Professional development: investigating the relationships between employee motives, learning opportunities, and activities

摘要

The study showed that individuals with a high motivation to learn for their own personal development were more likely to be aware of learning opportunities available to them and more likely to partake in them. Learning for reasons of social pressure had no significant impact on perceived learning opportunities and no significant link to employability activities. When organizations provide more learning opportunities, more employees will engage in them. However, the relationship between personal development and employability activities was stronger than when there was a connecting factor of perceived learning opportunities. This means that an employee with a high motivation to learn, develop, and increase their employability will engage in employment activities regardless, even if this means outside of the workplace. Organizations need to be aware of individual motives and interests; for increased productivity and competitive gains, an organization needs to employ highly interested and motivated workforces and also to provide a range of training and development opportunities.