This article presents a study concerning e-Government services at local governments in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to investigate and critically analyse the development of e-Services in Swedish municipalities and through interviews collect, compare and assess data about actual local e-Government services in Sweden in order to find areas of assimilation and divergence. Based on a sample of 24 municipalities in Sweden, the results show that the development and implementation of e-Services are in their infancy and only a few e-Services have been implemented yet. E-Services offered today are basal and primary and closely connected to citizens' daily life. It is difficult to identify many clear and distinct patterns in the development; however, some minor patterns can be identified. The development projects identified in the study are, in most cases, detached projects for the development and implementation of e-Services. The nature of many of the projects today resembles projects for learning r...

E-Government services in local governments a study of development in Swedish municipalities

The prominent role of competency development in enhancing the success of employees and organizations has drawn the attention of practitioners leading them to introduce competency development as a central part of their human resource practices. Unfortunately, this strong managerial interest has not been fully translated into the academic world, creating a gap between theory and practice. The main purpose of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the nature of competency development in 22 Flemish organizations through a longitudinal multiple case study design. By using a grounded theory approach, a framework has emerged mapping out the different steps of competency development in the participating organizations. As such, this study can be an important first step toward closing the gap between practice and theory concerning competency development in organizations.

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An integrative model for competency development in organizations: the Flemish case

The question addressed in this contribution is whether fear / anxiety is an emotion that  inhibits  or  fosters  the  sustainability  of  our  planet.  To  be meaningful,  this question has to be modified straightaway: Can fear be a factor for the enhancement of  sustainability?  If  so,  how?  Fear,  if  it  is  pathological,  can  paralyze.  But  in  its healthy forms it can stimulate coping behavior. The threats to the sustainability of our planet are manifest in the crisis of the last years. This is a systemic crisis, and that is what makes it intractable. The system that is now in crisis is constituted in a way  that  crises  must  occur,  again  and  again.  A  closer  look  shows  that  the economic,  social  and  ecological  spheres  are  not  at  all  distinct,  but  intertwined, which makes most  policies  obsolete,  and  even worse,  leads  to  ever  increasing damage  to  the natural environment. Fear  / anxiety per se  is not  the best advisor, but  the  adaptive  function  of  fear  can  trigger  new  collective  behaviours  toward sustainability, as will be demonstrated with the help of a System Dynamics model.

Fear for Sustainability? A Simulation Study

Growing role of intellectual capital within organizations is affecting new strategies related to knowledge management and competence development. Among different aspects related to this field, knowledge diffusion has become one of the interesting areas from both practitioner and researcher’s perspectives. Several models were proposed with main goal of simulating diffusion and explaining the nature of these processes. Existing models are focused on knowledge diffusion and they assume diffusion within a single layer using knowledge representation. From the organizational perspective connecting several types of knowledge and modelling changes of competence can bring additional value. In this paper we extended existing approaches by using multilayer diffusion model and focused on analysis of competence development process. The proposed model describes competence development process in a new way through horizontal and vertical knowledge diffusion in multilayer network. In the network, agents collaborate and interchange various kinds of knowledge through different layers and these mutual activities affect the competencies in a positive or negative way. Taking into consideration worker’s cognitive and social abilities and the previous level of competence the new competence level can be estimated. The model is developed to support competence management in different organizations.

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Model of Multilayer Knowledge Diffusion for Competence Development in an Organization

Sari Metso A multimethod examination of contributors to successful on-the-job learning for vocational students Kouvola 2014 139 p. Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 616 Diss. Lappeenranta University of Technology ISBN 978-952-265-712-1, ISBN 978-952-265-713-8 (PDF), ISSN-L 1456-4491, ISSN 1456-4491 Rapid changes in working life and competence requirements of different professions have increased interest in workplace learning. It is considered an effective way to learn and update professional skills by performing daily tasks in an authentic environment. Especially, ensuring a supply of skilled future workers is a crucial issue for firms facing tight competition and a shortage of competent employees due to the retirement of current professionals. In order to develop and make the most of workplace learning, it is important to focus on workplace learning environments and the individual characteristics of those participating in workplace learning. The literature has suggested various factors that influence adults' and professionals’ workplace learning of profession-related skills, but lacks empirical studies on contextual and individual-related factors that positively affect students' workplace learning. Workers with vocational education form a large group in modern firms. Therefore, elements of vocational students’ successful workplace learning during their studies, before starting their career paths, need to be examined. To fill this gap in the literature, this dissertation examines contributors to vocational students’ workplace learning in Finland, where students’ workplace learning is included in the vocational education and training system. The study is divided into two parts: the introduction, comprised of the overview of the relevant literature and the conclusion of the entire study, and five separate articles. Three of the articles utilize quantitative methods and two use qualitative methods to examine factors that contribute to vocational students’ workplace learning. The results show that, from the students’ perspective, attitudinal, motivational, and organizationrelated factors enhance the student’s development of professionalism during the on-the-job learning period. Specifically, the organization-related factors such as innovative climate, guidance, and interactions with seniors have a strong positive impact on the students’ perceived development of professional skills because, for example, the seniors’ guidance and provision of new viewpoints for the tasks helps the vocational students to gain autonomy at work performance. A multilevel analysis shows that of those factors enhancing workplace learning from the student perspective, innovative climate, knowledge transfer accuracy, and the students’ performance orientation were significantly related to the workplace instructors’ assessment regarding the students’ professional performance. Furthermore, support from senior colleagues and the students’ self-efficacy were both significantly associated with the formal grades measuring how well the students managed to learn necessary professional skills. In addition, the results suggest that the students’ on-the-job learning can be divided into three main phases, of which two require efforts from both the student and the on-the-job learning organization. The first phase includes the student’s application of basic professional skills, demonstration of potential in performing daily tasks, and orientation provided by the organization at the beginning of the on-the-job learning period. In the second phase, the student actively develops profession-related skills by performing daily tasks, thus learning a fluent working style while observing the seniors’ performance. The organization offers relevant tasks and follows the student’s development. The third level indicates a student who has reached the professional level described as a full member of the work community, demonstrated to have the skills necessary for tasks typical for a specific occupation. The results suggest that constructing the vocational students’ successful on-the-job learning period requires feedback from seniors, opportunities to learn to manage entire work processes, self-efficacy on the part of the students, proactive behavior, and initiative in learning. The study contributes to research on workplace learning in three ways: firstly, it identifies the key individualand organization-based factors that influence the vocational students’ successful on-the-job learning from their perspective and examines mutual relationships between these factors. Second, the study provides knowledge of how the factors related to the students’ view of successful workplace learning are associated with the workplace instructors’ perspective and the formal grades. Third, the present study finds elements needed to construct a successful on-the-job learning for the students.

A multimethod examination of contributors to successful on-the-job learning for vocational students

Pragmatically seeing competence as a combination of a person's knowledge, experiences and abilities, it is concluded that it is not possible to directly develop another person's competence. It is just possible to set the scene, to provide the tools and act like a catalyst. A holistic and systemic approach in six steps is designed with the ambition to handle competence development in that way. Practical experiences from applying the developed methodology in a number of SMEs show that those basic assumptions at large have been correct. A method of cooperation between a university department and a practice-oriented consultant is also developed within the project. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lennart Sundberg

Papers

A holistic approach to competence development