Employee Learning and Development Orientation: Toward an Integrative Model of Involvement in Continuous Learning

Abstract

Through a review of diverse literature, this article reconceptualizes and integrates concepts such as growth needs, personal mastery, learning goals, and development orientation and provides a unique understanding of these concepts in human resource development. An employee learning and development orientation is proposed, which includes cognitive, affective, and behavioral constructs that together describe a tendency toward involvement in continuous learning. This orientation is posited to be a motivational state that depends on the degree to which learning and development are relevant to the self. The model outlines the content, structure, and processes of this orientation. It reframes the ways in which work and work context variables influence learning and development behavior in organizations. Ten research propositions are offered, and the article provides new directions for research. Some implications for practice are discussed.