The importance of values in relation to capability development
RESEARCH UPDATE | Maret Staron, Manager TAFE NSW ICVET
Capability development is about having connected, confident, curious, capable, committed learners interacting effectively and appropriately at work and in dynamic balance between life and work. What we learn outside of work is equally as important to what we learn at work. And the actions we take at work are primarily driven through our own personal values.
We are now coming to a conclusion of our research on Designing Professional Development in the Knowledge Era. The final report will shortly be available. We are feeling pretty exhilarated by the work. To not only explore what’s happening outside of vocational and technical education in professional development, but to also work with research associates who challenge our thinking and support us in designing new theories and models has been an exciting journey.
The key researchers on this project have been myself, Robby Weatherley and Marie Jasinski. Foundational to our research has been our vision and values.
Vision
Early in the research process, we examined what our vision is for vocational and technical education (VTE) and professional development. We agreed that VTE needs to be seen as flexible, dynamic, risk taking and self-sustaining. That a way forward is to bring together strategy, theory, people and practice, to ensure VTE remains strategically positioned in the knowledge era. The focus is on quality of provision, and a major factor is the ongoing development of the workforce and the associated research that guides and challenges practice.
As stated in Shaping our Future: Australia’s National Strategy for vocational education and training 2004 – 2010, learners need career pathways, new skills and knowledge for work, which enhance their employability and assist learning throughout life. Professional development can significantly contribute to these national objectives through the ongoing development of the knowledge, skills and attributes of the VTE workforce.
Passionately believing in learning and having a keen sense
of responsibility to help others to learn and reach their potential, is one
of the key attributes of excellence for teachers and trainers.
Corben & Thompson, 2001
Learners need to participate in rich and diverse learning environments that support and encourage a passion and responsibility for learning. Both learners and facilitators of learning need to co-create varied and dynamic learning opportunities. Organisations need to actively support such environments. Passionately believing in learning and having a keen sense of responsibility to help others to learn and reach their potential, is one of the key attributes of excellence for teachers and trainers that have been identified by Corben & Thomson (2001).
Rich and diverse learning environments incorporate continuous inquiry and development that is both adaptable to continually changing environments and sustainable and resilient in the business context of VTE. Key concepts that underpin such environments need to remain dynamic and contemporary so that they are relevant and viable in the VTE system. Professional development needs to be expressed in terms of learning that is useful, relevant and enriching, involving activities and approaches that will support the learning process and contribute to the development of learning theory.
To ensure the ongoing development of the workforce, collaborative partnerships with industry, community and RTOs are essential so that the professional development effort is sustainable for the future. Values need to underpin the directions and aims of professional development in VTE.
Values
Values are traits or qualities that are considered worthwhile; they represent an individual’s highest priorities and deeply held driving forces (Heathfield, p2). When articulated as value statements in organisations the aim is to define how people want to behave with each other within the organisation and with their learners, as well as externally with their suppliers, customers, industry and community.
Certain values are emerging as fundamental to the way that people need to work and learn together. These values are not new as many people live their lives by them, but when expressed in organisational value statements they are seen by many as rhetoric and ‘do as I say and not as I do’. However, it is becoming imperative that for people to be able to work and learn effectively and efficiently in the constantly changing and often unpredictable environment in which they find themselves, certain values not only need to be expressed but also need to be lived. They are age old truths.
Within many organisations there is a strong sense that the practice of how we do our business and the recognition and valuing of the individual, is far more important than the development of value statements. It is not the value statements that will make the difference. It’s our own individual internal reflexive processes that help us to get the job done, as well as the way we share our knowledge and passion about the work and integrate organisational systems, requirements and processes. And the will to see this through.
Through the literature search and feedback from practitioners, some values are emerging as fundamental to living and working in the knowledge era and need to be reclaimed in the workplace. These are:
for the self |
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with others |
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together as a group |
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Yet when times are tough there is frequently a decrease in organisational support for learning and development. This occurs when values are not consistent with the rhetoric and there is a subsequent move away from reshaping culture (or reculturing), and back to more superficial improvements and changes. Values fundamentally underpin the culture and the creation of rich and diverse learning environments. Actions within organisations are defined by and emerge from the organisational culture which can be either supportive to positive learning environments and professional development, or toxic (Peterson, p1). The process of re-shaping culture is an important one and is underpinned by values.
As stated by the Minessence Group in their paper Unfolding meaning through values (p2):
The key ingredient of any culture is values. Often misunderstood, values are simply preferences and priorities, which reflect what’s most important. In all organisations, values are at work everyday…
If an organisation values profit, productivity and quality it will prefer to operate in a way that prioritises action and behaviour that reflects those values. Another organisation that values innovation, research and learning will prefer to operate in a way that prioritises action and behaviour that reflects those values. For either organisation, if the values that are influencing daily behaviour and actions are not aligned with the strategies then their performance and results will suffer.
…in line with the diversity that is such a feature of the knowledge era, there is also a need for a diversity in values.
However, in line with the diversity that is such a feature of the knowledge era, there is also a need for a diversity in values. Values that can seem positive at first glance, can actually induce dysfunctional behaviour, and at times seemingly ‘negative’ values can contain positive elements. (Judge, 1993) Judge questions what makes a viable set of values and applies the principles of self organising patterns. He believes that 'repeated exposure to the merits and hidden weaknesses of a valued principle, refine what emerges' (p12).Judge does not support the focus on any particular pattern of values, but suggests that it is more relevant to 'recognise the process whereby different kinds of contextual circumstances can evoke such different patterns from the value space. It is something like having a cake which people will choose to cut up in different ways according to different circumstances' (p13).
According to Dolan et al (2000, p10), there are final values that support organisations in understanding their goals, as well as instrumental values that assist in the organisation getting there. Values can also be seen as control oriented eg efficiency, discipline, responsibility, or developmental oriented, such as trust, creativity and freedom (p10). Dolan et al suggest that a balance is needed between the two sets of values – ie, that part of the organisation can be left to self organise, while other parts should not be left to chaos as this may threaten the survival of the organisation.
When undergoing processes of transformation, new values and beliefs may be needed to re-define what the organisation’s collective identity is and leadership needs to operate through values rather than objectives (Dolan et al, 2000). This does not disown the importance of objectives.
An important value underpinning this research has been that there is no one way, no one strategy for professional development in the knowledge era. This values the importance of the individual and groups designing their own learning and applying the findings of this research to their own context, in their own way.
There is a move away from what was known as Management by Instruction of the 20th century and Management by Objectives of the middle of the 20th century, to what is becoming known as Management by Values for the 21st Century (Dolan et al, 2000, p6).
The researchers and the members of both the Working Group and the National Reference Group saw values as fundamental to this research project. The focus has been on developmental values and the importance of diversity, trust and integrity. An important value underpinning this research has been that there is no one way, no one strategy for professional development in the knowledge era. This values the importance of the individual and groups designing their own learning and applying the findings of this research to their own context, in their own way.
In conclusion
Our vision and values have underpinned the direction of our research, our approach and our findings. The key finding is about life based learning and this model will be explored in the next issue of the eZine in July.
References
Department of Education, Science and Training. Shaping our Future: Australia’s National Strategy for vocational education and training 2004 – 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2006
DOLAN Shimon L, García, Salvador, Diegoli, Samantha, Auerbach, Alan 2000, Organisational Values as ‘Attractors of Chaos’: An emerging cultural change to manage organisational complexity. Paper provided by Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in its series Economics Working Papers, no 485. Retrieved March 2006
JUDGE Anthony 1993, Human Values as Strange Attractors: Coevolution of classes of governance principles, Paper prepared for the 13th World Conference of the World Futures Studies Federation, Finland, August 1993. Retrieved March 2006
MINESSENCE
GROUP, Unfolding
Meaning through Values: Values at Work – A
business case for working with values. Retrieved March 2006
See also
The intergenerational workforce of the future THINK PIECE | eZine May 2006
STARON,
Maret, Jasinski, Marie, Weatherley, Robby - TAFE NSW ICVET 2006,
Capability development for the knowledge
era: reculturing and life based learning, Paper presented at AVETRA Conference
2006, ‘ Global
VET: Challenges at Global, National and Local Levels’
Designing Professional Development for the Knowledge Era
