Human Agency at Work : An Active Approach towards Expertise Development

391 Pages·2017·3.05 MB·English

by  Dr. Michael Goller (auth.)

Michael Goller
Human Agency
at Work
An Active Approach towards
Expertise Development
Human Agency at Work
Michael Goller
Human Agency at Work
An Active Approach towards
Expertise Development
With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Christian Harteis
Michael Goller
Paderborn, Germany
Dissertation submitted and accepted at the University of Paderborn (Original title:
“Agency at work: A quantitative study on the professional development of geriatric
care nurses”), Germany, 2017
OnlinePlus material to this book can be available on
http://www.springer.com/978-3-658-18286-1
ISBN 978-3-658-18285-4 ISBN 978-3-658-18286-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-18286-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017941051
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ForElisabeth
Foreword
It is an important educational task to prepare subsequent generations for re-
spondingtosocietaltasksandrequirementsandtoenablethemtocontribute
tosocietalwelfarethroughgainfulemployment.Theparadigmofpermanently
changingworkconditionsraisedthemainclaimofEuropeaneducationalpol-
icy:Lifelonglearning.Howwellandhowfarindividualscancontributetoso-
cietalworkingtaskssubstantiallydependsonthedevelopmentoftheircompe-
tencesandcapabilities.Thesehavetobepermanentlyrefreshedandreshaped
inthecontextofdailywork.Hence,workplacelearningbecameanimportant
issuefororganisingworkaswellasforeducationalresearch.
Individualsdifferintheirsuccessinworkplacelearning.Eventhoughthere
isevidencethatoccupationalstatusisacrucialfactorinfluencinglearningop-
portunities at work, workplace learning occurs at all levels of employment:
blue-collar jobs, white-collar jobs, common labour, service workers, or man-
agers.Educationalresearchershaveestablishedtheconceptofagencywhichis
anattempttodescribeandunderstandstakeholders’achievementsregarding
theaforementionedeconomicandsocialgoals.Theconceptdescribesindivid-
uals’capacitytomakeintentionalchoicesandtoactonthesechoicesinways
thatmakeadifferenceintheirprofessionallives.Agencycomprisesskills,at-
titudes,andbeliefswhichsupportindividualstoactindependentlyinorderto
transform workplace practices. Maintaining agency implies strategies of ad-
vancingandrenewingskillsandcompetencies.Thisrequiresindividuals’par-
ticipatinginculturesofknowledgecreationandtheexchangeofknowledge.
Thehallmarksofsuchparticipationareraisingcrucialquestionsaboutwork,
identifyingopportunities,andengaginginlearningactivities.Hence,agency
makes a difference in the success of subsequent workplace learning and the
developmentofprofessionalexpertise.
Inhiscomprehensivestudy,MichaelGollerexaminestheconstructofwork
agency,whichisprominentlyusedanddiscussedinresearchpublicationson
VIII Foreword
workplacelearning.Theconstructemergesininternationaldiscoursemainly
in contexts that follow a sociocultural paradigm. Their focus is mainly on
qualitative and reconstructive research approaches that aim at understand-
ing specific interaction processes. They neither intend to generalise impact
interrelations nor do they lead to precise differentiations of the construct,
whichwouldbeunderstoodasoperationalisationinquantitativeresearchap-
proaches.MichaelGollercriticisestheabstractnatureoftheresearchdiscourse
onagencyandintendstofurtherdeveloptheconstructandtheresearchdis-
course by developing and empirically examining a model of impact relation-
ships.
Therefore,MichaelGolleranalysesagencyinthecontextofdailyworking
life.Heappliestheprevalentunderstandingofagencyandinterpretsemploy-
eesasactiveagentsinthecontextoftheirworkenvironments,whocanshape
their work circumstances through active participation, (partly) independent
decision-makingand(partly)autonomousbehaviourandacting.Fromanedu-
cationalperspective,agencycanbeconsideredasapreconditionforworkplace
learningandprofessionaldevelopment.
MichaelGollerconductsacomprehensiveliteraturereviewofeducational,
psychological,andsocialsciencesresearchonworkplacelearninganddevel-
ops an operationalisable construct of agency by considering human agency,
on the one hand, as the capability and the tendency towards intentional de-
cisionsand,ontheotherhand,identifiedactivitiesaimingatinfluencingthe
work environment. Hence, agency is considered as an antecedent of agentic
behaviour.Individualsact,decide,andbehavedifferently.Theoretically,each
concreteindividualbehaviourattheworkplacecanbelocatedonacontinuum
betweentheextremepointsofcompletelyagenticbehaviourandcompletely
non-agenticbehaviour.MichaelGollerworksoutempiricalevidencethatagen-
ticbehaviouratworkdependsonthreeinfluences:(a)agenticcompetence(i.e.,
the capability to set goals and to decide), (b) agency belief (i.e., the belief to
bearagencycompetence),and(c)agencypersonalityasatrait.
As a theoretical framework for professional development, Michael Goller
refers to research on expertise which considers the improvement of perfor-
mance through learning from experience, learning in social interactions at
work,andbytheexplorationofartefactsandresourcesattheworkplace.Ob-
servingagenticbehaviourrelatedtoprofessionaldevelopment,hefocuseson
Foreword IX
self-initiated(a)creationofrelevantexperiences,(b)helpseekingandfeedback
seeking,and(c)participationinformallearningopportunitiesatwork.Addi-
tionally,heconsidersautonomy,socialsupport,andtimepressureatworkas
environmentalinfluencesontheprobabilityofagenticbehaviouratwork.
Onthebasisofhistheoreticalanalyses,MichaelGollerraiseshisresearch
questiononhowhumanagencyexplainsworkplacelearningandprofessional
development.Hespecifiesthreecontext-specificsub-questions,whichaimat
clarifying(a)agency’sinfluenceonagentbehaviourintheworkplace,(b)the
influence of agentic behaviour on the development of professional expertise,
and(c)theinfluenceofcontextfactorsonagenticbehaviourintheworkplace.
Toanswerthesequestions,MichaelGollerchoosesthedomainofelderlycare
nursingandconductsthreesubsequentempiricalstudies.
Firstly,aninterviewstudywithnineexperiencedseniornursesinmanage-
mentpositionsclarifiestherelevanceandappropriatenessofthetheoretically
derivedconstructsforthepracticeofelderlycarenursing.Suchaclarification
study was necessary because there are no such studies on agency in elderly
carenursing.Theinterviewsfocusonthebehaviourandprofessionaldevelop-
mentofelderlycareworkersandorganisationalconditionsatnursinghomes.
Inessence,theinterviewsconfirmtherelevanceandappropriatenessofthese-
lectedconstructsforthedomainofelderlycarenursing,andtheycontribute
tofurtherclarificationsofthetheoreticalframeworkregardingcontextualin-
fluences at the workplace. On this basis, Michael Goller develops a compre-
hensive research model that maps impact relations between agency, agentic
behaviour,andprofessionalexpertise–includingtheconsiderationofcontext
factorsofworkplaces.
Secondly, a pilot study in a selected nursing home examines the research
design and the selected scales and measurements. Large parts of the design,
scales, and measurements can be confirmed. However, it turns out that the
planneduseofsocialnetworkanalysesforthemeasurementofexpertisedoes
notachievesufficientacceptanceinthefield.Hence,MichaelGollerusesself-
reportscalesforthemeasurementofexpertiseinthemainstudy.
Thirdly, 909 elderly caregivers from 32 nursing homes participated in the
mainstudy,ofwhich879personscouldbeincludedintheanalyses.Michael
Gollerdecidedtouseacross-validationapproachanddividedthedatasetran-
domly into a calibration (n = 432) and a validation (n = 447) sample. He
k v
X Foreword
conducted explorative and confirmatory factor analyses with the calibration
sample, in order to modify or exclude items and scales wherever necessary.
MichaelGollerestimateshistheoreticalmodelonthebasisofPLS-structural
equationmodellingwiththecalibrationsamplefirst,andthenwiththevalida-
tionsample.Asassumed,theresultsconfirmedthatagencycanpredictagentic
behaviour.Inbothsamples,thereisaconsistentimpactofagenticbehaviour
onprofessionalexpertisethroughjobenrichmentandparticipationinformal
learning at work. However, the context factors considered in the model re-
vealed limited importance. On the basis of the theoretical model, 23% of the
varianceinprofessionalexpertisecanbeexplainedinthecalibrationsample,
whereasinthevalidationsample,31%ofthatvariancecanbeexplained.Hence,
the explanatory power of the modelis satisfactory. Itprovides the following
answerstothesub-questionsidentifiedabove:(a)Agencyprovestobeapre-
dictorofagenticbehaviour,(b)twooffourfacetsofagenticbehaviourpredict
thedevelopmentofprofessionalexpertise,however(c)thecontextfactorsare
oflimitedimportance.
Both the theoretical as well as the empirical analyses of this study are of
outstanding quality. Theoretically, Michael Goller succeeds in reviewing the
literature on workplace learning research and in specifying the widely used
butquiteabstractunderstandingofagency.Hecomprehensivelyanalysesthe
discourse about agency and he critically looks into the arguments on influ-
ences,features,andimpactsofagency.Thus,thesetheoreticalanalysesmake
animportantcontributiontothesystematisationofthediscourseonagency.
As Michael Goller also succeeds in providing empirical evidence for the im-
pactofagencyonthedevelopmentofexpertise,healsorevealstherelevance
oftheconstructofagencyforeducationalresearchaswellasforeducational
practiceandhumanresourcedevelopment.
Probably, the most important contribution to the research discourse is to
formatanunderstandingofagencythatcanbeusedforquantitativeresearch
and testing of hypotheses. Whereas researchers dealing with the construct
of agency usually remain within the areas of their own research paradigms,
Michael Goller acknowledges the research conducted within sociocultural
frameworks;hetransformstheirinsightsandalsomergesinsightfromneigh-
bouringdisciplines(i.e.,psychology,socialsciences)inawaythatallowshim
apreciseoperationalisationoftheconstructofagency.Hence,heistreading
Foreword XI
newpathsofresearch.Empirically,hisstudyconfirms,basedonabiggerdata
set,whatqualitativeresearchonagencyrevealedbasedoncasestudies.Even
thoughtherewillbecolleagueswhomaytendtoopposetheuseofaquantita-
tiveresearchapproachforinvestigatingagency,Iamsurethatthisstudywill
receivehighacknowledgementinthefield.
Paderborn,February2017
ChristianHarteis