Abstract
This article examines the processes of working, learning, innovation and adaptability from an individual perspective by considering evidence from a study of 31 individuals’ experience of working and learning in Norway and the UK. They were highly skilled and had demonstrated their career adaptability by making a series of successful transitions in applying their knowledge, skills and competences in a variety of employment contexts. The key question was whether the processes underpinning the development of their career adaptability also meant they were likely to be proactive and participate in activities leading to innovation. The findings were that the processes of learning through challenging work and knowledge updating could also provide a platform for individuals to think about different ways of thinking, practising, reviewing and revising ways of working. However, such development often depended upon individual initiative and role change, while formal learning provision often addressed development of skills, knowledge and understanding which underpinned the development of innovative capabilities rather than seeking to promote them in more systematic ways. So the effectiveness of these processes in facilitating development of innovative capabilities at a system’s level could be questioned, and the challenge in supporting the development of innovative capabilities is reconciling the development of particular sets of skills, knowledge, understanding and ways of thinking, being and doing, with developing dispositions which go beyond these particular developments in responding to new challenges: curiosity, resourcefulness (including learning from others), resilience, ability to support the learning of others, taking responsibility for self-development and reflexiveness.
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Notes
The Norwegian interviews were conducted, transcribed and translated by Terje Gronning and colleagues from the University of Oslo.
The methodology is outlined in detail in Bimrose et al. (2011a).
The final version of the interview protocol can be found in Appendix 1 of Bimrose et al. (2011a).
For Norway, the other 16 interviewees had a variety of mainly professional or managerial jobs, but their work was much less likely to involve tasks for which they needed additional technically based learning and experience-based learning. The work could still be challenging but the outcomes were likely to be known and their autonomy was likely to be bounded by prescribed procedures. For the UK, the other 17 interviewees demonstrated adaptability in the labour market, but often by undertaking a range of work, which was not necessarily highly skilled, and/or the work had limited opportunities to exercise discretion.
She started a PhD in order to investigate this issue further.
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Brown, A. Developing Career Adaptability and Innovative Capabilities Through Learning and Working in Norway and the United Kingdom. J Knowl Econ 6, 402–419 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-014-0215-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-014-0215-6