**6. Organizational characteristics benefitting from learning in higher education**

As our research has been on middle managers, both within the health sector and a private enterprise, we have sought towards other research done on educating middle management. Ballo and Dahl (2018) assert that an efficient pedagogical method should aspire to creating an association between the learning context and the work context, and investigate structures and processes within the organization that seem to forge this association. The structures in question are group structures and learning structures (such as learning methods). According to Ballo and Dahl [58], they "contribute towards developing the relationship between different learning and work-structures in the organization" (p. 12). This presupposes a focus on different processes and connections between phases concerning learning, and they propose the example of the transition from reflection and analysis to action [58]. They emphasize the fundamental importance of establishing learning and leadership as an integrated perspective for knowledge management at all organizational levels. The processes are management activities, knowledge management processes, work processes and learning processes at different levels within the organizations.

Ballo and Dahl [58] present two perspectives: 1) "managers participating in management development programmes take part in one or more learning processes" (p. 19) and 2) "management of work processes in organizations that offer [public] services also need to be understood as management of learning processes" (p. 19). Management that involves learning embraces both the organizational development and the employee dimension, meaning that combining the learning context with the work context is about adapting the work context in such a way that the learning processes for managers and their staff are a part of the work processes.

We can find an example of the association between the learning context and the work environment in our own empirical material. One of the case studies scrutinizes the Health Middle Manager Educational Programme at the Inland University of Applied Sciences, where it is deliberately required from the adult students (also health personnel) to apply examples from their own management experiences as illustrations for their learning in the adult education programme [59]. This pragmatic approach, and the specific work with their own real-life experiences and dilemmas,

ultimately led to a more reflective professional practice, as well as to specific changes at the workplace that were possible to trace back to the experiences and discussions from the educational programme [19]. The important point here is that the organizational factors enabled changes and can be described as an *articulated and conscious acceptance of the need to experiment, to test new methods and to change and develop the new practices and routines in the organization*.

Another example of coupling a learning context with a work context is shown in a research project investigating how a previous student who was training in a responsible manner was able to utilize their own workplace for practicing and implementing changes derived from the learning context [59]. This research also implies that a managerial position may be a factor that *enables bridging the learning context and the work context*. As a result, the organizations benefit from the soft skills taught and developed in this collaborative exchange, as the learner (employee) is able to actively convert the learning into organizational development processes.

An important additional argument here is that the learning does need to be perceived as relevant, not only in a work context, but also personally at the individual level [59, 60]. When, for example, a gap analysis within any organization recognizes the need for a particular kind of competency or knowledge in order to innovate and grow/change, the employee affirms this need and views the possibilities and opportunities for his/her career advancement and job satisfaction by acquiring the "missing" skill in an adult higher education setting; the chances for more targeted learning and its application within the organization are then clearly greater. In this way, the learning (of the individual) and the practicing (in the organization) become organically relevant to the organization, as they contribute to filling the needs for change and innovation, in the sense that Nonaka [61] describes innovation as: "a process in which the organization creates and defines problems, and then actively develops new knowledge to solve them" (p. 14).

The figure below exhibits a model depicting how the relevance of an educational activity at the individual student/worker level is shaped by distinct organizational structures and processes, as exposed in the argument above (**Figure 1**).

What the figure above indicates is that the person/employee/student is *a part of the organization* and thus may be a part of analysing and recognizing the competency gap that they will be contributing to filling in order to contribute towards innovativeness. In previous research, this interaction was actually observed and identified as an important factor for enhancing the degree of work relevance of adult higher education trajectories [19, 59]. This research illustrates that as active members of the organization, the employees contribute to shared cognitive realities of organizational needs and gaps, in which they see *themselves* as potential contributors/employees/managers. In turn, this provides the Personal Association [60] that develops into a "personal identification", that is one's own genuine interest in the educational field the employee pictures as important for the organization. In other words, the degree of employee autonomy and participation in the decision-making, and a shared view of the priorities, threats and opportunities in their organizations, is a key factor in shaping the relevance of adult education back into an organizational context.

It is also pointed out the importance for the organizations to commit to utilizing their employees' skills and abilities [62–64]. This will contribute towards a higher level of self-efficacy [64, 65], which helps to reduce the chances of having educated an employee who is less motivated [66] due to a low utilization of skills and abilities, and thus contribute to a turnover [62, 63].

*The Future of Education: Strengthening the Relevance of Lifelong Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110328*

**Figure 1.**

The students at the health care education found that *studying together* in the same educational cohort created synergies that they felt would benefit the organization [19]. Learning in teams and sharing the same educational experiences and theoretical concepts seem to support organizational learning [67], which again enables innovative behaviour. Arie P. de Geus [68] claimed that one learns faster when in a team. He explained that this was a matter of mobility, innovation and social propagation, insofar as being able to shift in a market, being able to innovate to survive and to need one another to perform, also claiming that skills should be preferred over "irreplaceable individuals", as this would demolish the community. At the same time, it is important to develop the individuals to their "full potential", since this enhances the innovative potential of a firm [68]. Though depending on its individuals' skills, team learning is a collective discipline that depends on the ability of discussing and maintaining a dialogue.

The case study on the student who graduated from the knowledge management programme at the Inland University of Applied Sciences, even though being on a close study of one individual alone and his reflections on the education programme he graduated from, the data shows that the way he worked within the organization resembles that of a team builder; he engaged his colleagues in the development for changes. In this case study, our main respondent included and engaged his co-workers for developing an on-boarding programme in order to reduce turnover and the time for training [59].

Our data also displayed a discrepancy in the middle managers' own perceptions versus the manager and the subordinates of one of students/employees. The student/ employee interviewed reported—as did the other main respondents—on a high level of learning outcome, and also about having implemented changes. Yet, the managers and the subordinates only reported on minor changes. Digging deeper into the data, we notice that although the organizational position is described as "middle manager", the opportunities for major changes may be marginal due to several issues. On the personal level, the personal traits of the middle manager may influence the outcome of the desired induced changes. Resistance to change in an organization [69] may be due to communication (too much or too little), capacity within the organization and ability to empower the subordinates in order for them to execute any changes. Additionally, as mentioned by the manager, who is also the manager of one of the other main respondents, the ones who were able to induce major changes may be viewed as "over achievers" with exceptional talent for empowering their subordinates. This displays an interesting difference among the main respondents that should be

investigated further, for example regarding previous background and education, personal characteristics, career and personal motivation.

The education should thus facilitate for reflection and develop an understanding for the problem areas in order to develop solutions, while also developing capabilities for empowering subordinates to cooperate and collaborate in developing the solutions for the recognized issues. This implies utilizing real-life cases from their work life. Therefore, the workplace and their managers need to approve and support the process of recognizing potential improvement areas in the organization, as well as monitoring and supporting the process of implementing any change processes.

The figure below displays the interaction and exchange between the HEIs and the organizations. Within the organization the learner is an employee, while within the HEI the learner becomes a student. The HEI facilitates for learning about the different organizational learning issues (such as, for instance: knowledge management, empowering leadership, organizational change processes, innovation and organizational development processes). The lecturing emphasizes tying the learning to the students' workplaces, and encourages and supports recognizing issues from organizations. Hence, there is a requirement from the HEI that the assignments are issues unveiled at the students' workplace. The development from understanding the curriculum, through connecting it to one's own experiences and observations, also includes seeking to implement any changes suggested by the students based on the theory in the curriculum. The whole process involves reflection processes, both prior to the work back in the organization, during the work on the change processes and also after in the form of an evaluation process. Students who are employees are active members of the work environment and possess a role [63] that provides them with a varying degree of opportunity and flexibility to influence the organization (**Figure 2**).

The model thus shows the dynamic intertwining of the learning context with the work context [58]. What the model does not depict as another important factor is *the learner's position within the organization*.

#### **Figure 2.**

*The interaction and exchange between HEIs and the organizations: Utilizing the students'/employees' own work situation as a basis for education and (possible) organizational change.*

*The Future of Education: Strengthening the Relevance of Lifelong Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110328*

## **7. Discussion**

The argument so far, and the model above, underscores the following key findings and conceptual developments of this paper: The concept of "educational relevance" is "relational" in the sense that there must be some basic underlying factors in the work environment that provide "meaning" and "action content" to the acquired skills. We may go even further and claim that the acquired skills are able to play their role when there is a harmony among individual inclinations and talents, newly acquired educational soft skills and work tasks, as well as work organization and expectations in the receiving organization. This implies that there needs to be facilitation within the work context that secures the further development of soft skills. According to Raelin [30], there is generally less focus on the reflection and learning from reflection in the everyday work life within organizations, as their primary focus is on the production of services or products. The reflection processes are an important feature of developing analytical thinking, and at the HEIs this is an integral part of the education, while in an organization there needs to be a culture and focus on reflective processes in order for this development to be achieved [69]. Reflections should ideally be carried out with peers, preferably within the same organization [19], as this team learning [67] may contribute to a more sustainable implementation of the learning outcome within the organization.

Hence, there should be a *dynamic co-evolving relationship* between the work environment and the fine tuning of educational content and educational practices. We argue that this dynamic co-evolution will increase the probability of meaningful applications of various items and modules of educational content at work. For example, universities could offer more targeted university degrees designed for—and sponsored by different organizations, in which the educational content is determined by what the organizations need regarding knowledge development and research development [20]. This does not contrast the fact that universities are learning arenas that provide relevant and sustainable learning outcomes without a direct coupling to work [70]. Indeed, through entrepreneurship education, universities may also facilitate for new organizations to form based on what has been cultivated through education [20].

These points above accentuate the need to systematically develop arenas, in which in-depth discussions about the actual competence needs, strategical challenges and future possible technological and market trajectories in the business and public sectors should and could shape the content and form of the supply of (adult) higher education soft skills to the broader labour market. The managerial position in organizations is that they are expecting learning to be converted into action. In vocational education and training, there is a clear expectation of an implementation of the learning in a work setting [71]. Likewise, when the particular study programme is developed through the triple, quadruple or quintuple helix system [13, 72, 73], there is an expectation of some return on investment [19], not only from the organization, but also from the individual learner.

Yet, this systematic development cannot be achieved at a general educational level. There must be a systematic and specific feedback from the students and their work environment at the level of the educational programme, even at the level of individual courses within the educational programme as a means to co-develop and shape in common the meaning of the "relevance" as a concept. For the HEIs study programmes that are not yet co-developed with industry, this implies a focus on a more granular level to persuade students utilizing student-active methods of their relevance. Herein lies the importance of understanding the impact of involving students that make them build their knowledge on existing knowledge [22], preferably in a social setting

[32, 33]. Being able to discuss and reflect with peers, in order to understand the connections between their background/own work context and the curriculum, aid in the establishment of the personal relevance [60, 74–76].

## **8. Conclusion**

The skills needed for innovation and entrepreneurial behaviours can be developed at both adult higher education and at the workplace. However, the higher education has an advantage in that it has the ability to support the students with the necessary innovation soft skills, such as a "willingness to learn" and "analytical thinking", in addition to contributing to the organizations' ability to utilize new knowledge and skills.

We have identified factors in the organization that are possible to induce by adapting and organizing the learning activities in higher education in such a way that the organizations are gradually involved and attentive to take an interest in their employees' career and competence development. As a result, bridging the gap between the learning context and the work context is an important systemic policy issue. Team learning seems to be important in both the HEIs learning context and a work context. By having more than one employee from the same organization studying the same courses may facilitate for enhanced learning not only for students, but also for organizational learning.

Nevertheless, if the student/employee is able to utilize his/her colleagues as a learning team (without them being students), it is still possible to facilitate for a collaborative learning process.

The main respondents in this study have been middle managers, which by position may enable them to execute any changes recognized, and implement solutions. However, this may also be dependent on their personal traits, organizational issues and internal resistance within the organization, among other issues.

## **9. Future research**

As there are ever-increasing demands of change due to, for example, digitalization, emerging and disruptive technologies and environmental challenges, we recommend a continued research into how universities can collaborate and cooperate to provide a relevant education for the future work life. The ever-evolving market for lifelong learning may therefore provide a basis for doing research into discovering more factors that enable the universities to stay relevant in the future.

The particular issues of organizational resistance to change, and factors hindering the facilitation and execution of change processes as a part of the educational programme, should also be further investigated. What are the mechanisms that need to be "unlocked" in order to facilitate for a recognized and desired (?) change process during the course of the education? This may further support, and put a focus on the collaborative process of lifelong learning, between HEIs and organizations.

## **Acknowledgements**

I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Aris Kaloudis, NTNU for his valuable input and discussions, and to Assoc. Prof. Hanne M. Haave, HINN, for cooperation and great discussions.

*The Future of Education: Strengthening the Relevance of Lifelong Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110328*
