisational commitment, was investigated. This study collected perceptions from 107 employees, all of whom were employed in organisations which had engaged in WHP initiatives. MultipleThe objective of the present study was to examine the perceptions of employees who have participated in workplace health promotion (WHP) initiatives, more specifically, whether the employees perceived the WHP initiatives to have an impact on their well-being, general health or work. Furthermore, the effect of WHP initiatives on the relationship between job demands-resources and positive work outcomes, namely employee resilience, engagement, well-being and affective organisational commitment, was investigated. This study collected perceptions from 107 employees, all of whom were employed in organisations which had engaged in WHP initiatives. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were performed. Two significant interactions were found – the perception the WHP initiative had an impact on well-being and work had a moderating effect on the relationship between work overload and employee resilience. These findings have implications for organisations developing WHP initiatives targeted at improving the health and well-being. Further investigation of a wider span of perceived impacts and a more targeted examination, such as the type of WHP initiative completed, or the time that the employee spent doing the initiative is warranted. hierarchical regression analyses were performed. Two significant interactions were found – the perception the WHP initiative had an impact on well-being and work had a moderating effect on the relationship between work overload and employee resilience. These findings have implications for organisations developing WHP initiatives targeted at improving the health and well-being. Further investigation of a wider span of perceived impacts and a more targeted examination, such as the type of WHP initiative completed, or the time that the employee spent doing the initiative is warranted.

Generating innovative solutions for large-scale multifaceted problems increasingly requires the carefully orchestrated coordination and collaboration of complex collectives composed of multiple teams. However, there are many difficulties inherent in collaborative work, which are often exacerbated when individuals hail from multiple fields, perspectives, cultural backgrounds, and geographical locations. Although collective creativity can be maximized when teams leverage functionally diverse information, often residing outside the boundary of the team, this is only true to the extent that teams can effectively reconcile often-competing perspectives. Resolving these countervailing pressures requires leadership networks - patterns of emergent influence - that enable organizational teams to explore and exploit diverse informational sets. In this thesis, I turn to leadership networks in order to understand how the social structure of influence within cross-functional multiteam systems (i.e., MTSs) holds the potential to catalyze innovative new ideas. I evaluate hypotheses about the structure of leadership networks and resulting creative output in a sample of geographically distributed cross-functional MTSs formed using students completing linked semester-long projects across two universities in the US and France. Findings reveal the structure of leadership networks, both during early exploration and later exploitation phases, has important downstream consequences for innovation. First, my results suggest that throughout exploration and exploitation, innovation arises in those MTSs who exhibit leadership networks high in bridging ties and whose leaders have strong mutual influence on one another. Second, I find innovation arises in those MTSs whose leadership networks are highly concentrated around a relative few members during the exploitation phase.

This creative project has simplified technical information concerning electrical discharge machining so that it may be better understood by secondary vocational and post-secondary students. The material has been collected from sources including manufacturers of electrical discharge machines, industrial personnel, industrial educators from vocational schools and universities, and technical papers from trade magazines. It has been written for the secondary vocational student at a reading level that he should be able to comprehend.Included in the text are drawings which can be used to make transparencies, exercises that can be adapted to the different types of EDM machines, and a glossary of EDM terms.