Approaches to learning at work and workplace climate

Abstract

Three studies are reported concerning employees' approaches to learning at work and their perceptions of the workplace environment. Based on prior research with university students, two questionnaires were devised, the Approaches to Work Questionnaire (AWQ) and the Workplace Climate Questionnaire (WCQ). In Studies 1 and 2, these questionnaires were administered to two different samples of employees, and the factor structure of the questionnaires was explored. In Study 3, the two data sets were combined, and a random half of it was used to develop reduced sets of items that addressed selected factors for each of the questionnaires. The other half of the data was used to test the scales developed. For the AWQ, three factors are proposed: deep, surface-rational, and surface-disorganised. The first of these is consistent with the student learning literature, but the other two represent a division of a unitary surface factor. The three components of the WCQ are good supervision, choice-independence, and workload. Correlations between scales indicated that the deep approach is positively associated with good supervision and choice-independence, whereas the surface-disorganised approach is negatively associated with these two constructs and positively associated with workload. Surface-rational is negatively, though less strongly associated with choice-independence. Suggestions are presented for use of these instruments in future research and practice.