Effective personal development plans contextualized: The role of the autonomy-supportive people manager in sustaining employees' self-directed learning

This qualitative research explores how the broader social context supports employees' self-directed learning (SDL) when using a personal development plan (PDP), focusing especially on the people manager's role. Based on deductive and inductive analysis of verbatim transcripts from 28 semi-structured interviews with employees and people managers in a non-profit organization, the study reaches three main findings. First, it confirms the key role that people managers play within PDP practices and their need to balance autonomy support, and structure, adapting their leadership style to employees. Second, it confirms the added value of PDPs for long-term learning goals and for creating a "humanitarian corridor " for personal and professional development, where efficient formal learning is complemented by informal learning activities embedded and situated in the work itself. Finally, it articulates a new conceptualization of SDL within a broader social context. These findings are complemented by practical implications and directions for future research

Effective personal development plans contextualized: The role of the autonomy-supportive people manager in sustaining employees' self-directed learning

This qualitative research explores how the broader social context supports employees' self-directed learning (SDL) when using a personal development plan (PDP), focusing especially on the people manager's role. Based on deductive and inductive analysis of verbatim transcripts from 28 semi-structured interviews with employees and people managers in a non-profit organization, the study reaches three main findings. First, it confirms the key role that people managers play within PDP practices and their need to balance autonomy support, and structure, adapting their leadership style to employees. Second, it confirms the added value of PDPs for long-term learning goals and for creating a "humanitarian corridor " for personal and professional development, where efficient formal learning is complemented by informal learning activities embedded and situated in the work itself. Finally, it articulates a new conceptualization of SDL within a broader social context. These findings are complemented by practical implications and directions for future research

Resources to Increase Older Workers' Motivation and Intention to Learn

Two important and current trends in the domain of work are the aging workforce and the high and increasing requirement for work-related learning due to the rate of technological advancement and innovation. Together, they create a precarious situation, as many theories suggest a decline in motivation to learn as people age. This study investigates antecedents of motivation and intention to learn in older employees in the financial sector. Specifically, we research how learning motivation is affected by personal and job resources and how these translate into intentions to learn. Data was collected via a quantitative survey of 870 employees aged 50 or older. The data is analyzed by the means of structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show positive relationships between proactive personality and motivation (subjective task value and learning self-efficacy) and negative relationships between institutionalized negative age stereotypes and motivation. This, in turn, affects older employees' intention to learn. Finally, in contrast to supervisor support, organizational support for professional development raised utility value in the respondents. The findings suggest that organizations might want to recruit employees who are high in pro-active personality. Also, trainings may be fruitful to educate against the negative stereotypes that often associate old age with an inability to learn. Finally, supervisors and trainers should explain the utility and interest of the learning activities since it makes employees motivated to learn

The Use of Personal Development Plans (PDPs) in organizations and the role of its perceived goal

Presented at the EARLI 2011, Education for a global networked societ

Effective Personal Development Plans COntextualised: The role of autonomy supportive people manager in sustaining employees' self-directed learning.

This qualitative research explores how the broader social context supports employees' self-directed learning (SDL) when using a personal development plan (PDP), focusing especially on the people manager's role. Based on deductive and inductive analysis of verbatim transcripts from 28 semistructured interviews with employees and people managers in a non-profit organization, the study reaches three main findings. First, it confirms the key role that people managers play within PDP practices and their need to balance autonomy support, and structure, adapting their leadership style to employees. Second, it confirms the added value of PDPs for long-term learning goals and for creating a “humanitarian corridor” for personal and professional development, where efficient formal learning is complemented by informal learning activities embedded and situated in the work itself. Finally, it articulates a new conceptualization of SDL within a broader social context. These findings are complemented by practical implications and directions for future research

The development and validation of the student's employability competences questionnaire (SECQ)

PurposeThis paper aims to measure the extent to which students possess the necessary competences of an employable graduate, the authors explored the development and validation of a questionnaire that measures employability competences of students in higher education through combining insights from higher education and workplace learning literature.Design/methodology/approachThe paper aims to develop and validate the questionnaire a systematic literature review and factor analyses were conducted. The authors applied the questionnaire to two different groups of students. First, to undergraduate students in an applied sciences program in Belgium (N = 935). The dataset was randomly divided into two subsets to conduct an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis. Next, another confirmatory factor analysis was done to cross-validate the factor structure found. For this, the questionnaire was offered to a group of undergraduate and graduate students at a university in The Netherlands (N = 995).FindingsThe results support a model of employability based on combined insights from higher education and workplace learning literature. The model consists of the following seven factors: social competences, e-literacy, efficacy beliefs, flexibility, healthy work-life balance, lifelong learning and oral and written communication.Originality/valueThe questionnaire can be utilized to screen students' employability profiles and examine the relationship between teaching practices and students' employability competences