Using Contrasting Learning Cultures of Training Programme and Workplace: Opportunities and Constraints on Learning

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Using metaphor to express the learning process, fifteen training programme members describe their learning to establish a descriptive framework for comparative purposes. Four case studies are used to illustrate the contrasting cultures of a training programme and the workplace. The place of metaphor and organisation theory is discussed using a learning diagram and also a more complex level of cognition. Research using metaphor as a catalytic and heuristic device to scout potential lines of enquiry is suggested as a worthwhile activity. Case studies are analysed for contributions and inhibitors toward organisation learning. A follow-up is undertaken of training programme members who have returned to the workplace and their reactions and responses are summarised. Whereas the training environment is viewed as a cultural learning opportunity the workplace is cited as having more constraints on learning, in terms of forces of conformity acting upon the programme participant. Such cultural contrasts are used as a basis for recommending some design features that could assist and encourage the process of transformativce learning

Stream: Organisational Learning, Organisational Change

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Dr Christopher Dixon is Assistant Professor in Human Resource Managment with the College of Business Administration,University of Abu Dhabi. He has 30 years experience in a variety of jobs. As a Management Trainer with Saudi Arabian Airlines in Jeddah he moved to Dhahran to join Saudi Aramco. Joining Aluminium Bahrain as an Employee Development specialist for four years he later moved to Qatar Petroleum in Doha as their Organisation Development Manager. Returning to the UK to complete an MSc in Organisation Development at Sheffield Hallam University he then undertook consultancy assignments with Gemini Consulting and Crown Agents in the UK. Dr Dixon returned to the Gulf as a Training and Development Manager for Petroleum Development Oman in Muscat and later joined the Abu Dhabi Women's College in the UAE. A job in Hong Kong as Studies Director with the Hong Kong Civil Service provided the opportunity to complete a PhD in organisation learning at City University Hong Kong. His interest lies in how organisations can be better designed and run to enable learning to occur and be shared in a way that can satisfy both the individual and organisation needs. He is married with three children.

Caroline Brandt teaches academic communication skills to female engineering students taking B.Sc. degrees at the Petroleum Institute in the United Arab Emirates. She has a Ph.D. in TESOL Education (University of East Anglia, UK), an M.A. in Linguistics for TESOL (University of Surrey, UK); an undergraduate M.A. in Linguistics (University of Edinburgh, UK), as well as a Cambridge ESOL Certificate and Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults.
Caroline has been involved in adult ELT in various capacities since 1982 and has taught in several countries in Europe, Australasia and the Arabian Gulf. She has been a teacher trainer and trainer of trainers, and has worked at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels and held various positions of responsibility in several universities. Her publications include journal articles, book chapters and two books that reflect her two main areas of research interest: 'Read, research, write: Academic skills for ESL students in higher education', UK: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2008; and 'Success on your certificate course in English Language Teaching: A guide to becoming a teacher in ELT/TESOL', UK: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2006.