Sims Learning Connections

Prompted by Cammy Bean‘s comment on my Why PLE? post:

…the change in the employer-employee relationship points to why corporations will resist the idea of a personal learning environment: ”Why should we invest in their personal learning if they are just going to leave?”

that reminds me of the old expression “you can’t keep them down on the farm” (once they have seen PLE? )

This raises a whole series of questions for me:

1. What does research show regarding evidence of positive correlation between “company investment in employee development” and “retention of high-performing employees?” (for me this is an “assumed obvious,” however, I don’t have a citation at hand. Do you?)
2. Is (should?) corporate investment in employee development targeted at the middle-band of performers, to assist them with becoming top performers? (same question as #1, or different?)
3. Are top-performers more likely to leave a company?
   1. To extent true, what are the ramifications to the company? Is this always necessarily a bad thing? Some companies have a vibrant network of alumni that benefit the corporation.
   2. Connection to overall human capital strategy?
4. Is individual top-performance correlated with a life-long learning and self-directed development orientation and practice?
5. What is the appropriate level of investment in transferable (versus company-specific) knowledge and skill development?
   1. Should Learning and Development groups perhaps focus only on company-specific knowledge and skills, leaving the transferable knowledge and skill development to employees themselves?
6. What is the appropriate investment balance between formal and informal learning? (where personal learning environments would fit within ‘informal’, or ‘core infrastructure’)
7. Could a PLE-based strategy be a viable alternative to formal training for transferable knowledge and skills?
8. What is the desired relationship between PLE and company sponsored Communities of Practice? (Side note: I still see these as distinct, highly complementary, concepts.)
9. What is the desired relationship between PLE and LMS (Learning Management System)?
10. What is the desired relationship between PLE and corporate repositories (document management systems, intranets, inside the firewall wikis, etc.?)
11. Do personal learning environments encourage information hording?
12. Do personal learning environments encourage “unproductive” hours dedicated to learning that is not aligned with company strategy?
13. Is PLE an effective strategy for employees to develop external connections that benefit the corporation? (for me, this one is a no-brainer with an answer of ‘yes’, along with my assumption that a personal learning environment inherently has a network component)
14. To the extent companies do wish to support employees creating and using personal learning environments, what does this support look like?
    1. Training and/or performance support for developing a personal learning environment? (or, to use another old expression: “teaching to fish”)
    2. Provisioning of starter-set personal learning environment?
15. What is the desired relationship, if any, between PLE and HR’s performance management systems and formal employee Development Plans (this and the following item added on 10 May after original publish)
16. To the extent that the PLE is endorsed or provided by the company, does the corporation facilitate employee taking non-company-confidential information in their PLE with them when their employment terminates?
17. What about privacy for content in a PLE “hosted” on company issued hardware and software? What is private to the learner? Shared with his/her manager only? Shared with HR? Shared with invited colleagues? Shared with all employees, but not public? Shared with public? (this and the following item added on 11 May)
18. What is the desired relationship between PLE and a company directory (e.g. IBM’s BluePages)?