Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore what learning-oriented leadership could mean in practice and to identify possible sources of variability in this leadership between first-line managers (FLMs). The empirical basis of the study comprised FLMs in nursing homes for elderly care.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was carried out using a sequential mixed-method design based on interviews, observations and documentary analysis.

Findings

The study contributes an in-depth analysis of two modes of learning-oriented leadership: development-oriented and production-oriented. The two orientations represent an open and enabling pattern versus a constraining and controlling pattern of leading and organizing employee learning and development. The observed differences in learning-oriented leadership between the FLMs were interpreted in terms of the demands–constraints–choices model proposed by Stewart (1982; 1989).

Research limitations/implications

Future research should include data from employees to analyze how the mode of learning-oriented leadership shapes the conditions and opportunities for learning at work.

Practical implications

Employee learning and development issues should be clearly linked to business strategies, and it is imperative that senior managers actively support and follow up on FLMs’ work with these issues. Furthermore, there is a strong need for training and development of FLMs – formal and informal – to improve their knowledge of and skills in leading and organizing workplace learning.

Originality/value

The study adds to previous research by elaborating what learning-oriented leadership could mean in practice and how it can be theoretically understood.

Within Scandinavian working-life discourse, the notion of co-workership has become increasingly prominent. This article explores how the idea of co-workership has been implemented within two organizations and how it has been affected by various factors related to the implementation strategies that were used. Empirical data were collected from one County Council and one for-profit State-Owned Company through interviews with the managers of the co-workership programmes along with general managers and employees at an intensive care unit within the County Council and an Information Technology (IT) unit within the State-Owned Company. The findings indicate that compared to the top-down strategy used by the State-Owned Company, the implementation strategy adopted by the County Council, which was characterized by a high level of participation, local adjustment and integration of the idea of co-workership into daily work routines, resulted in a higher degree of implementation and development of co-workership practices. Finally, the implications of co-workership development work within organizations are discussed.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which first-line managers' (FLMs') support of employee learning activities influence the learning outcomes and the transfer of training from a work-based vocational education and training (VET) programme.

Design/methodology/approach – The study was designed as a multiple-case study including six service units in elder care. Data were collected through interviews with managers and care workers in the six units.

Findings – The study demonstrated that the role of FLMs was a significant condition for the learning outcomes attained and for positive transfer of training. For care workers to attain benefits from training that went beyond the individual level, that is, benefits at the level of the work team or the organisation, a supportive FLM role appeared to be necessary.

Research limitations/implications – The statistical generalisability of the study is limited by its character of a multiple-case study of six work units. At the same time, a strength of the study lies in its potential for analytic generalisations, that is, for identifying and verifying theoretically meaningful patterns across a number of cases.

Practical implications – The findings suggest a need for management development that promotes a broader understanding of the task as FLM, and, specifically, improved knowledge and skills regarding how to lead and organise learning and development processes in a workplace.

Originality/value – Using a qualitative approach, this study adds to the limited knowledge of FLMs' influences on the learning outcomes and the positive transfer from work-based training.

Purpose – The aim of the present study is to explore the meaning of managerial support for learning and development in the workplace. The overall research question concerns how first-line managers in elder care perceive and understand their mission and tasks and how they in practice handle issues of co-workers' learning and development.

Design/methodology/approach – The study was designed as a multiple-case study including eight first-line mangers in eight care units. Data were collected through interviews and observations.

Findings – The study demonstrates the variation that exists concerning how first-line managers understand and enact their tasks. Specifically, it is possible to distinguish four qualitatively different patterns concerning how the managers acted and interacted with their co-workers.

Research limitations/implications – The empirical generalisability of the results is limited by its character as a multiple-case study of eight managers in eight different work units. At the same time, the strength of a multiple-case study lies in its potential for making analytic generalisations, that is, for identifying theoretically meaningful examples and patterns across a number of cases.

Practical implications – The paper suggests a need for management development programs that promote not only a broader understanding of the task as a manager of elder care, but also knowledge about and skills in leading and organising workplace learning and development.

Originality/value – This study adds to the limited knowledge of how first-line managers in care work understand and deal with learning and developmental issues in the workplace.

Purpose: First, to elaborate on the notion of a learning environment based on an empirical study of care work. Second, to explore how aspects of a learning environment may differ between and within units in the same organization, and how to understand and explain such differences.

Methodology/approach: The study was based on a multiple case-study design including four departments within two care units. Data were collected through direct observation of working conditions and work practices as well as semi-structured interviews with all care-workers within the two units (29 persons), and with the head and deputy head for each of the two units.

Findings: It was possible to distinguish between two qualitatively different patterns of working conditions and practices within the four teams. These patterns of practice were interpreted as representing an enabling and a constraining type of learning environment as these concepts were defined in this study. The evidence suggest that the emergence of an enabling learning environment was an outcome of a dynamic interplay between a number of factors that had the character of a virtuous circle.

Originality/value: The article adds to previous research through a distinction between two types of learning environment (enabling and constraining), and by linking these two types of learning environment to different conceptions of learning and to different working conditions and practices.

I fokus för denna antologi står frågor om lärande, förändring och ledarskap inom olika typer av verksamhet. Syftet är att bidra till en bred genomlysning av dessa begrepp utifrån såväl teoretiska som empiriska analyser. Vi vill härigenom försöka utmana vanligt förekommande uppfattningar om lärande, förändring och ledarskap. Framställningen baseras i stor utsträckning på egna studier som genomförts under de senaste åren. Dessa studier har i samtliga fall utgått från människors dagliga arbete i olika lokala verksamheter - inom företag, hälso- och sjukvård, omsorgsverksamhet och skola. De studier som redovisas speglar därmed också vardagen på arbetsplatser inom olika sektorer av svenskt arbetsliv. I flera av studierna har det också varit möjligt att studera dessa verksamheter över längre tid och på så sätt belysa de studerade processernas drivkrafter och inre dynamik. Boken kan användas som kurslitteratur vid universitet och högskolor samt som fördjupningslitteratur i anslutning till ledar- eller personalutbildningar. Den vänder sig också till forskare, politiker, företrädare för arbetsmarknadens parter samt praktiskt verksamma med intresse för frågor om lärande, kompetensutveckling och förändringsprocessser i organisationer.

I denna bok behandlas hemtjänsten som miljö för personalens lärande och kompetensutveckling. Boken baseras på intervjuer dels med vårdbiträden och ledning inom hemtjänsten, dels med företrädare för den centrala omsorgsledningen inom en större mellansvensk kommun. Det framträder två olika verksamhetskulturer som kan antas innebära olika betingelser för lärande i omsorgsarbete och fyra teman diskuteras:

• arbetslaget som arena för lärande
• lärande ur ett vårdbiträdesperspektiv
• ledningens roll för lärande och utveckling
• organisation och lärande

Boken är avsedd för universitets- och högskoleutbildningar där det finns ett intresse för äldreomsorg som praktik och forskningsområde, speciellt inom vård- och omsorgsutbildningar. Den vänder sig också till redan yrkesverksamma inom dessa områden.

The purpose of this study was to compare two preschools with respect to how they reacted to and developed a programme for group-based integration of heating-impaired and deaf children. Two main issues were addressed: (1) How the two preschools reacted to and developed the integration programme as regards: (a) the attitudes of the staff to the programme's goals and means; (b) the work of the staff (forms of work, purpose/content and teaching activities); and (c) the children's play, particularly as it relates to social interaction between hearing impaired/deaf and hearing children. (2) To what extent possible differences in patterns of development between the two preschools could be explained in terms of the different conditions (frame factors) under which the programme was carried out. The process of integration was studied from an implementation perspective, that is, as a process of change. This approach highlights the significance of the preschool as an organization. Consequently, theories of and research on organizational processes were, together with implementation reseach, used as a theoretical framework for the study.

At an early stage of integration there were many similarities between the two preschools. In both cases there was a clear orientation towards a social, and not just a situational, integration of the heating-impaired and deaf children. Whilst this orientation largely remained the same in one of the preschools during the study period, 1982 to 1987, in the other preschool there was a shift towards social segregation within the framework of situational integration. This change in orientation found expression both in changes in the attitude of staff towards integration and in changes in the forms of work used. An attempt was made to explain the observed differences in development patterns between the two preschools in terms of programme-related. organizational. and community-related frame factors of the integration programme. Important explanatory factors were found in all three categories.