Can Dynamic Capabilities be Developed Using Workplace E‐learning Processes?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1500
• Author: Rod B. McNaughton,James Timothy Costello
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Date: 01 January 2016

■Research Article

Can Dynamic Capabilities be Developed

Using Workplace E-learning Processes?

James Timothy Costello*and Rod B. McNaughton

Department of Management and International Business, Business School, University of Auckland, Auckland,

New Zealand

In this paper, we discuss how an organisation’s e-learning processes might reflect and contribute to the development

of dynamic capabilities. We offer a definition of the dynamic capabilities concept and a model of how they are devel-

oped and discuss its component constructs, organisational learning and ambidexterity. We also suggest that the

microfoundations of dynamic capabilities can be understood in the context of an organisation’s e-learning processes.

Using Teece’s (2007) sensing, seizing and transforming framework, we present a set of empirically testable proposi-

tions that suggest how an organisation’s e-learning processes can support the development of dynamic capabilities.

This article contributes to the literature by laying out a path for investigating the microfoundations of dynamic capa-

bilities by exploring a specific learning process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: Dynamic Capablities, Deliberate Learning, E-learning, Human Capital Development

INTRODUCTION

The dynamic capabilities’school of thought has

emerged from notions that performance and profit-

ability are increasingly temporary unless integrated

with adaptive and innovative behaviours (Chen and

Miller, 2012). Central to research on dynamic capabili-

ties are the roles played by knowledge and learning

(Easterby-Smith and Prieto, 2008; Eisenhardt and

Martin, 2000). The ability to create, integrate, transfer

and use knowledge underpins the organisation’s

capabilities and competitive advantage (Teece, 1998).

However, when organisations attempt to stimulate

learning, they potentially stifle the innovation needed

to reconfigure redundant operational routines

(Romme, Zollo, and Berendsy, 2010). By formalising

learning, there is a risk of solidifying accumulated

experience into institutionalised truths that are increas-

ingly difficult to change. The challenge is to develop

learning mechanisms that allow accrued best practices

to transform with shifting environmental conditions.

In this paper, we use the dynamic capabilities frame-

work to explore one specific learning mechanism—

technology-assisted learning or e-learning. E-learning

encompasses a range of applications and processes

such as computer-assisted learning, web-based train-

ing and digital collaboration (Patel, 2010). E-learning

technology allows the swift and efficient sharing of

distributed knowledge to potentially overcome some

of the inertial effects of learning mechanisms (Noe,

Clarke, & Klein, 2014). However, far more important

than the technology are the human processes such as

the sensemaking behaviours of individuals, social rela-

tions and cultural factors that influence how an organi-

sation learns (Easterby-Smith and Prieto, 2008). The

presence of e-learning, or any knowledge tool, will

have little impact on innovation if it is used solely to

support existing practices (for example, Gold, 2003).

We propose that the organisations’ability to adapt

their resources and routines is due to their capacity to

develop dynamic capabilities and that this ability is

reflectedby,andcanbesupportedthrough,their

e-learning processes.

A key aspect of dynamic capabilities is the applica-

tion of innovation to the development and adaptation

of operating routines. Technological innovations add

to the complexity of business processes, resulting in

greater demand for knowledge-intensive labour

(Bresnahan et al., 2002; Levy and Murnane, 1996;

Spitz-Oener, 2008).A t the sametime, information tech-

nology (IT) has improved the employees’ability to

*Correspondence to: James Timothy Costello, Department of Man-

agement and International Business, Business School, University of

Auckland, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.

E-mail: j.costello@auckland.ac.nz

Knowledge and Process Management

Volume 23 Number 1 pp 73–87 (2016)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1500

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.