An Examination of Managers' Beliefs about their Roles as Facilitators of Learning

Abstract

This article presents the findings associated with managerial beliefs from a recent exploratory qualitative study that was designed to examine the multiple ways in which managers perceive themselves to facilitate the learning of their employees in learning oriented organizations. The Critical Incident Technique was adapted for use in this study to capture the beliefs or mental models of managers as they facilitated learning episodes. The results indicate that managers in this study perceive the roles of manager and of facilitator of learning to be distinct from each other. This finding contradicts much of the management literature that has historically categorized coaching as a subset of management. Additionally, managers revealed their beliefs about learners and the learning process. Examining these beliefs in the context of managerial behavior advances our understanding of the challenges and opportunities that managers confront when they are attempting to adopt roles consistent with the concept of learning-oriented organizations. Implications for practice and research are presented.