For human resource managers and professional developers, the findings provide information on the design of formal and informal training. Traditionally, formal vocational training has focused on specific questions about what to learn, and subsequent training has been designed to deliver those learning outcomes. Informal vocational training naturally lacks such specific questions and therefore runs the risk of leaving learning results to chance. This document suggests a radically different approach to training, namely a “learning to learn” design strategy. Rather than trying to identify specific learning outcomes in the informal environment or design a formal learning strategy for such specific outcomes, we ask human resource managers and professional developers to redirect the focus to the learning process itself. By exposing a wide range of learning mechanisms in formal and informal training, along with individual monitoring to identify what works for each individual, SC professionals will become self-employed and self-directed students.
This document is based on a constructivist learning vision, in which the student actively creates meaning by linking new information to inside information based on interpretations and personal experience (Bednar et al. 1991). Both the student and the environment are crucial elements, since learning takes place in the interaction between the two . Constructivist learning also includes reinterpretations of acquired knowledge, as both the student and the environment can change in the learning process. By challenging previous interpretations, a person’s assumptions, expectations, values and beliefs can be influenced and transformed, leading to transformative learning for the individual . Learning from a constructivist point of view is not only acquiring skills, but also developing as a person.
The data includes both stories and the final classification made at the end of each interview. Open coding of empirical material at each node led to the emergence of sub-concepts for each learning mechanism, which helped describe and understand how SC professionals learn in the workplace. Continuing with the open and axial coding of all empirical material, a series of patterns and relationships emerged, for example, the relative and dynamic contribution of learning mechanisms. As the data collection and analysis continued, concepts and patterns were revised and empirical data was recoded accordingly.
They also manage exceptions, generate and analyze scenarios for optimal decision-making in the different processes that work in this value flow. There is a common thread behind all these problems that will be at the top of today’s list of challenges for companies: cost control. Perhaps one of the biggest cost control dilemmas is dealing with the new rates imposed.
By theoretically representing learning as a constructive process, we consciously focus on the elements that enable learning, rather than researching what learning can offer. Figure 1 presents a conceptual learning model as a process, in which we recognize learning activities as the starting point of the process, while learning mechanisms are those that transfer learning activities to learning outcomes. The study ranges from a theoretical framework of learning mechanisms in the workplace, followed by a series of in-depth interviews with a panel of experts from highly skilled and experienced SC professionals. The results suggest that soft skills, especially behavioral skills such as communication, planning, initiative and negotiation, were considered more important compared to decision making, negotiation and management skills. The findings indicate that the change in the scope of the supply chain encourages the application and development of different skills in the soft supply chain with different levels of emphasis in relation to 15 soft skills identified in the literature.
Deloitte Consulting LLP’s practice of network and supply chain activities helps companies build supply network strategies and platforms, align processes with new technologies, develop character-based user experiences and explore opportunities to grow and to innovate. Ten years ago, having a standard enterprise resource planning, transportation and inventory solution was usually enough to meet market needs. Therefore, it is essential to determine how data and technology enable business and supply chain objectives and where it is essential to lease them against them.
Buyers and suppliers who remain up to date will embrace digital transformation and use the best-tested automation solutions to meet current market demand. As a corporate professional, it is important to understand financial concepts, even if you don’t consider yourself a number person or see yourself in a role that focuses on finance or accounting. Financial intelligence is important no matter what you actually do within an organization. Whether you are in sales, human resources, administration or marketing, you need to understand finances.
A cornerstone of research was storytelling (New and Payne, 1995; Fawcett and Waller, 2014), which is essential to highlight individual opinions and nuances on how practical learning takes place in the workplace of SC professionals. First, is the first study to thoroughly investigate the learning process of SC professionals. By applying mid-range and theorizing, Supply Chain Recruiters in theory, representing learning as a constructive process, we focus on the mechanisms that make learning possible and not on the learning result. Second, we organize the territory of learning materials in the workplace by putting together learning mechanisms in a theoretical framework, thus providing a theoretical reference point for these and future studies.
