A recent study, “Tapping the Potential of Informal Learning,” by ASTD and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (www.i4cp.com) suggests that organizational culture is a driver of informal learning (pg. 13). I would like to take exception to this finding. While crucial to informal learning, I suggest that organizational is not a driver but rather a critical condition that nurtures and supports informal learning.
A driver of learning must be something of a motivational nature that initiates or stimulates learning to occur such as a need to solve a problem or the curiosity to learning something more about a specific topic or subject. In and of itself, organizational culture cannot drive learning or motivate learning to occur. This does not mean that organizational culture is not important, it is. It is extremely important as culture reflects the organization’s attitude toward learning, both formal and informal. As such, it encourages or discourages employees to learn. However, simply encouraging people to learn without direction or purpose does not make it a driver.
