Some Characteristics That Influence Motivation for Learning in Organisations

The aim of the research was to discover the motives for lifelong learning, for studying part time, possibilities for personal and career development and the level of learning support within organisations, where randomly selected students are already employed. We were interested in motivation for learning on behalf of the individual and its potential links with the organisation. In this research we tried to establish which factors have the most influence on individual's personal development and career planning; whether organisation promotes career development; whether organisations promote learning and which support mechanisms are available. Employees' motive for learning, education and training – even after they become employed – is linked with the possibility to receive a promotion. The research was conducted among large group of part time students, already holding a job. Over 150 respondents filled out questionnaire and results were statistically treated. The results of this research show, similar to other recent findings, that knowledge and work experience have the most influence on the possibility for development and for a career. Clear personal and organisational objectives are also crucial. And the importance of knowledge sharing with the help of peers, coaches or mentors is significant.


INTRODUCTION
The problem and the fundamental question studied in this paper is, what is the reason that individuals invest energy, time and resources in continuous learning, even after they have been employed?After they completed their professional qualification, managed to get through the selection process when seeking employment and after acquiring a stable contract?What is their motivation, what are their expectations from training, education and their inclusion in the lifelong learning process?Numerous researches show that at the level of society, as well as the level of the enterprises and the level of individuals that increasing attention is devoted to the promotion of learning and personal development."Knowledge-workers are the greatest managerial challenge of the 21 st century.They must be considered as a valuable resource and not as a cost -they represent a competitive advantage of expert organisations" 1.
What makes people studa and learn, even after their graduation, and after receiving theri job, after getting employed?Which things today ensure employability for the individual and growth, development and profit for the enterprise?In the knowledge society a formal education, which allows people to make a career, to get a specific job, complete certain tasks and comply with specific occupational standards, is no longer enough.
Not only in Europe, we can find similar situation for students looking for a job and a career also in other developed countries all over the world.McKeon and Lindorff performed a study on "job search process and stated that a key change in the graduate labour market is a development of mass higher education system which provides an increasingly larger supply of graduates, while the same time the traditional routes into employment decrease, as organisation downsize and delayer" 2; p.311.How to find the first right job?There are several possibilities.It could be an easy, but time consuming way, suggested also by one of very experienced managers: "It is about enduring the same gummy, time-consuming, up and down, iterative process that all working people go through.You take one job, discover what you like and don't like about it and what you are good and bad at, and then, in time, change jobs to get something closer to the right fit.And you do that until one day you realize… I'm finally in the right job.I like what I am doing, and I'm making the trade offs I'm willing to make".3;p.256.While considering new job, a person must consider people, opportunitiy, options, ownership and work content.There are some interesting recent research about situations that are important for employees after getting a job.There are some interesting findings in the research, completed and published by scientists, who conducted a study, about the span of career guidance and career development support to support labour force development in the 25 EU member states, and identifying best practices in these states 4.The results indicate that there is a great need for the support of career development for people, who are already employed or have just completed their education.The study establishes that there are no clear processes for career development in several enterprises and where there are, such processes are generally focused on key target groups; i.e. workers with completed higher education or managers.
Shoffner Creager 5 published a review of the 2010 career counselling and development research, that presents "the breadth and depth of topics published in the field ranging from children's conceptions of career to employee burnout.Her review covers topics in the career literature on professional issues, career theory and concepts, career development, the world of work, career assessment and technology, and career interventions.The author summarizes the 2010 research to provide information and direction to career practitioners, theorists, and researchers".
Even wider review was made by important authors in the field of personal development 6.It was about anniversary of The Career Development Quarterly.They recount its history of publishing foundational articles in vocational guidance practice and career development theory, commitment to improving counselling practice, leadership in public policy and social justice issues, and expansion to international audiences" 6.
The purpose of the paper was to establish which factors have the most influence on individual's personal development and career promotion in organisation.Do organisations promote learning and which support mechanisms are available.
In this paper I discuss promotion of learning in todays society, especially regarding to connection between environmental characteristics (organisational variables) and individual characteristics of person, already having a job and being inetested in perosnal development.A research between part time students was conducted and some inetsting results are revealed.At the end of the paper, there is an interpretation of the results especialy regarding some recent international studies.Recomendation for further reserach and especially soem managerial implications are added.

PROMOTION OF LEARNING
Similar to Drucker's observations on increasing attention to th epromotion of learning, mentioned above, conclusions have been also reached by Peter Senge: "Today, a competitive advantage of an enterprise is its ability to learn and hold on to that path.People who want to learn must master five disciplines: they must know how to abandon their old thought patterns; understand how their organisation really functions -systematic thinking; discuss common vision and then cooperate with others in order to achieve common goals -team learning."7; p.146."According to the Drucker's vision of the new organisation the business of the future will be based on knowledge-based and personal initiative.Each individual will participate in the recognition and solving of problems, which shall allow for constant experimenting and improvements of the organisation's operation, while managers of the learning organisation will have to ensure that learning is carried out throughout the entire organisation."8; p.52.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
I shall briefly address the organisational level only (and disregard the systematic efforts at the level of a company as a whole) and establish that companies do this both, systematically and organised (and introduce e.g.career development systems, possibilities of different models of vertical and horizontal promotion, introduce decentralisation and empowerment, transfer of knowledge and competences in centres of excellence and knowledge or declare themselves as learning organisation) as well as in a more informal manner.Knowledge is being constantly upgraded; benchmarking is expressive; management with objectives and management with vision and listening, as well as democratic communication are prevailing; innovative and encouraging organisational climate is typical; team-learning is prevailing; the company carries out bench-learning with related enterprises.Knowledge is highly appreciated and is not only one of the fundamental rights and duties of all employees, but it is one of the most important values of the organisation 9; pp.354-359.
Why do employees require constant care, training, education and be provided with opportunities for promotion and a career?The latter is due to the fact that a modern organisation can not develop without continuous versatile learning and the application of explicit and implicit knowledge.In the modern organisation training, promotion and evaluation of employees prevail in the light of development of labour force and/or employees.All of the above listed elements are components of an individual's career.It is very important that employees 10 possess required sills and knowledge; that they are kind, respectful and polite, trustworthy and do their jobs reliably, and respond quickly; they must be communicative and try to understand the client, since clients are very important for the company.The client shapes its key opinion on the organisation through personal contacts with employees.The fact, that acquiring a new customer is approximately ten times more expensive than keeping an old customer, is well known.This especially applies to the services sector, i.e. catering and tourism.
As already mentioned, when addressing training, organisations can choose between a formal and informal approach, training can be provided to selected workers only, it can be provided in the workplace or before/after work; it can be accredited or non-accredited; it can occur in different periods and it can be provided by internal or external providers.The ability and willingness of the company to provide for training depends on the available resources -time, money and human resources.An unstable base of employees, who work upon need or demand, also represents a serious barrier for systematic training.There is a higher possibility that training is provided for jobs, where there is a clearly defined base of required skills and knowledge, i.e. catering and cooking.While the extent of quality-related training in »soft » areas such as team-working process and interpersonal skills are positively related to stronger role of human resource management system in company.Small companies in hospitality field with informal HRM, relying on casual, part-time and seasonal labour are more likely to make a poor investment in training 11.
Therefore employees must be educated and raised, which requires a huge amount of time, knowledge and energy.Within a company this usually occurs systematically on the basis of a human resource development system, which is a systematic and planned process of preparation, implementation and supervision of all human resource/educational processes and measures, intended for professional and personal development 12; pp.147-148.Usually, the latter occurs in the environment which develops the culture and concept of the learning enterprise.
During development of labour force -employees -within a learning organisation, training, promotion and evaluation of employees prevail.All these are personal development components of each individual.The research of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (I4CP) showed 13 that 60 % of the 382 enterprises, included in the research, have developed career development programmes.41 % of enterprises use a system comprised by their own trainers and mentors.The latter is by far the most developed type of programmes to support the development of employees.One of the most prominent car manufacturers, Toyota, opened a European Global Production Centre in Great Britain already in 2006.The latter is a centre for training of trainers from all Toyota's European subsidiaries.Such an approach has proven to be extremely effective, since the parent company, located in Japan, introduced the same model in 2003.The above illustrates an example of transfer of knowledge about production on the basis of "best practice" for each specific skill.Methodology used comprises lectures, visual guides and other techniques that facilitate understanding and practical training on special workstations, which simulate the production environment.In Slovenia also, the encouragement of individuals to learn and develop abilities and skills, is becoming increasingly common as one of the complete methods of company management.The Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Slovenia publishes the results of researches on the presence of elements of the learning organisation concept among Slovenian enterprises 14.The results show that awareness, about the fact that in the knowledge economy employees are becoming an increasingly important element of the competitive advantage, among Slovenian enterprises is increasing.Thus investments in employees are rising, information systems are improving and the role of employees within a company is becoming clearer.

INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS
When planning individuals' personal development and career we must 9; pp.384-392 emphasize the completeness of personal development, which is the result of professional knowledge, development of personality and work development.All three components are joined together in personal development of individual.The latter are characterised by mutual interlacing and are often difficult to separate.Professional development usually represents the completed level of formal or informal education.This also includes the shaping of a person through education, the choice of profession, training and advanced training, which provides for a person's promotion at work.Personal development is defined as the development of personal characteristics of an individual in a broader sense.With this we refer to a combination of personal attributes, values, inclinations, motives, positions and interests which, together with the individual's abilities and knowledge, as well as work achievements comprise the complete personality.
Work development represents the accomplishments or success of an individual in a specific field of work.Often, this is marked with the term "career".This component is characterised by its connection with the work environment in which the individual works.The individual demonstrates his/her skills to a narrow group to which he/she belongs.Quite often this is linked with the achievement of a work position or a function, or is confirmed by work results.This component is always linked to success within a specific organisation or concerning personal wok.The comprehension of the term career has different meaning through different periods: no longer only for persons in high positions -it is a sequence of jobs in the work history of people regardless of the profession or organisational level; it is about vertical and horizontal mobility; it is a synonym for different professions and organisations; the importance of career planning and career management rises, and organisations are more inclined to listen to the needs of their employees.
Every individual stems toward growth and personal development.In order to achieve the set growth objective, he/she must draft a plan through which he/she shall achieve the set objective.Each individual plans personal development for himself/herself.Since personal development takes place within an organisation, where the individual works, the organisation will -if it wants to be successful -support the individual, guide him/her and assist him/her with the achievement of the set objectives 9; pp.387-388.He states that planning of personal development comprises a critical judgement of one's own abilities, knowledge of possible careers and opportunities for such careers, setting of objectives and the preparation of a plan for achieving these objectives.

RESEARCH METHODS AND RESULTS
Within the scope of the research a survey was conducted on the population of students from the 2 nd year of part-time study programme, whereas 184 surveys were distributed.150 filled surveys or 82 % of all surveys were returned.The aim of the research was to discover the motives for studying part time, possibilities for personal and career development and the level of learning support within enterprises, where these randomly selected students are already employed.We were interested in motivation for learning on behalf of the individual and its potential links with the organisation.
In this research we tried to establish which factors have the most influence on individual's career planning; whether organisation promote career development; whether organisations promote learning and which support mechanisms are available for management of individual's career and links between possibilities for career development depending on whether an organisation has formal channels to facilitate, or even requires learning and knowledge transfer from its employees.
Respondents come from different sectors; 14 % work for the public administration, 37 % in production and manufacturing industry and 49 % from the service sector (out of which almost a half works in tourism and catering).Questions mostly referred to the possibilities for individual development and career.On the basis of demographic data 10 % of respondents were younger than 25; 14 % were aged between 25 and 30; 24 % were aged between 31 and 35; 26 % were aged between 36 and 40; 21 % were aged between 41 and 45; 4 % were aged between 46 and 50 and 1 % of all respondents were over 51.The distribution of students in age groups was expected.The fact that a quarter of students are older than 41 years is in line with the established principles of lifelong learning and the expected number of years of service.77 % of respondents completed secondary education, while the remaining 23 % have a higher education degree.Career status of respondents shows that 39 % of respondents hold leading positions, while others hold professional and technical or administrative positions while 2 % of respondents are currently unemployed.
Positions of respondents, concerning the way in which their career is reflected (what do they believe career is), are very interesting.Most respondents (42 %) estimate that there is an emphasis on a higher level of knowledge, abilities and skills, while a third of respondents (32 %) linked the term with a more demanding position.However, only a quarter decided to link the term with a higher salary (14 %) and more responsibilities (12 %).
Employers often wonder what employees expect from their employer in connection with facilitating of a career?The position of respondents on the issue, who they believe is responsible for the realisation of employees' developmental needs, is encouraging.84% of respondents believe that both, the organisation and the individual are responsible for realisation of career needs, while merely 16 % believe that it is the organisation, which is responsible for the realisation of employees' career needs.When we were checking, whether education and training were organised within the organisation, 86 % of respondents answered that they come from "learning organisations", while only 54 % of respondents who come from "non-learning organisations", that education and training are organised regularly.
Table 1 shows specific information in connection with variables, which have a decisive impact on a career within an organisation or on behalf of individual.Respondents were offered several options and had to decide on their influence.The question was as follows: Career is important during the work period of an individual.Enterprises facilitate promotion, development and career for their employees through different approaches.In your opinion what is the influence of the following characteristic of the individual or the environment on a career (1 -the least; 5 -the most)?
Respondents attributed (Table 1) two individual characteristics as for the most influence on their decision for education and training to increased knowledge and expertise, professionalism, work experience and individual counselling, which is expressed through the assistance of mentor or personal coach -as environmental characteristic.As stated at the beginning of this paper, research and trends in the field of development of employees indicate an increased emphasis on individual cooperation, counselling and support, which is mostly reflected as formal or informal mentorship and coaching.Intersting is, that very important reason was also communication about organisational objectives and in the light thereof also clear personal objectives of an individual who tries to adapt to organisational objectives -this was of course determined as combined individual and environmental characteristic.Project and team work are prevailing in a majority of modern organisations and therefore, the fact that participation in work groups lead by experienced professionals or project groups ranks high in the scale of factors that influence career, is not at all surprising.The latter allows for employees to learn from their colleagues, offer each other mutual assistance at problem-solving, and consequently shape new knowledge.Coaching is an excellent way to attain a certain work behaviour that will improve leadership, employee accountability, teamwork, sales, communication, goal setting, strategic planning and more.Mentoring, on the other hand, involves a developmental relationship between a more experienced "mentor" and a less experienced partner, and typically involves sharing of advice.
As the distribution of factors to which respondents attributed the most influence is evident (Figure 1), it is important and worth to consider why specific factors were placed lower on the influence scale as it would be reasonable to expect.Among other, the latter refers to competitiveness of other candidates.This fact surely serves as an encouragement for the individual to gain initiative, to work more for less direct rewards and thus gain long-term advantage from competitors when acquiring interesting positions, promotion or greater responsibilities.The placement of this factor among career influential factors of medium importance can be explained with the fact that today each employee is expected to continuously develop, learn and progress therefore respondents considered this fact as and objective fact in the environment.
The influence of the "formal education" education factor and, therefore, the influence of the higher level of formal education have also been placed in the second half of the above scale.Such a result is not surprising if we remind ourselves that among our respondents only a couple were employed in the public sector, where such formalities are decisive.In the real sector respondents attributed the highest importance to knowledge and experience.On the last three places of our scale you may find competence centres or knowledge centres, which have long been known, developed and nurtured in successful learning organisations; followed Motivation for personal development and continuous learning is not only a matter of systematic effort of the company and organisation and it is not only a matter of the individual.In the area of dealing with people within an organisation in the field of personal development and provision of successful development of organisation in the knowledge-based society a couple of leading directions and practices are currently being developed 15; pp.35-57.Several organisations implement the latter -fully or in part -while some can also be recognised in the results, presented in this paper.An emphasized role of individually focused development, consultative development work with the individual, which usually takes the form of mentorship or coaching.In our research this is also referred to as the "assistance of mentor or coach".Knowledge management, application of knowledge, good practices, knowledge centres within organisation.In this research also "work meetings of expert and project groups".Excellent communication and feedback.In this research: "communication on the objectives and results".Possibilities for development for everyone, continuous professional development.
In this research: "knowledge and expertise, experience, competition from other candidates".

CONCLUSONS AND PROJECTIONS
Research shows and management worldwide concludes that individual's knowledge, abilities and skills are of key importance for both, the organisation and the individual.Also our research prooved that fact.The motive for the promotion of lifelong learning and personal development lies with ensured growth and increased competitive advantage, brought to the company by the qualified employees.Employees' motive for learning, education and training -even after they become employed -is linked with the possibility to receive a promotion.
Results of the research show that knowledge and work experience have the most influence on the possibility for development and a career.In the light of the latter other co-workers, who play the role of mentors and coaches, proved to be an important factor of influence as well.This conclusion complies with the results of different studies that list among the development trends also the provision of possibilities for training of all employees and individualised forms of transfer of knowledge and competences.The majority of respondents are aware of the huge influence of organisational possibilities and opportunities on the development of an individual's career.
The limitations of conducted research is in specific population of part time students, who all have jobs and careers -but we can not generalise to the whole workforce and their motivations for peronal development and learning.
People have to continuously acquire new knowledge and -mostly -improve their skills and abilities for their implementation in practice.The changed economic circumstances and new technologies affect the way people are seeking job opportunities within and outside the organisation.Scientists completed research and published the results of a study, studying the span of career guidance and career development support to support labour force development in the 25 EU member states, and identifying best practices in these states 4.The results indicates that there is a great need for the support of career development for people, who are already employed or have just completed their education.The study establishes that there are no clear processes for career development in several enterprises and where there are, such processes are generally focused on key target groups; i.e. workers with completed higher education or managers.
It is assumed that other employees shall acquire help and support from their superior managers and through informal channels.It is also assumed that normal training and employee seeking processes offer a suitable access and information about job opportunities.
Effective career support on behalf of employers for employees on their work post satisfies both, the needs of business, as well as the needs of an individual.Such a support shall remain permanent only under the condition that a mutual interest exists, which is clear to both sidesthe employees and the organisations.Factors influencing knowledge sharing are "ability and willingness", motivation and ability" and "suitable chanels" 16.
There are several managerial and practical implications as a result of this research.Attention, focused on career development is especially important today, when the labour force is becoming increasingly diversified: the effectiveness of all employees is important for both, the organisation and individuals.The above-mentioned research highlighted three main guiding principles for the future which can be compared to the three guiding ideas for the focusing of activities in the field of personal and organisational development as follows: a) There is a great deficiency of effective support of career development for the majority of the employed labour force; b) The role of different organisations, providing such support is becoming increasingly important (consultants, professional, non-government and private organisations, etc) and c) The importance of individuals' opportunities to acquire and develop skills for successful career management is also increasing.The main message of the research within EU member states for employers is as follows: the support for organisation's own employees and managers must be implemented and such a support shall assist them to develop their own talents and skills; this shall attract and preserve a more educated and a highly motivated work force and result in an improved specialisation and productivity of employees.
The awareness of the importance of learning and systematic organised promotion of and support for lifelong learning, which contributes to individual's knowledge, abilities and skills continuous improvement, is increasing in the modern society.Life long learning is also the subject of the Resolution of the Council of Europe on Strengthening Policies, Systems and Practices in the field of Guidance throughout life in Europe 17.The latter is based on the fact that the transition onto an economy and knowledge based society creates new challenges for policy makers in the field of development of human resources.Creation and effective management of knowledge-based society and the need for life long learning influence the conditions in the labour market and foresee that individuals will be encouraged through their entire life to continuous development of their skills and competences.However, the motivation for such activities depends on the individual and not only his/her wider (society) or closer (enterprise) environment.The assembly of conditions and circumstances decides whether the individual shall consider such a continuous personal development as a tool or as an opportunity to gain personal benefits.
Social environment, the increased need for continuous growth and modernisation of knowledge, skills and abilities are supposed to increase the interest of the wider society, organisations and individuals -each at their own level -for motivated approach to development.Some studies unfortunately indicate the lack of management span and career support to assist the development of employees in EU member states.Thus, there is a great need for career development support for people, who are already employed or have just completed their education.Within many organisations there are no clear processes for career development or such processes are focused on key groups, i.e. workers with completed higher education or management.It is assumed that other employees will acquire support from their supervising managers or through informal channels.On the other hand many organisations are implementing the concept of a learning organisation, support life long learning and include knowledge and experience among conditions for promotion.
The willingness for development and learning is explicitly linked with the possibility for promotion.However, from the motivational aspect, the key finding are that employees attribute most responsibility for their personal development to themselves and their knowledge, while the most desirable organisational factors are the support of a mentor or coach.Such a form of work with employees is becoming more and more developed, both formally and informally.Experts recommend systematically managed internal systems in organisations, guides and instructions which will promote and unify approaches to mentorship and work with individuals at "one to one" level.There are still many unexploited opportunities within organisations in the field of development of mentorship, coaching and systematic personal support for individuals in order to facilitate their personal development.This is surely one of the areas which all types of organisations (higher education institutions, public and private organisations) shall exploit as one of essential areas in order to gain their competitive advantage.
Transfer of knowledge is very important, since such co-workers are the most sensitive for acquiring new knowledge due to the fact that they have no, or very little work experience 15; pp.255-279.Induction and training is very important.The first day at work is critical in shaping an employee's attitude to the company, influencing performance, satisfaction, commitment or intention to leave.(Lucas, 2004) As shown also in this research, trends in the field of personal development are therefore linked with self-discipline, proactive approach and all-in-one work in the form of support, mentorship, coaching, supported by the existence of a system for development of human resources or efforts for the implementation of a learning organisation.Support provided by mentor or assistance provided by a coach is placed highly on the scale of influence.As already stated in the introduction, such a form of work with employees is increasingly developing, both formally and informally.Experts recommend systematically designed internal systems in organisations, guides and instructions, which shall encourage and unify approaches to mentorship and work with individuals at "one to one" level 18.They also list alternatives for mentorship; i.e. the role of specialised external coaches, mentorship by colleagues or co-workers at the same level and action learning as a method of individual and organisational development 19.There are still many unexploited opportunities within organisations in the field of development of mentorship, coaching and systematic personal support for individuals in order to facilitate their personal development.This is surely one of the areas which all types of organisations (higher education institutions, public and private organisations) shall exploit as one of essential areas in order to gain their competitive advantage.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Average values for invidual or the environmental characteristics important for career development (1-the least, 5-the most important).Source: conducted survey.by character and personal attributes, and individual training.Obviously, we can assess experience of our respondents from organised forms of learning within their organisations (work groups, mentors, coaches) as positive and thus they consider their own effort for improving specific competences of lesser importance or less effective.

Table 1 .
Elements of the invidual or the environmental characteristics important for career development (1-the least, 5-the most important).Source: conducted survey.