Self-Directed Learning and Absorptive Capacity: The Mediating Role of Trust and Human Capital
This chapter aims to provide a better understanding of how self-directed learning effects absorptive capacity by examining the influence of two mediators: specifically, affective trust in colleagues and human capital development climate. By using a sample
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Introduction Andragogy tells us that adults learn best when they need to solve a problem or address a relatively immediate need (Knowles 1984; Loon 2016b), which serves as sources of motivation. Consequently, adult learners learn best when learning and development opportunities are shown to be relevant to them, be it their immediate jobs or for the future of their careers (e.g. Dediu et al. 2018). This is important as studies, such as those that relate to the self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci 2000), tell us that generally people want to develop and grow as this helps them to be independent and autonomous. Hence, people are generally motivated to learn (e.g. Loon and Casimir 2008) but organisations need to be clear with their employees as to ‘why’ and ‘how’ a learning and development opportunity is relevant them (Andre et al. 2019).
M. Loon (*) Bath Spa University, Bath, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 M. Loon et al. (eds.), The Future of HRD, Volume II, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52459-3_4
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The ‘affect’ of learning is also helpful in understanding the notion of self-directed learning (Armstrong and Fukami 2010; Loon and Bell 2017). Self-directed learning occurs when individuals are proactive in seeking out opportunities to learn (Bloomer and Hodkinson 2000). They are autonomous in identifying and prioritising such learning opportunities. Self-directed learners may also be relatively proficient in reflection and self-improvement (Cho 2002; Vas et al. 2018). The implication of self-directed learning is immense as organisations shift their focus from developing training ‘interventions’ to enhancing an environment and culture of learning to develop strategic capabilities such as absorptive capacity (Naqshbandi and Tabche 2018; Yao and Chang 2017). The purpose of this chapter is to gain a better understanding of how self-directed learning can improve the absorptive capacity of employees by examining the influence of two mediators, namely affective trust in colleagues and human capital development climate. A multi-source, three-step causal chain (sequential mediation) is proposed and tested on a sample of 181 employees in the creative industries sector in the UK. The findings show that the indirect effect of self-directed learning on absorptive capacity via the organisational climate of human capital development is not significant and that the indirect effect of self-directed learning on absorptive capacity via affective trust in colleagues is not significant. However, the indirect effect of self-directed learning on absorptive capacity via affective trust in colleagues followed by human capital development climate is significant. Furthermore, the direct effect of self-directed learning on absorptive capacity is greater than its total indirect effects via affective trust in colleagues and the human capital development climate. The findings indicate that self-directed learning not only has a strong impact on the job-related performance of the sample participants but
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