Do Opportunities for Formal Learning Stimulate Follow‐Up Participation in Informal Learning? A Three‐Wave Study

• Author: Timothy C. Bednall,Karin Sanders
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21800
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017

Human Resource Management, September–October 2017, Vol. 56, No. 5. Pp. 803–820

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21800

Correspondence to: Timothy Bednall, Department of Management & Marketing, Swinburne Business School,

PO Box 218, Mail H23, Cnr John and Wakefield Streets, Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia, Phone: +613 9214 5695,

E-mail: tbednall@swin.edu.au.

DO OPPORTUNITIES FOR FORMAL

LEARNING STIMULATE FOLLOW-UP

PARTICIPATION IN INFORMAL

LEARNING? A THREE-WAVE STUDY

TIMOTHY C. BEDNALL AND KARIN SANDERS

Informal learning is an important source of employee adaptability and expertise,

yet it is unclear how it may be encouraged through human resource manage-

ment (HRM) practices. In this study, we investigate how opportunities for formal

learning may be used to stimulate short- and long-term participation in informal

learning. In addition, we examine whether HRM system strength intensifi es the

relationship between opportunities for formal learning and informal learning.

Using a sample of 430 respondents in 52 teams within six Dutch vocational and

educational training schools, we adopt a longitudinal design to examine two

types of autonomous informal learning activities (refl ection and keeping up to

date), and three collaborative activities (asking for feedback, knowledge sharing

and innovative behavior) over two years. Opportunity for formal learning was

positively related to short- and long-term participation in informal learning activi-

ties, with the exception of long-term innovation. Moreover, HRM system strength

intensifi ed these relationships. Managerial implications of these fi ndings for

encouraging informal learning activities at work are discussed. © 2016 Wiley

Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: formal learning, HRM system strength, informal learning, informal

learning activities

With a changing economy and

increasingly flexible labor mar-

ket, employees and organizations

need to adapt rapidly to remain

competitive (Ellström, 2001). A

major source of adaptability is work-related learn-

ing, which benefits both employees and the orga-

nizations they work for. For employees, learning

enables them to expand their knowledge and

skills, become more adaptable in the face of a

changing work environment, and enhance their

long-term employability (Hall, 1996). For organi-

zations, learning enhances the quality and con-

sistency of individual, team, and organizational

performance (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).

To build employees’ expertise, organizations

often provide opportunities for formal learning, such

as classroom-based learning or workshops to their

employees. This approach has several inherent lim-

itations: methods of formal learning can be slow to

deploy, they are often not tailored to employees’

specific learning needs or work situation, and they

804 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2017

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

Offering opportunities

for formal learning

provides a stronger

signaling effect

to engage in

informal learning

when employees

understand HRM

in the way it

was intended by

management.

collaborative informal learning activities that

we propose are linked to organizational learning

(Crossan, Lane, & White, 1999). We also adopt a

three-wave design, which we use to investigate

how opportunities for formal learning and HRM

system strength influence both immediate and

long-term (defined as a year) participation in

informal learning. Finally, this study takes place

in the educational sector, which is relatively rare

within HRM research.

This article is organized as follows. First, we

review the literature on formal and informal learn-

ing, discuss our hypotheses in relation to formal

learning and employee understanding of HRM,

and outline the context of our study. We outline

our approach to data collection and describe the

findings of the analysis. Finally, we discuss the

implications of the results for theory and practice.

Formal and Informal Learning in the

Workplace

To build a skilled workforce, organizations rely on

four modes of employment (Lepak & Snell, 1999):

internal development of their employees, acquisi-

tion of new employees with the required skill set,

contracting of temporary workers, and forming

alliances with external partners to collaborate on

a shared goal. For schools in particular, internal

development is arguably the most important, as

schools are often faced with a limited labor pool

of candidates with desired content or pedagogi-

cal knowledge (Mercer et al., 2010). Schools may

otherwise have limited authority and resources to

hire, contract, or build long-term alliances with

such individuals.

With regard to internal development, orga-

nizations rely on various methods of formal

learning to build the knowledge and skills of

employees, such as workshops and training semi-

nars. For the most part, such activities benefit the

performance of individuals, teams, and entire

organizations (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009). However,

the effectiveness of any kind of learning method

depends on how new practices and strategies are

implemented into employees’ daily work (Guskey,

2002), which is known as the transfer of training

(e.g., Grossman & Salas, 2011). Informal learning

is one means by which employees may transfer

knowledge and skills acquired externally to their

specific work context (Enos, Kehrhahn, & Bell,

2003). Compared to formal learning, informal

learning typically occurs outside of a classroom,

and is not institutionally sponsored or highly

structured (Marsick & Watkins, 1990). In addition,

it has the advantages of being timely, directly rel-

evant to employees’ learning needs, and divisible

into small time chunks (Hoffman, 2005).

can be relatively expensive (Kyndt, Dochy, & Nijs,

2009). However, by providing structured oppor-

tunities to apply knowledge, as well as signaling

the organization’s support for learning, formal

learning opportunities may stimulate employees

to engage in informal learning. Informal learning

refers to learning that takes place outside of a for-

mal environment, and which is largely directed by

the learners themselves (Eraut, 2004). Such learn-

ing can help employees to reflect on their experi-

ences, adapt their approach to work, and enhance

their performance (Marsick & Watkins, 2001).

Ultimately, widespread engagement in learning

activities can enhance the performance of entire

organizations (Davis & Daley, 2008).

In this study, we investigate the extent to

which opportunities for formal learning encour-

age employee participation in

informal learning. We do so in the

context of the educational system

(vocational educational training

schools), as internal development of

teaching staff is crucial to the effec-

tiveness of schools (Mercer, Barker,

& Bird, 2010). For example, empiri-

cal research has shown that teachers’

engagement in informal learning

is positively related to the number

of successfully graduating students

(Bednall, Sanders, & Runhaar, 2014).

Drawing on Bowen and Ostroff’s

(2004) human resource management

(HRM) process approach, our study

also investigates how employees’

understanding of the overall HRM

system influences their response

to opportunities for formal learn-

ing. Specifically, we test the propo-

sition that offering opportunities

for formal learning provides a stronger signaling

effect (Connelly, Certo, Ireland, & Reutzel, 2010)

to engage in informal learning when employees

understand HRM in the way it was intended by

management.

The current study extends the research liter-

ature in the following ways. First, we investigate

the relationship between formal and informal

learning, which has not been comprehensively

examined in previous empirical studies (Webster-

Wright, 2009). In this way, we answer the ques-

tion of whether organizations can stimulate

informal learning by providing opportunities for

formal learning. Second, we investigate a broader

range of informal learning activities than has

been examined in previous studies (e.g., Bednall

et al., 2014; Runhaar, Sanders, & Yang, 2010).

In particular, we examine autonomous and