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International Review of Education

, Volume 61, Issue 6, pp 795–814 | Cite as

People Passion programme: Implementing an innovative workplace learning culture through professional development – the case of KPMG Thailand

  • Sarote Phornprapha
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

With a vision that changes within the organisation could only happen through people, Chief Executive Officer Ms. Kaisri Nuengsigkapian led the creation of a successful workplace learning programme, People Passion within KPMG Thailand, which is part of a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services. This article employs a case study methodology to describe the culture, the processes and the activities utilised such as creating a common culture, using a “strengths finder tool”, and encouraging individual growth. To develop the case study, data were collected from employees through in-depth interview, observations and document analysis over a four-year period. The findings of the study show that People Passion is effective in reducing communication barriers within the chain of command, between employees and top management, and in encouraging employees to construct group identity and transform themselves. People Passion also serves as a differentiation tool which allows KPMG Thailand to attract new employees, despite accountant scarcity and high competition from other auditing firms. The article concludes with a discussion of issues of transferability and leadership with this programme.

Keywords

Workplace learning Social affordances Organisational policy Identity transformation South-East Asia Thailand 

Résumé

Le Programme «People Passion» : mettre en œuvre une culture innovante de l’apprentissage au travail à travers le développement professionnel – le cas de KPMG Thaïlande – Portée par l’idée que les changements au sein d’un organisme ne peuvent provenir que des individus, la Présidente Directrice Générale de KPMG Thaïlande, Mme Kaisri Nuengsigkapian, a dirigé la création d’un programme d’apprentissage en situation de travail concluant baptisé People Passion. KPMG est un réseau mondial de cabinets spécialisés en audit, expertise comptable et conseils. Cet article est basé sur la méthodologie de l’étude de cas qui a permis de décrire la culture, les processus et les activités mises en œuvre dans le programme tels que la création d’une culture commune, l’utilisation d’un outil pour détecter les potentiels («strengths finder tool») et l’encouragement au développement individuel. Pour élaborer l’étude de cas, des données ont été collectées des employés par des interviews approfondis, des observations et des analyses de documents durant une période de quatre ans. Les résultats de l’étude montrent que le Programme People Passion est effectif pour la réduction des barrières de communication dans la chaine d’ordre, entre les employés et les directeurs. People Passion apparait aussi comme un outil de différenciation qui permet à KPMG Thailand d’attirer de nouveaux employés, malgré la rareté des professionnels de la comptabilité et la compétition élevée entre les entreprises du secteur. L’article se conclut par une discussion des problèmes de transférabilité et de direction de ce programme.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Sasin Graduate Institute of Business AdministrationChulalongkorn UniversityBangkokThailand

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