 Welcome back. This knowledge clip is about learning by individuals. It's part of Chapter 3, which is about knowledge management. After this clip you will understand the following. We will talk about how individuals acquire, which is a sentiment for learning, different types of knowledge. We will discuss the problem of transfer of training. And finally, we will dive into the question how to design effective learning activities for employees. So how do individuals learn? Let's take the stereotypical way where people learn is the picture to the left. And the picture to the left is people sitting in a learning environment, potentially a classroom or a lecture hall. And then there's somebody telling, like myself at this point, telling knowledge and hopefully this will land in the minds of these people. This type of learning we know as formal learning. It's organized, people sit there, and there's a lot of sending of information. An alternative way of learning is also really important, and this is more informal. The picture to the right demonstrates some experienced employee helping a younger employee becoming an expert in some manual labor in this example. But of course it can also be on all kind of different types of work. Informal learning is useful to really understand what is happening, how to do things. If you remember the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, you will easily see that the situation on the left, formal learning, is more geared towards explicit knowledge, whereas informal learning, learning by doing, is more geared for more suitable for gaining tacit knowledge. Individuals learn in many different ways. I will talk about plant ways of learning, but I'll also highlight one unplanned way of learning. Good to know is that learning always happens, also in unintended ways. In the previous slide we talked about plant situations. In this slide I will give you an example of an unplanned way of learning. Think about an example when you learn something unintendedly. For example, you were sitting with friends and you were discussing something. So how did it happen? Probably it just happened because you met somebody when you were looking for something else. So it illustrates that even when nothing is organized, people will learn new things and these can be often tacit things. For example, hey, what are you doing? How does it work? And sometimes also fun facts, which are more explicit knowledge. You can place all the learning activities from formal to incidental, on this continuing of knowledge and learning. On the left hand you'll find the explicit knowledge and on the right hand you'll find tacit knowledge. Formal learning activities are characterized by highly planned, highly structured. They're indicated by management, you should go there. They happen in classrooms, through books or through the internet. And they mostly help you to gain explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge, the things that you just learn by doing, these often times and most of the time happen just by incidental learning. Because you're working on somebody, it's unplanned, it's unconscious. To trial and error, to social interactions, to just making tasks come to an end, you learn things that you didn't plan before. These are all examples of incidental learning. Nobody's involved but yourself. Informal learning takes a middle position here. Informal learning is planned. Coaching trajectories, helping people learn their job while doing the job. These are planned activities. They're not highly structured and they are mostly initiated by the learner. They happen on the job and they involve some coaching and some mentoring and some reflection. So let's dive into a problem that derives from formal training to applying knowledge. Because things that you know don't necessarily translate to what you do. Training transfers a problem. There's a gap between explicit knowledge and the application of that knowledge in the workplace. Usually formal learning, formal training provides little to know how and know who. So think about a language training. Using a lot of words and grammar rules alone is not enough to use a language. You really need the practice and the experience of doing in engagement with others to be able to use a language for real. So this means that organizations who organize trainings need to think about how to make sure that people who go to trainings actually use what they learned in practice. The problem of training transfer. Training transfer means bringing what you learned in the training, the explicit knowledge with you and apply it in your daily work. So you need to blend it with tests and think about the example of the language course. Two ways, two conditions matter for the transfer of training. First, the problem of generalization. So this is the extent to which the knowledge and skill acquired in the learning setting are really applied in different settings. Can people use it with other people in other situations for which they are trained? That's generalization. Another thing is maintenance. This is the extent to which changes that result from a learning experience will persist over time. So will people use this new skill or this new knowledge in work even after the training has passed for a year or so? So transfer formal training to knowledge used at work means blending. Blending, formal and informal training. So example, think about administrative departments and somebody is sent to this external course, formal learning, to learn about new administrative software. And the organization is thinking about maybe in the future using this software. So this person goes to the training, has a lot of fun, thinks this is excellent software and then comes back to work. Then colleagues say, hey, glad you're back. We had a lot of work at hand. I hope you had a nice day. So the learner says, yeah, it was very, very nice. I learned a lot of new things and maybe, but then back to reality, back to work. The system is not there yet. So the knowledge that was gained during the formal learning experience is actually lost. A better example would be that the new software is introduced, is already there, and all employees are one by one sent to this formal learning. And when they come back, they organize together and discuss how to use this new software, where the potential perks might be, how to learn to use it in a better way, to make it into a social practice environment, then the formal learning about the system will be mixed with the reality of the work that the department is doing, and therefore will be mixed and lead into tacit knowledge. The know-how and the know-who, which are really essential to make sure that people will use the skills to use the software in practice. So what is the research evidence for transfer of explicit to tacit? Blue Metal did a large meta-analysis and found all kinds of courses for successful transfer of explicit to tacit knowledge. First, they demonstrated that it depends from one person to the next whether they will use the knowledge in practice. This has to do with people's intelligence and also people's willingness to work hard and conscientious. As you can see from the figures 0.37, 0.28 that these are pretty strong correlates. So you can honestly say that it depends from one person to the next whether they will use a skill or knowledge that was picked up in the training. There's a problem here because as an organization you want everybody to take this training if it's important for some goal. And you can't say you can't take this course because you have a lower score on intelligence. So although this is theoretically interesting, it's not really practical. Other elements of Blue's meta-analysis are more relevant. For example, voluntary participation. So if there's a motivation aspect in there, people will see more value in applying what they learned in practice. So that's something that you can organize as an organization. Make sure that people know that it's a nice thing to do and stimulate that they voluntarily participate. What you can work on are environment characteristics. So things that you can organize in the organization in the transfer environment to make sure that the explicit knowledge from a course is used in practice. So some examples here. Training transfer climate. So is it common that people talk about trainings and what they learned there? So there's a role for management there to be a role model, but also to organize among employees to talk about what they learned and how they can apply it to the transfer climate. Organized support. Supervices and peers can ask what they learned in the course and what they need in order to implement it in practice. Finally, there are constraints in the work design that can hinder the transfer. So for example, if people have a low level of autonomy, that their work is really dictated by others, there's little leeway to trial and error. So there might be situational constraints where it's just difficult to practice what you learned. As you can see from the effect sizes, 0.17, 0.21, transfer climate and support are important conditions. You can also do things after and before the training intervention. So for example, you can test after the training whether people actually understood what was trained to do a test. Having knowledge about what you learned is a good condition for transfer to happen. So don't blame your lecturers if they take an exam. Actually, that's a better way to predict whether you will do something with a course than asking whether you liked the course. Another thing is that people are more self-efficous. They will be more likely to use what they learned in practice. Self-efficacy can be helped to develop during a training. So if a training already has some room for practicing, then people will feel more secure about what they learned and they will find it easier to apply it at work. Some utility reactions do people think that the training was useful? Well, that also helps a little bit in the transfer. And interestingly, if you ask people if they had a good time at the training, if they liked the teacher, that's actually not a protector for anything. People who liked the training could have just had a nice few days, but if they will ever use it in practice is a big question. So again, look at the effect sizes and you'll see that the most important one is the test and the least important one is the satisfaction. Other interventions, to mend the one that's going to training a little bit before they go to a course, for example by goal setting or pre-training briefings, these don't have much effect. So in the design of the training, testing for knowledge and making sure that people feel confident about what they learned, these are the most important things that you can really invest in to make sure that the transfer from explicit to tested will happen. So what is the implication for human resource management? I think this is a really simple one, make sure that you design good trainings. And there's a lot of research evidence for it and there's a lot of literature and there's actually no excuse to not look into that. So in short, individual learning depends on designing good trainings. It depends on organizing for transfer, consider multiple transfer strategies in combination. Organize support by peers and by supervisors. Organize opportunities for the use of new skills. So for example, think about job design that allows people to use their knowledge. And organize that you test what people know and that you help people to become more self-efficous in using the things they learn in the training. Individual differences, although they have large effect sizes, are difficult. You cannot select on who to train. However, it is important to take the level of understanding and the level of literacy into account when you design a training. That's part of designing good trainings. If you are interested in specific types of trainings, so for example, stress management or leadership trainings or diversity training, again there is a huge amount of research evidence, examples about effective training designs. If you're, as an HR professional, want to buy a leadership training, for example, you still have the obligation to do a little research about effective leadership trainings to be able to have good negotiations with the firms that you hire to do the leadership trainings for you. So this brings me to the end of this clip. Now you know that learning happens in planned and unplanned ways. That formal learning is good for acquiring explicit knowledge. That informal learning is good for acquiring tested knowledge. That the transfer of explicit knowledge to use in practice, that need to be organized. You need to organize for blended learning. And you also know now where to find evidence for designing excellent training and workplace learning.