Assignment DB. MIKE, 8.th semester, 2007, group 3 Dennis Andreasen, Jesper Møller, Kristian Østergaard, Thomas Mølgaard

Transkript

1 Assignment DB MIKE, 8.th semester, 2007, group 3 Dennis Andreasen, Jesper Møller, Kristian Østergaard, Thomas Mølgaard

2 1 Introduction The purpose of this assignment is to develop a theory by interviewing respondents, coding the interview, conceptualising, categorising and creating theory based on the information obtained and extracted from the interviews. The techniques to be used are based on Juliet Corbin & Anselm Strauss s book Basics of Qualitative Research and Robert K. Yin s Case Study Research. The topic for this project is that of supplementary training in an IT unit at Aalborg University (AAU). The reason why this topic has been chosen is that we in the group were inspired by some of the lectures, we have attended during this semester, on learning. We found it interesting to try to dig a bit deeper into how members of the IT-staff from AAU learn in practice. To clarify the way the term supplementary training is used in this assignment, it covers all activities that help the IT staff increase their academic and work related skills. 2 Method and limitations The purpose of this chapter is to describe procedural methods, standpoints on different theoretical assumptions and describe limitations of the assignment. As this assignment is relatively small there will be some elements that will only be discussed briefly. E.g. the authors (of this assignment) knowledge about the specific area of research is not extensive, but due to time issues no supplementary knowledge will be drawn upon and the research area will be approached with the existing pre-understanding and knowledge about the area of research. This approach of course has some possible flaws such as a less extensive overview of the research area and perhaps increased difficulties of asking the right questions the first time. In order to reduce bias and errors all the interviews were conducted, written down for approval and codified in Danish. Thus a more rich language could be created as all the participants (interviewers and respondents) involved in the assignment have Danish as native language. A point that should be noted is that no pilot interview was conducted due to time constraints and the scope of the assignment in mind. Page 1 of 13

3 2.1 Principles of data collection On a general level Yin identifies four principles underlying all good social science research. However, having reviewed these principles the authors of this assignment found them too evident or too far fetched to include. E.g. the principle stating that all rival explanations should be included (Yin, 2003, p. 137). Needless to say our information processing capability comes into play here. As students we are exposed to the material found relevant by our teachers, and for multiple reasons we might not have gotten to know important rival explanations. Hence this section will deal with the principles of data collection and in this connection touch upon the criteria for judging the quality of the assignment. In this assignment interviews make out the primary source of information. However, regardless of the source of information, three principles can be applied to enhance the construct validity and reliability (Yin, 2003, p. 97). The three principles are: (1) Use of multiple sources of evidence, (2) Create a case study database and (3) Maintain a chain of evidence. Initially it was the intention to get by with only one interview. It was a deliberate choice to interview the head of the IT department, as he would provide the researchers with data on how learning in practice takes place, however, from a managerial point of view. In order to circumvent possible biases held by the respondent, possibly resulting in jeopardizing external validity, it was decided to perform an interview with a second respondent one from the staff. This decision also helped safeguard the construct validity. Finally, this decision was based on an interest sparked by the findings in the first interview. However, this decision fails to meet the definition of the use of multiple sources of evidence. Nevertheless it enhances the internal validity of the concepts and categories identified, as interacting with more than one individual, ceteris paribus, will decrease the likelihood of biases slipping through. Whether or not a professional bias exist that it was not possible to detect remains a question unanswered. Finally, in connection with multiple sources, the use of triangulation by each of the authors of this assignment participating in the coding process represents an aspect which can be said to define the use of multiple sources of evidence (termed data triangulation by Patton) (Yin, 2003, p. 98). Besides this we have sought investigator triangulation (Yin, 2003, p ), by reviewing interviews and coding with our teacher, in order to further increase construct validity and reliability. Page 2 of 13

4 Whether or not reliability has been secured is somewhat questionable. According to the actors approach the interaction between actor and interviewer will have an impact on both parties. In other words it is questionable whether others provided with the same questions and access to the same respondents will come up with the same categories and questions. Nevertheless by providing the list of questions asked the reviewers and others have the possibility to test if they will come up with the same concepts and categories. An important point to make is that also the knowledge held by the testers is likely to affect their coding procedures. Again by explicitly stating our expected results we have provided the tester with a possibility to circumvent biases held by the authors of this assignment. The second strategy concerns the introduction of a case study database. By making the interview notes available, however, with coding constitutes the case study database in this assignment. The third and final strategy, maintaining a chain of evidence, has been sought incorporated in this assignment by linking the concepts identified and derived from the interviews together which is carried out in the analysis section. In general this strategy seems evident and the authors of this assignment have a hard time figuring out how one can conduct a scientific case study without providing the chain of evidence at least if one is the least bit concerned with preserving the overall validity and reliability of the paper/assignment. An additional precaution taken to ensure the reliability of the paper is the application of an adjusted form of a case study protocol. The applied case study protocol contained a working disposition of the process and the disposition and topics to be included in the report. This adjusted version of a case study protocol reflects the scope of this assignment. 2.2 Preliminary thoughts about asking questions Before any interview is conducted it is wise to make some initial thoughts about how to ask questions. This section will cover which thoughts the authors of this assignment made beforehand. In order to get good data, understood as data which can be analysed and lead to new understandings, one has to start with asking good questions. Good questions sometimes depend on luck, but more often they are prompted by relevant knowledge, a sense of something is missing here and (more important) sensitivity to what the data really are saying. (Yin, 2003, p. 75). Page 3 of 13

5 Good questions are also those which stimulate further questions (open questions), as this can prompt a more natural inquiry and questioning, instead of just yes or no questions (closed questions) which will normally block the respondent to open up and share preferable data (Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p. 75). This resembles thoughts about dialogue in the Actors approach presented in Arbnor & Bjerke. They argue, by using dialogue it should be possible to read the reaction of the other party directly, during the interview and thereby correct misunderstandings (both from observer and actors), but also add to information when relevant. They further argue, that ideally, dialogue should continue until the actor and observer reach a common understanding. (Arbnor & Bjerke, 1997, p. 160) It is too optimistic to say that the authors of this assignment will reach that state of mind, however the principles of dialogue were tried; that is to keep an open interview and get a flow in the dialogue. Corbin & Strauss provide a listing of types of questions, but emphasise that the important thing to notice is the essence of the questions and not the specifics (Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p. 77). The categories are: (1) sensitizing, (2) theoretical, (3) practical and structural, and (4) guiding questions. We have mainly used the two first categories, which is why only these will be described. The first category helps discover what the data might be indicating, e.g. problems and concerns. (Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p. 77) In the question guide (see appendix 1), questions 5b and 5d are related to uncover problems, as they are formulated to inquire about a reason and get more data on the subject, e.g. Why not? and Please elaborate The second category tries to make connections between concepts and to relate and compare dimensional levels (Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p. 77). An example of this is question 5 (appendix 1), where the respondent would be asked whether he would like to receive in-service training if he did not already receive any. Besides relating questions to the theory of Corbin & Strauss, and as a way to try to get a flow in the dialogue, as mentioned earlier, the authors of this assignment revised the possible outcome of the questionnaire. In practise, this was done by lining up the main questions, and then taking account for the possible outcome. Thereby it should be possible to get a flow that could open up for more relevant information and maintaining progression with the interview. An example of this is seen in the question guide (see appendix 1) where a positive and a negative follow-up question has been made as a response to question 5 depending on the respondents answer. One thing is theory, another is practice, and the outcome was not a full interview without stops. However, the authors of Page 4 of 13

6 this assignment feel that the prior thoughts helped to keep a certain degree of flow in the interview that would not have been possible without the prior revising of the questionnaire. 2.3 Explanation building In order to heighten the development of internal and external validity, analytic techniques from Yin have been used (Yin, 2003, p. 115), besides the techniques already mentioned in section 2.1. A specific analytic strategy will not be used, and as Yin states, Regardless of the choice of strategies or techniques, a persistent challenge is to produce high-quality analyses (Yin, 2003, p. 109). At the same time, the analytic strategies used in Yin are deductive and this is not the approach the authors of this assignment will use, as the strategies are made fit for case studies. The analytic technique used in this assignment, is used as a framework for the analysis to heighten the validity. Out of the five techniques used in Yin (pattern matching, explanation building, time-series analysis, logic models and cross-case synthesis) explanation building was chosen, due to the fact that it can be used as an inductive tool, which complements Grounded Theory. Yin mainly uses a deductive approach in each of his analytic techniques, however, in the case of explanation building the first approach is: Making an initial theoretical statement or an initial proposition about policy or social behaviour (Yin, 2003, p. 121) which can be interpreted as original thoughts or intent of the assignment. In the case of this assignment the first step was to determine learning in practice with the IT unit in Aalborg University, as described in the introduction. The next steps are: Proposition 1 predicted pattern 1 Comparing to collected data 1 Revised proposition 2 predicted pattern 2 Comparing to collected data 2 etc. Instead of using an initial theoretical statement, it was decided to use a more explorative approach. Propositions as more or less pre-understandings are used, obviously based on a theoretical background. In this case the theoretical background in learning comes from class lectures and earlier projects, so it is not seen as a reduction of validity. Also, by using this analytical technique, concepts from the collected data are revised in order to make new questions and revise our preunderstandings. Yin s explanation building is used to to get a more concrete understanding of the Page 5 of 13

7 learning processes in the IT unit at Aalborg University. By revising the data and making new questions that build on predicted pattern (concepts), a second interview can be conducted. As the authors of this assignment see it, the use of this technique will provide more valid results. The argument for this is that by conducting more interviews the chance of misinterpretation is lowered, thus improving both validity and reliability. 2.4 Methodological procedure The choice of respondents was a mix of deliberate action and practical thinking. As the objective is to investigate learning among IT workers at AAU, it seemed appropriate to interview staff at our faculty, as we consider them to be typical IT workers at AAU and thus are representative for our study. We might as well have interviewed IT workers at another faculty but because we considered the IT workers at our faculty as representative, it made sense to interview these as they were located nearby, which eased the process of arranging and meeting for interviews. The first interview with respondent no. 1, Lars Anderson (LA), who is manager of the IT department at our faculty (Department of Business Studies) at AAU, was performed by two interviewers where one performed the interview while the other one took notes. The interview started out with some general questions to warm up to the more direct questions (refer to appendix 1 for details). As it is important not to take too long time with the interview, which will increase the likelihood of tiring the respondent, only 10 questions were prepared and put forward at the interview which took approximately 15 minutes to complete. Immediately after the interview was conducted the two interviewers wrote down the interview based on the notes and their memory. The written interview is not a direct transcription, but a selective transcription based on notes and memory. After having written the interview a copy was returned to the respondent by his choice of media ( ) to be read through so any possible misunderstanding and errors could be corrected. As there were no major corrections, LA approved the interview immediately. After having received the approval of the interview the coding process on the interview began. The described procedure has thus been used for all the four conducted interviews in this assignment. At first the scope was only to interview one person two times, but as the person to be interviewed first was a manager it was found relevant to make another interview with an ordinary employee, to get a more rich and balanced picture of the way learning took place in the selected IT-unit. Thus both respondents were interviewed once and the answers were compared, coded and treated before the follow up Page 6 of 13

8 interviews with the two respondents were conducted. It should be noted though, that the four interviews all were conducted with only one of the respondents at the time. 3 Analysis This chapter is intended to dig deeper into the interviews and contains a conceptualizing section, where certain activities, actions, discrete incidents, etc., are described in order to categorize them under learning activities and connected inhibiting factors. As already mentioned, a comparison will not be made to existing theories as a result of time constraints and because this was not an objective of this assignment the objective of this assignment is to use the tools described in the introduction and thus theorizing by using these on the basis of the interviews conducted. Hence, results of this abstraction process (as termed in Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p ) will be presented in the section Main results. Before going into detail with the categories identified, a brief list of the expected findings is provided: Courses and conferences are major sources of learning. Trade journals and magazines are important in identifying new areas of interest. The respondents rely extensively on their colleagues. The respondents continuously follow learning programmes assigned by their employer. Time constraint is an inhibiting factor in connection with learning. Learning is primarily a personal matter networks are hard to establish and benefit from as the individual context varies extensively. 3.1 Conceptualizing and categorizing The purpose of this section is to conceptualize and categorize events and acts (Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p. 66), which contribute to supplementary training for staff in the IT-unit. The coding of the interviews revealed a number of activities which act as supplementary learning, categorized under learning activities, which are conceptualized into the following terms: Book reading, networking, attending conferences, attending certification courses and attending after work courses ( go-home-courses ). Under the concepts of networking and conferences the sub-concept of the radar, or eye-opener, is apparent, as is the sub-concept of kickstarter under the concept of go-home-courses. The last category is inhibiting factors, and the concepts within this category are time and economy. But firstly, this section will describe the learning framework, where the preconditions for learning in the work environment are defined, and the concepts to be dealt with here are centralization and freedom and autonomy. The categories, concepts (but not sub-concepts) and their relations can be seen in figure 1. Page 7 of 13

9 Subject Person Learning framework Learning activities Inhibiting factors Rene Larsen (IT-supporter) After work courses Certification courses Time Centralization Networking Book reading Supplementary training/ Learning Freedom and autonomy Conferences Economy Lars Anderson (IT-manager) After work courses Certification courses Networking Book reading Figure 1 - Categories and concepts of coded interviews The learning framework Both respondents characterized freedom and autonomy in the work environment as being high. There are no specific programmes for supplementary training of workers in the IT department 1, although there are courses specifically for employees at AAU, but the courses are in e.g. Microsoft Frontpage and Word which is not relevant for IT workers. 2 RL mentions that he daily has activities involving problem solving, but free hands in terms of how to solve them. 3 He also describes this as a reason for working at AAU in the first place. 4 This is also the case for supplementary training, as both RL and LA describe how they are free to choose which courses they wish to attend. 5 LA mentions that there is no pressure from the faculty for him to attend any courses. 6 The IT department has a budget within which they can act freely in terms of supplementary training activities. According to LA this is because the faculty has little idea about which courses might be relevant, 7 hence trust is a substitute for control and centralization is minimized. 1 LA, interview 1, question 2 2 RL, interview 2, question 3 3 RL, interview 1, question 1 4 RL, interview 1, question 1 5 RL, interview 1, question 1 and 2 and LA, interview 1, question 2 6 LA, interview 2, question 2 7 LA, interview 2, question 3 Page 8 of 13

10 3.1.2 Learning activities One of the main purposes of the investigation was to reveal which activities are the concrete tools for supplementary learning in the IT-department. Book reading is one of the main learning activities. RL describes how employees can just order the books they need, and money to buy the book will be issued without further inquiry. 8 This again underlines the high degree of freedom in the department. Attending conferences is a main learning activity for LA. LA describes how he attends conferences mostly to create networks. Sometimes some of the context is lost and details are missed during presentations, but in spite of this he expresses that he is adequately prepared for the conferences. 9 When LA attends conferences he uses a tool termed here as the radar. This enables him to find and sort knowledge obtained at conferences and focus on new relevant areas in his field of practice, and gives him an overview. This radar also becomes relevant afterwards when his personal network is used to point out important areas of interest to him. In other words the radar is used to detect relevant information. LA refers to this as an eye-opener, and he also mentions that the information he obtains this way also can be obtained through assignments and from IT magazines. 10 Additionally, RL mentions that he networks, especially with a colleague who shares his specific area of expertise. Besides this he draws on colleagues from his department. 11 RL s personal network of friends who are in the same line of work is not one he draws extensively upon, as he describes it as quickly becoming nerdy and thus not contributing with valuable work related knowledge he mostly acquires knowledge alone. 12 Attending certification courses usually takes two to three weeks, 13 and LA has attended several of these along with several conferences. 14 RL has not yet attended any certification courses, during his employment period (One year and three months). This will be further elaborated on under Inhibiting factors. 8 RL, interview 1, question 4 9 LA, interview 1, question 4 and interview 2, question 8 10 LA, interview 1, question 4 11 RL, interview 1, question 4 12 RL, interview 1, question 5 13 RL, interview 1, question 6 14 LA, interview 1, question 3 Page 9 of 13

11 Finally there are after work courses, or go-home-courses. Only RL mentions that he has attended these. The courses are an offer from his labour union, and most of the courses are, as the name implies, after work others are in working hours but according to RL he is free to attend them during working hours and no argumentation for attending them is necessary. 15 RL expresses satisfaction with the after work courses, as he characterizes them as highly relevant. They work as a kick-start for giving information about specific relevant subjects and creating and overview of them. Also they provide good advice on pitfalls of the subjects. The payoff in terms of invested time is very good and they offer a good opportunity to network Inhibiting factors The respondents repeatedly express that they have a large degree of freedom. A factor which both respondents mention as an inhibiting factor is economic limitations. Both say that they can attend any certification course, or other course, they want to, except if it is too expensive. 17 Even though LA mentions that he has not yet experienced that anyone got a rejection on a request to attend a certain course, 18 he still mentions that there might be such limitation. Another inhibiting factor is time. This is apparent as RL expresses that he has not yet attended any certification courses because of time constraints. 19 This actually means that RL is free to take any certification course he wants, given it is not too expensive, but he is not able to attend them because of time constraints Main results Through the analysis, many of our expectations towards learning in the IT department were confirmed. Courses and conferences are a major contributor to learning: When attending these LA uses his radar and thus courses and conferences function as an eye-opener to new important areas for him to focus on. RL also talks about a kickstart when attending courses, although he has not attended any conferences or certification courses yet, he has attended after work courses and benefited from those. Although one might interpret him calling them go-home-courses as a somewhat less serious learning activity, he emphasizes their importance in the second interview. It 15 RL, interview 1, question 2 16 RL, interview 1, question 4 17 RL, interview 2, question 5, LA, interview 1, question 2 and LA, interview 2, question 4 18 LA, interview 2, question 4 19 RL, interview 2, question 1 Page 10 of 13

12 was also found that reading was an important learning activity. Reading books keeps their competences up to date and is in that way, apparently, a large part of working in the IT unit. It was also confirmed that networking is a large part of learning as well, although we had not expected it to be so extensive, in reference to especially LA s networking at conferences. LA explicitly states that he attends conferences to network, which was a surprise to the authors of this assignment. As expected we found time as a constraint on learning. It was a surprise, though, that only RL explicitly stated this as an inhibiting factor, and not also LA. We interpret this as LA being the boss who can pretty much do as he wants to, with less regard to time than RL. If this is factual, it remains a possible subject for further investigation. One could wonder if the great freedom to attend the courses really is strongly inhibited by time. This is especially interesting in the case of RL, who states that he can attend any (certification) course he wants to it is just that he has not had the time yet (!). The question is, if it is some kind of sub-conscious feeling of false freedom, that they can attend any course they want to, but that they do not have the time to do it? This could be interesting to investigate closer in a later, more resourceful (in terms of time) investigation. Besides time, economy was mentioned as a constraint. It seemed important for the respondents to emphasize this, although LA never experienced having to say or receive a no to either employees or from the faculty. This is an interesting point as well, as it is a constraint that they are aware of, but never have experienced first hand. Again, one can speculate if this constraint would come into play if they had more time to attend courses and thus had better opportunity to use more of the budget for learning at the faculty. The final category is the learning framework, which was quite interesting to discover. It was found that from management (both LA and faculty) large degrees of freedom were given. Problemsolving was in focus, thus method or conduct was up to the employee him/herself. There does not seem to be any pressure, neither in regards to learning, maybe except for book reading, nor method or conduct. Page 11 of 13

13 4 Perspectivation and comments on further research issues Had the scope of the project been different it would have been interesting to interact with the staff at other IT departments and also that of private firms. This is based on the wish to enhance the scientific quality of the paper as interviewing other respondents from other IT departments would have meant that the concepts identified were not based on two respondents alone. Regarding the introduction of respondents from private firms, this would be a means to look into the myth of the general larger workload in private firms compared to that found at e.g. Universities. Which other techniques could be used to get different results? This assignment, had it included interviews with further respondents, could make out the foundation of a larger study. The importance of the concepts identified could be tested using a more quantitative approach, sending out questionnaires with closed questions and Likert scale questions. Whether or not the usage of additional sources of evidence would help the build up of a different theory seems questionable. E.g. were the researchers to use direct observations as a source of evidence, access to the respondents or subjects under investigation would have to be almost unlimited. This is based on the initial explorative studies which revealed that learning is not confined to the working situation alone. Also, the fact that learning is a process which for a large part takes place implicitly with the individual means that questions would have to be asked. The timing of questions is extremely difficult it is not desirable to interfere in the learning process by asking questions. As a final drawback the resources to supplement the study in such a way is followed by a rapid increase in time consumption on behalf of the investigators. A cheaper, time wise, alternative is that the list of propositions could constitute the foundation for a questionnaire. These propositions would be based on learning theories. Hypotheses would be put forward and these would then be tested using statistical tools the analytical approach is evident. Page 12 of 13

14 5 List of literature Author Title Year Edition Publisher Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. Yin, R. K. Arbnor, I. & Bjerke, B. Basics of Qualitative Research Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory Case Study Research Design and Methods Methodology for Creating Business Knowledge Sage Publications rd, volume 5 Sage Publications nd Sage Publications Page 13 of 13

15 Appendix 1 Question guide Navn: Stilling: Alder: Uddannelsesmæssig baggrund Ansættelsesperiode hos AAU 1. Hvor gammel er du? 2. Hvor længe har du arbejdet her? 3. Hvad er din uddannelsesmæssige baggrund? 4. Hvorfor har du valgt AAU som din arbejdsplads? 5. Hvordan er mulighederne for efteruddannelse i din stilling? (Positiv): Har du benyttet dig af dem? a. Hvilke kompetencer har du tilegnet dig og hvor brugbare er de? b. Hvorfor ikke? (Negativ): Ønsker du bedre mulighed for efteruddannelse? c. Hvordan tilegner du dig så nye kompetencer? i. Tilegner du det på egen hånd eller på gruppeplan/sammen med andre? d. Uddyb/hvorfor ikke?

16 (Spm. 5) Hvordan er mulighederne for efteruddannelse i din stilling? (Positiv) Har du benyttet dig af dem? (Negativ) Ønsker du bedre muligheder for efteruddannelse (Ja) A (Nej) B (Ja) C (Nej) D (Uddybning) I 6. (Hvis ikke 5C er besvaret): Hvad gør du selv for at tilegne dig nye kompetencer? (fx taler du tit med kollegaer, læser bøger på området osv.) a. (Gør noget): Helt konkret hvordan gør du det/fungerer det? 1. (Gør ikke noget): Uddyb/hvorfor ikke?

17 Appendix 2 Interviews with Lars Anderson Respondents navn: Lars Anderson (LA) Stilling: IT-chef Alder: 38 år Uddannelsesmæssig baggrund Civilingeniør i svagstrøm Ansættelsesperiode hos AAU 12 år INTERVIEW 1 1. Hvorfor har du valgt AAU som din arbejdsplads? Pga. stor arbejdsløshed og fordi at LA gik arbejdsløs i 9 mdr. søgte han mange stillinger, bl.a. i grønland, og AAU var et af stederne hvor han søgte og han fik så et job der. LA er også uddannet fra AAU. Kommentar [N1]: Tog han jobbet mere af nød end af lyst oprindeligt? 2. Hvordan er mulighederne for efteruddannelse i din stilling? Der er ikke deciderede efteruddannelsesprogrammer for teknisk administrativt personale (TAP) LA skal selv tage initiativ til efteruddannelse. At man selv skal tage initiativ til efteruddannelse ser LA ikke som noget problem. LA fortæller at man skal ansøge om midler til at komme på fx konference eller til at tage kurser. Det plejer dog ikke at være noget problem at få bevilliget midler til de kurser han ønsker. LA s chef opfordrer LA til at komme med ideer til efteruddannelse i form af kurser, konferencer og lign. Ligeledes har LA s afdeling et budget til at købe faglitteratur. LA ser ikke den store forskel på de muligheder og den måde hans kollegaer i den private sektor modtager efteruddannelse på. Kommentar [N2]: LA virker som initiativrig og har høj grad af autonomi i den daglige planlægning. Kommentar [N3]: Fralægger sig ansvar. Kommentar [N4]: Det er åbenbart måden man lærer på i hans branche. 3. Har du benyttet dig af de muligheder der er for efteruddannelse? LA nævner at han eksempelvis har været til en konference i USA med deltagere. Desuden har han deltaget i flere kurser og konferencer.

18 4. Hvordan tilegner du dig så nye kompetencer og hvilke kompetencer har du tilegnet dig og hvor brugbare er de? Når LA tager til konference eller tager til et kursus, er det ofte lige så meget for at skabe et netværk som det er for at deltage i selv kurset. Eksempelvis nævner LA at man mange gange måske ikke får hele konteksten med og får skrevet alle noterne præcist ned når det er et foredrag. Desuden nævner LA at forelæseren måske kunne komme til at sige noget forkert i sit foredrag. Ligeledes nævner LA at de kurser og konferencer som han har deltaget i har kunnet virke som en eye opener i forhold til at se nye vigtige områder at fokusere på eksempelvis et seminar i 1997, hvor man kom til at snakke omkring spam hvilket førte til at man i LA s afdeling på AAU fokuserede meget mere på spam-problematikker. Dette konkrete tilfælde med spam blev diskuteret i deltagernes fritid under konferencen og emnet blev bragt frem og prioriteret på deltagernes eget initiativ (konferencearrangørerne stillede bare de praktisk rammer til rådighed fx blev lokalet skiftet ud 3 gange pga. den store interesse). Således kan LA bruge sådanne eye-openers, konferencer og kurser til at danne overblik over et fagområde. LA nævner at den information man får gennem disse såkaldte eye-openers også kan findes i artikler, fagblade, magasiner mv, men at informationen virker mere troværdig og at han bliver mere overbevist om at det pågældende fagområde er vigtigt når det sker gennem sådan en eye-opener. 5. Tilegner du det på egen hånd eller på gruppeplan/sammen med andre? I forbindelse med at skabe netværk til konferencer og til kurser er udbyttet for LA bl.a. at få skabt kontakter til andre fag-personer. Når LA skaber en faglig kontakt er det ikke altid at der også bliver skabt en personlig relation. Det er forskelligt om LA lærer bedst når han er alene eller deltager på konferencer og kurser med kollegaer, da det er individuelt hvordan man lærer bedst og samtidig også kontekst specifikt. 6. Ønsker du bedre mulighed for efteruddannelse? LA er godt tilfreds med den måde som efteruddannelsen fungerer på med at man selv skal tage initiativ. Det vigtigste for LA er at der er midler til rådighed til at han kan komme med på de kurser som han gerne vil. Kommentar [N5]: Læring kommer indirekte. Kommentar [N6]: Er kvaliteten af kurset og udbyttet tilstrækkelig højt? Kommentar [N7]: Hans arbejdsområde er stort og uoverskueligt, så netværket er en form for radar. Kommentar [N8]: Radaren virker da nye fokusområder identificeres. Er det selvforstærkende, da netværkets fokusområder automatisk bliver hans fokusområder, og man giver køb på sin egen selvstændighed? De uformelle kanaler øger accepten af nye fokusområder sammenlignet med viden erhvervet fra et tidsskrift. Kommentar [N9]: Vigtig også i læring. LA virker glad for at søge viden gennem ad-hoc kanaler/kontakter. Kommentar [N10]: Radaren igen. Kommentar [N11]: Behov for at få relevansen påpeget. Området er åbenbart svært at overskue, så netværket (radaren) er utrolig vigtig. Kommentar [N12]: Mere fokus på indholdet end formen. Kommentar [N13]: Ingen specielle præferencer for individuel eller kollektiv læring. Kommentar [N14]: Folk i den branche skal have en vis selvstændighed. LA udviser proaktiv adfærd. Kommentar [N15]: LA s primære krav til ledelsen.

19 INTERVIEW 2 1. Relateret til spørgsmål 2, Er det et bevidst valg fra ledelsens (både hans egne overordnede og han selv mht sine egne underordnede) side ikke at agere proaktivt i forhold til efteruddannelse? LA vurderer at det ikke er et bevidst valg fra hans ledelses (fakultetet) side ikke at komme med proaktive tilbud til LA og hans underordnede med tilbud om efteruddannelse. Mht. LA selv så nævner LA at det foregår mere uformelt og bliver ordnet mere på ad hoc basis også pga. den lille afdeling på ca. 10 mand. Kommentar [N16]: LA tager det som det kommer. 2. Udgør det faktum at de ansatte selv skal tage initiativ til kurser mv. et problem for medlemmer af personalet som måske ikke er så udadvendte? Nogle vil gerne på kurser mv. andre vil ikke knap så gerne. Afdelingen tvinger ikke nogen afsted. De ansatte tager af sted hvis de forventer at få behov for kompetencer erhvervet ved et kursus eller lign. Kommentar [N17]: Intet officielt pres for at deltage i kurser mv. 3. Hvorfor synes LA ikke at hans overordnede/ledelsen skal komme med tilbud om efteruddannelse af sig selv? LA s overordnede har ofte ingen eller ringe fornemmelse/indsigt i hvilke kurser mv. der er relevante for LA og hans ansatte. Dette har været forsøgt tidligere, uden den store succes, da de måtte spørge LA selv hvilke kurser de skulle anbefale ham. LA behøver ikke proaktive tilbud fra ledelsen af, så længe at midlerne til kurser mv. er til stede. Kommentar [N18]: Selvstyre før centralisering. 4. Er der eksempler hvor der er blevet sagt nej til deltagelse på konferencer og/eller til kurser? Hvis ja hvorfor? Der har ikke været eksempler på at der er blevet sagt nej til kurser mv. Men ressourcer knaphed kunne gøre det nødvendigt at prioritere. 5. Har LA oplevet problemer med at få bevilget midler til kurser, konferencer, faglitteratur og lign. Hvorfor? LA har ikke oplevet problemer med at få midler til ønskede kurser mv. LA har relativ stor selvstyring over budgettet til faglitteratur samt i mindre grad over midlerne til kurser mv. Kommentar [N19]: Tilpas for LA eftersom alle ansøgninger hidtil er blevet imødekommet.

20 6. Hvordan foregår administrationen af midlerne til konferencer, kurser, faglitteratur og lign.? LA administrerer selv de fleste midler, men nogle af dem administreres fra fakultetets side af. Kommentar [N20]: Vil gerne passe sig selv, da andre ikke har samme indsigt i LA s område. 7. Relateret til spørgsmål 3, hvor ofte er LA til kurser og konferencer Førhen var LA af sted på kurser mv ca 1 gang årligt 3-4 år i træk. De senere år er aktiviteten dog faldet lidt og LA har ikke været på kurser i de senere år. Af mulige årsager nævner LA at hans tidligere kollega og rejsekammerat fik nyt job, derudover er LA mere fokuseret på at holde sit nuværende netværk ved lige frem for at skabe et nyt/udvide eksisterende netværk (Hobnobbing). 8. Relateret til spørgsmål 4, er LA godt nok rustet til at tage på kurser og er udbyttet højt nok i forhold til penge og tidsforbruget I forhold til udbyttet af kurser og at være rustet nok til at få tilstrækkeligt udbytte vurderer LA at han er godt nok rustet.

21 Appendix 3 Interviews with Rene Larsen Respondents navn: Rene Larsen (RL) Stilling: IT-supporter Alder: 27 år Uddannelsesmæssig baggrund Datamatiker fra NOEA Ansættelsesperiode hos AAU 1 år 3mdr. INTERVIEW 1 1. Hvorfor har du valgt AAU som din arbejdsplads? God arbejdsplads med store frihedsgrader. Daglig problemløsning, men frie hænder til at løse opgaven. Frihed under ansvar. Kommentar [N1]: RL fremstår som en relativ selvstændig person 2. Hvordan er mulighederne for efteruddannelse i din stilling? RL nævner kurser og seminarer som muligheder for efteruddannelse typisk er en del af efteruddannelse af opnå forskellige certificeringer, som RL dog ikke har benyttet sig af endnu, men har dog planer om det. Ingen interne tilbud. RL har endnu ikke deltaget i nogle kurser og arrangementer, men vil dog gerne på et senere tidspunkt. RL modtager også tilbud om kurser fra sin fagforening typisk er disse kurser nogle der ligger efter arbejdstid ( gå-hjem-kurser ), dog er der også nogle længerevarende dagskurser. I forbindelse med deltagelse i kurserne deltager RL nogle gange i dem i arbejdstiden og nogle gange uden for. RL behøver ikke at argumentere for hvilke kurser han gerne vil deltage i overfor sin chef. RL s chef Lars Anderson kan også anbefale kurser til RL på et uformelt plan. Kommentar [N2]: Erfaring og anciennitet er en forudsætning for at få certificeringer Kommentar [N3]: RL opfatter disse kurser som mindre vigtige. Dette kan skyldes den korte varighed af kurserne Kommentar [N4]: RL har store frihedsgrader mht. efteruddannelse 3. Har du benyttet dig af de muligheder der er for efteruddannelse? RL har ikke benyttet sig af kurser og seminarer endnu. Han står selv for at tilrettelægge og beslutte hvilke kurser han tager på. RL foreslår blot kurser han gerne vil deltage i for sin chef som bare skal godkende det budgetmæssige aspekt. Kommentar [N5]: Meget individuel. Virker som en type der arbejder godt alene meget selvstændig

22 4. Hvordan tilegner du dig så nye kompetencer og hvilke kompetencer har du tilegnet dig og hvor brugbare er de? RL læser sig til meget af den viden han har brug for han bestiller bare de fagbøger han ønsker sig. Foruden at søge faglitteratur sparrer RL meget sammen med især en specifik kollega som deler et af RL s faglige fokusområder bl.a. sidder de nogle gange sammen på Fibigerstræde eller på basis og samarbejder. Foruden denne specifikke kollega bruger RL også kollegaer fra sin egen afdeling samt fra Fibigerstræde 1 og 3, hvis han ved at han står med et problem som disse kan hjælpe ham med. 5. Tilegner du det på egen hånd eller på gruppeplan/sammen med andre? Typisk tilegner RL sig kompetencer på egen hånd hvilket han er meget tilfreds med da det er meget selvstændigt. RL bruger ikke så meget sit netværk af nuværende og tidligere kollegaer og medstuderende til at lære igennem, da det hurtigt bliver for nørdet. 6. Ønsker du bedre mulighed for efteruddannelse? Udbuddet af relevante kurser er ikke så stort og der er nogle gange behov for længerevarende kurser (3 ugers tid) for at komme ordentligt i dybden. Dog er dette svært at kombinere med jobbet, da 3 uger er lang tid at tage ud af kalenderen og RL ville hurtigt blive for presset mht. opgaver, hvorfor han ikke har deltaget i sådanne kurser endnu, selvom han meget gerne ville. Kommentar [N6]: Arbejdspla dsen yder støtte i form af bogkøb Kommentar [N7]: Virker som en person der lærer meget af en mere teoretisk vej (fagbøger) Kommentar [N8]: RL bruger mest sine kollegaer på ad hoc basis, men arbejder ellers mest alene. Bruger ikke/ har ikke så omfattende et netværk at trække på Kommentar [N9]: Netværket virker mere socialt end fagligt fokuseret Kommentar [N10]: RL virker som en type der gerne vil udvikle sig selv. Er måske endda lidt ambitiøs. Savner tid til længerevarende kurser så han kan udvikle sig selv og tilegne sig mere viden. INTERVIEW 2 1. Hvor har du ikke deltaget i certificeringskurser endnu? RL havde ikke deltaget i nogle fra AAU. Grundene til, at han ikke har deltaget i nogle mens han har været ansat på AAU er, at han ikke har haft tid og at der ikke har været nogen der var interessante eller relevante. LA har heller ikke anbefalet nogen for ham, ligesom han ikke selv har søgt at finde nogen kurser. Kommentar [N11]: Dvs. han har deltaget i certificeringskurser på sin tidligere arbejdsplads. 2. Hvad mener du med interne tilbud? Med interne kurser mener RL kurser kun for ansatte på AAU. 3. Synes du det er okay, at der ikke er nogen interne tilbud om efteruddannelse?

23 Ja det er fint, for niveauet på disse kurser er ikke høje nok til RL det er fx kurser i Frontpage og Word. Det er nemmere at det er eksternt, fordi det er besværligt at opsætte relevante kurser for RL s medarbejdergruppe. RL kan ikke bruge Frontpage og Word kurser til noget på hans nuværende faglige niveau. 4. hvor højt vurderer du det faglige udbytte af gå-hjem-kurser? Kurserne er meget relevante. De fungerer som en kickstart i og med de giver overordnede informationer om emnerne, ligesom kurserne giver gode fif og råd om faldgruber. Kurserne giver gode muligheder for at danne netværk. De giver et stort udbytte i forhold til investering af tid i dem. 5. Mener du, at du har en høj grad af frihed til at tage certificeringskurser? Er der noget der forhindrer at du tager dem? Her gentager RL tid, ligesom han igen siger at det skal være inden for rimelighedens grænser rent økonomisk. Her nævner han også, at han slet ikke har prøvet at komme på dem endnu, pga. tiden ikke har været til det. Kommentar [N12]: Her tænker RL kun på om det er besværligt for AAU hensynet (økonomisk m.m.) til arbejdspladsen går forud for ham selv. Kommentar [N13]: I dag refererer RL til dem som Fyraftenskurser dette virker som en lidt mere seriøst betegnelse for dem. Kommentar [N14]: Dette ændrer lidt den oprindelige opfattelse af den manglende vigtighed af disse kurser de faktorer RL nævner her virker meget vigtige for hans faglige udvikling. 6. Relateret til spørgsmål 4 i sidste interview, mener du så at du lærer nok og udvikler dig tilstrækkeligt? Ja det synes RL. Især netværk er godt og relevant. Læsning af bøger er også godt, da de er gode som opslagsværk i situationer senere hen, hvor den viden han har læst sig til, skal omsættes til reel problemløsning. Han siger at der ikke er spildt nogen penge på bøger, men at de let kan komme til at stå på hylden. Kurserne er mere intense i tid og virker derfor godt på kort sigt, mens bøgerne er bedre på lidt længere sigt, fordi man kan blive ved med at vende tilbage til dem, og bruge dem opslagsværk. Kommentar [N15]: Glemme dem. RL bekræfter, at det er meget nemt at få fagbøger de skal blot bestilles og så er det faktisk bare selvjustits i forhold til ikke at sprænge budgettet. RL og hans kolleger snakker sammen om bøgerne, for at undgå at flere køber den samme bog. Kommentar [N16]: De giver hinanden feedback, så de finder ud af hvilke bøger der er relevante. Kommentar [N17]: De deler bøgerne. Kommentar [N18]: De tager hensyn til arbejdspladsens økonomi. De vil ikke spilde penge selvom det ikke er deres penge.