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Remote learning in SMEs

Published: 2024-04-23

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physical presence is secondary to the achievement of objectives, on condition that goals are shared and negotiated

The analysis also showed that technology is an essential factor to facilitate a different organization of work in which remote working is “the new normal”: specifically, the greater the perceived adequacy of the training to the use of the software tools, the higher the perceived productivity.

To face these changes and exploit the potential that working remotely can produce new investments in learning will be necessary for SMEs to create, first of all, a cultural context where the managerial style is oriented to delegation and coordination for the development of cooperation.

we suggest to invest in a communication system inspired by the community of practices model. That is a set of relationships among multiple interrelated stakeholders networks constantly crossed by information flows, essential to maintain vital the networks themselves and create value for the company.

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--> leads in to communities of practice

( Key elements of a communitity of practice domain community practice

• The domain creates common ground and a sense of common identity. A well-defined domain legitimizes the community by affirming its purpose and value to members and other stakeholders. The domain inspires members to contribute and participate, guides their learning, and gives meaning to their actions. Knowing the boundaries and the leading edge of the domain enables members to decide exactly what is worth sharing, how to present their ideas, and which activities to pursue. It also allows them to recognize the potential in tentative or half-baked ideas. To you, an apple falling from a tree is just natural, but to a physicist who is trying to understand the dynamics of gravity, the very sight can reconstruct the whole universe.

• The community creates the social fabric of learning. A strong community fosters interactions and relationships based on mutual respect and trust. It encourages a willingness to share ideas, expose one’s ignorance, ask difficult questions, and listen carefully. Have you ever experienced this mixture of intimacy and openness to inquiry? Community is an important element because learning is a matter of belonging as well as an intellectual process, involving the heart as well as the head.

• The practice is a set of frameworks, ideas, tools, information, styles, language, stories, and documents that community members share. Whereas the domain denotes the topic the community focuses on, the practice is the specific knowledge the community develops, shares, and maintains. When a community has been established for some time, members expect each other to have mastered the basic knowledge of the community, just as biochemists expect members of their discipline to understand basic chemistry. This body of shared knowledge and resources enables the community to proceed efficiently in dealing with its domain.

--- challenges for communities of practice in remote environments Distance - Connections and visibility; informal networking, seeing that others are also learning Size - Knowing people Affiliation - priorities and intellectual property Culture - communication and values.

• different culture -> willingness to ask questions
• status / authority
• appropriate level of formailty
• language differences

achieve alignment create a structure that promotes variations build a rhythm to maintain visibility develop the private space of the community more systematically

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leads in to psychological safety

( Two hundred and thirty-five undergraduate and graduate students of academic institutions were asked to participate in this study. Two hundred and twelve students completed the two surveys, representing a response rate of 90 per cent. As such, we obtained data from people working in 212 organizations. These organizations operate in a wide variety of industries (e.g. electronics, energy, communication, banking, defence, insurance, construction, healthcare (pharmaceutical and medical equipment), textile, consultation, food and beverage, tourism and airline). Forty-one per cent of the respondents were female. Fifty-five per cent were married. The respondents' average age was 31.24 years (SD, 6.70), and their average tenure within the organization was 5.62 years (SD, 5.82). Ninety-two of the respondents held non-managerial positions, 40 held line management positions, 60 held middle-level managerial positions and 20 held senior executive positions. Twenty-five per cent of the participants held a high school diploma or equivalent, 68.4% held a Bachelor's degree, while the remainder of the participants held an MA degree or above. The Appendix presents all measurement items for the research variables.

The findings suggest that positive work relationships are a key relational mechanism that contributes to perceptions of psychological safety and learning behaviours in work organizations. Specifically, we found that both the capacities built into high-quality relationships and people's subjective experiences of being in this form of relationship separately, and in combination, were associated with a sense of psychological safety. However, whereas psychological safety fully mediated the link between relationships' capacities and learning behaviours, there were both direct and indirect (through psychological safety) associations between subjective experiences and learning behaviours. The study makes several theoretical contributions and has managerial implications.

However, this study suggests that psychological safety may be a key intervening variable for the relationship between high-quality interpersonal relationships and learning behaviours

Illustrative practices include selecting employees on the basis of relational skills, participatory selection processes, relational socialization practices, rewarding for relational skills and using relational meeting practices. Consideration of these practices makes managers mindful that high-quality relationships do not spontaneously happen; however, normal work practices can enable or disable the building of this kind of relational fabric which is conducive to a sense of psychological safety and a capacity for learning.

Leaders also can engage in particular forms of interacting with subordinates that create high quality relationships more directly and which contribute to an increase in organizational members' desires for more interpersonal connections (Fletcher, 2007). As a result, leadership behaviours can directly and indirectly influence learning behaviours through their impact on an increased desire and a capacity for high quality relationships.

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References