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STRATEGIC ROLE OF WORK PLACES IN LIFELONG LEARNING
Renata Tomaszewska - Lipiec
Education of employees, which is becoming part of the lifelong education of adults, is one of the fundamental requirements of knowledge-based economy and learning society. It is turning out to be a significant challenge and at the same time a complementary good which makes it possible to use the solutions of the progress of civilization. Work places -business entities that constitute the job market play an important role in this process.
The transformation of industrial economy into the knowledge-based economy leads to deep changes in the character and organization of the job. Information along with an educated man is becoming the driving force of the development.1 A gradual moving away is taking place from timeconsuming professions towards those which use information technology to a bigger extent. Already today in enterprises with production at the world level 80% of the employees are highly qualified.2 It is predicted that in the half of the 21st century 70% of the work positions will require higher education and workers will constitute not more than 2%.3 In the face of these processes there is not only the need for a versatile vocational preparation but most of all for lifelong learning. Thus, a work place becomes the main educational environment of an adult.
The importance of lifelong education in and for the development of work places has been noticed in many reports and documents of the European Union. In the present European Employment Strategy “the development of human capital and lifelong learning" has been considered to be one of the 10 priorities of the promoted policy. In the light of continual technological changes employees must update their qualifications in order to maintain the productivity of the company. This productivity in turn depends on the recruitment and keeping the work force ready to adapt to changes.4 One of the assumptions of the Lisbon Strategy is to reach the
1 J. Grodzicki, Rola kapitalu ludzkiego w rozwoju gospodarki globalnej, Gdansk 2003, p. 197 and following
2 A. Olczak, I. Kolodziejczyk-Olczak (edition), Leksykon zarzqdzania, Lodz 2005, p. 171 and following
3After R. Gerlach, Szkolnictwo wyzsze w aspekcie potrzeb rynku pracy, [in] T. Lewowicki, I. Ziaziun, J. Wilsz, N. Nyczkalo (edition)., Ksztalcenie zawodowe: Pedagogika i Psychologia nrX, Cz^stochowa-Kiev 2008, p. 108.
4 A. Kwiatkiewicz, Ustawiczne ksztalcenie zawodowe w krajach Unii Europejskiej, Warsaw 2006, p. 29-33.
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level of 12.5% of the people between 24-64 years of age taking part in the process of lifelong learning in the year 2010. The realization of this demand is to be supported by more effective use of structural funds and money from the European Investment Bank on educational goals. In order to reach such goals the member states committed themselves to preparing in-depth strategies of lifelong learning and implementing the program Education and training 2010. An increase of public and private investments in the human capital that guarantee their high quality and efficiency as well as just and clear division of costs and duties of all the beneficiaries of the educational process i.e. individual workers, employers and the state have been a challenge on the European scale. In this respect it has been demanded to make it easier for the entrepreneurs to invest in the human capital.1
One of the contemporary concepts underlining the strategic role of work places in the process of lifelong education is the concept of the learning organization which was shaped in the ‘90s of the 20th century and disseminated since the publication of the work The Fifth Discipline by P. Senge.2 This concept is closely connected with the theory of intellectual capital which emphasizes the key importance of a man in a work place on account of his uniqueness and difficulty to imitate or substitute.3 It is also believed to be an optimal model of a work place in the knowledge-based economy because it is an alternative to a model of company using mostly material assets.
This concept is based on the assumption that the only true value of a modern organization is intellectual capital i.e. the workers’ knowledge and its key ingredient - human capital i.e. the characteristics introduced to work by a man. A special feature of human capital is a possibility for spontaneous increase of its value thanks to participating in the process of lifelong education.4 5 In this respect there are three main elements of building this capital: attracting the best, improving the best, keeping the best5 The education of employees is placed within the second of the above mentioned processes and provides one of the most important instruments of the development of human capital in the contemporary economic organizations.
1 Ibidem, p. 29-33.
2 B. Mikula, A. Pietraszka-Ortyl, A. Potocki (edition)., Zarzqdzanie przedsiqbiorstwem XXI wieku. Wybrane koncepcje i metody, Warsaw 2002, p. 9 and following.
3 M. Juchnowicz (edition)., Elastyczne zarzqdzanie kapitalem ludzkim w organizacji wiedzy, Warsaw 2007, p. 13 and following
4 Ibidem, p. 16-19.
5 A. F. Smith, T. Kelly, Kapital ludzki w gospodarce cyfrowej, [in:] F. Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith, R. Beckhard (edition)., Organizacjaprzyszlosci, Warsaw 1998, p. 239.
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In the learning organization education is treated as a natural, integral part of human development. It results from an assumption that personal development is closely connected with professional institutions, in which a person finds employment, and with the fact that there is a strong relation between individual human development and the changes taking place within a given organization. Learning is a superior value and encouraging workers to exchange opinions and views creates more favorable conditions for education. Adults acquire new knowledge best in conditions which, to some extent, question their previous way of doing particular things and when they encourage each other to learn something new.1 That is why the body of workers of a learning organization by using their previous qualifications and developing new ones is taking part in creating knowledge for specific purposes in an everyday organizational practice. All this serves the purpose of innovation and flexibility in adapting to the clients’ expectations.2
The importance of such planned and systematic education of employees has been confirmed by successes of many western companies, which believe the development of employees to be a strategic issue, on the world market. A good example is Motorola, which spends about 1% of the value of sales on improvement of its workers, and even suppliers. This makes it possible to have a thirty fold pay back of every dollar invested in education. It has been estimated that in the USA about 150 billion dollars are spent on educating personnel. The Swedish spend about 1 billion dollars a year for that purpose. In many companies educational programs have reached an academic level. They are under the patronage of universities and specialized organizations and involve eminent specialists.3 One of the most dynamically developing companies in the recent years is Microsoft. It is a classic example of the learning organization. Microsoft has a vision of a global company of the 21st century which unites the workers, it has a specific organizational culture as well as teams working together, jointly accumulating the knowledge and abilities, creating new values and jointly facing the world challenges.4
According to many authors, a learning organization is a current tendency in managing a work place in the knowledge-based economy. This
1 M. Pedler, K. Aspinwall, Przedsiqbiorstwo uczqce siWarsaw 1999, p. 20, 51-57.
2 J. T. Hryniewicz, Stosunkipracy wpolskich organizacjach, Warsaw 2007, p. 247-263.
3 Cit. after: B. Belina, Ustawiczne szkolenie i doskonalenie kadr w przedsiqbiorstwach, [in:] J. Bucko (editor), Imowacje-Ksztalcenie-Zarzqdzame, Radom 2006, p. 77.
4 K. Perechuda (editor), Zarzqdzanie przedsiqbiorstwem przyszlosci. Koncepcje, modele, metody, Warsaw 2000, p. 76, 86.
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concept has found considerable support in the field of declarations, however, in practice there have been great problems in its realization. In Poland most work places are not much different from traditional organizations as far as structure and methods of work are concerned. Research by M. Herbst, who collected information about learning organizations in some countries of Central-Eastern Europe such as Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Estonia, Macedonia and Hungary, has demonstrated that Polish companies cannot serve as a model for a learning enterprise. Moreover, the results of research carried out by, among others, J.T. Hryniewicz have shown that there is a great dissonance between the management and the subordinates filled with anxiety and hostility, which makes it impossible to build a climate favorable for education.1
Thus, the experiences of most work places point to significant arrears in the field of educational activity of employees, that is why, as a result the range of needs in this respect is huge. However, in the process of lifelong education work places fulfill a strategic role. The main concern for employers should be to increase the workers’ knowledge and motivate them use it effectively. The world of global village causes the human factor to be more and more important. Taking into account the fact that no process in a company takes place without a human involvement, who fulfills different roles and bears the responsibility for the realized tasks, a man becomes its key element.2
1 M. Herbst, Przedsiqbiorstwa uczqce si£ w krajach Europy Srodkowo-Wschodniej, Studia Regionalne i Lokalne 2 (2)/2000, [in:] J. T. Hryniewicz, Stosunki pracy w polskich organizacjach, Warsaw 2007, p. 260-262.
2 Z. Malara, Przedsiqbiorstwo w globalnej gospodarce: wyzwania wspolczesnosci, Warsaw 2006, p. 153.
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