Anne Frieda Doris Kittel

Background: Most workplace learning is informal. However, some employees struggle to execute informal learning strategies effectively because they lack the necessary knowledge or skills or use their knowledge and skills ineffectively or not at all.Objectives: We examined the effects of computer‐based micro‐learning interventions that provide strategy knowledge, prompts, or both, on strategy knowledge, strategy use, and goal achievement—to compensate for these deficits.Methods: A total of 122 employees were randomized into four interventions groups, that is, knowledge, prompts, both, and waiting control group, for a longitudinal micro‐learning training experiment. The participants received 10 micro‐learning nuggets over a month.Results and Conclusion: Compared with the control group, results of the interventions suggested that providing knowledge led to more declarative knowledge. Surprisingly, prompts resulted in more declarative knowledge. Combined interventions led to greater declarative knowledge, but no further synergetic effects could be observed. Over the training course, results showed positive, cubic effects on strategy use and for individual goal achievement for the prompts and combined intervention group. Qualitative data suggest a self‐assessment adjustment of strategy use. In future studies, interventions could be custom‐designed to compensate for the different deficits.

Informal workplace learning accounts for a large extent of employees’ learning. Informal learning activities such as reflection or keeping up-to-date resemble self-regulated learning strategies that indicate the ability to plan, monitor, and regulate one’s learning. However, little is known about the relationship between informal learning behaviors and self-regulated learning strategies. Structural equation modeling with data from 248 employees revealed that the informal learning behaviors of reflection, keeping up-to-date, feedback-seeking, and knowledge-sharing are strongly related to the metacognitive self-regulated learning strategies of monitoring and regulation. However, informal learning behaviors lack the deep-processing strategies of elaboration and organization, and the resource strategies of help-seeking and effort regulation. Only innovative behavior is strongly related to effort regulation. These results suggest a potential deficit in employees’ strategy use. Employees should consider further resources to increase their learning effectiveness in the workplace. The results are discussed, and practical implications are outlined.

The digital shift leads to increasing changes. Employees can deal with changes through informal learning that enables needs-based development. For successful informal learning, self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial, i.e., to set goals, plan, apply strategies, monitor, and regulate learning for example by applying resource strategies. However, existing SRL models all refer to formal learning settings. Because informal learning differs from formal learning, this study investigates whether SRL models can be transferred from formal learning environments into informal work settings. More precisely, are all facets relevant, and what are the relational patterns? Because informal workplace learning occurs through interaction with the context, this study investigates the influence of context, i.e., organizational learning culture and job characteristics (autonomy, task identity, and feedback) on SRL. Structural equation modeling of N = 170 employees in various industries showed the relevance of the self-reported metacognitive strategies planning, monitoring, and regulation; the resource strategies help-seeking and effort regulation; and deep processing strategy elaboration. However, there was no evidence for organization strategies. The learning strategies were associated with self-efficacy and mastery-approach goal orientation. Regarding context, results supported indirect effects over self-motivational beliefs of learning strategies. Organizational learning culture was connected with mastery-approach goal orientation, whereas job characteristics autonomy and feedback were related to self-efficacy, which were again related to SRL strategies. Therefore, context can empower employees not only to accomplish their tasks but to develop themselves by applying SRL strategies. The results are discussed, and practical implications are outlined.

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is the most popular adult measure of individual differences in theory of mind. We present a meta-analytic investigation of the test’s psychometric properties ( k = 119 effect sizes, 61 studies, n _total = 8,611 persons). Using random effects models, we found the internal consistency of the test was acceptable (α = .73). However, the RMET was more strongly related with emotion perception ( r = .33, ρ = .48) relative to alternative theory of mind measures ( r = .29, ρ = .39), and weakly to moderately related with vocabulary ( r = .25, ρ = .32), cognitive empathy ( r = .14, ρ = .20), and affective empathy ( r = .13, ρ = .19). Overall, we conclude that the RMET operates rather as emotion perception measure than as theory of mind measure, challenging the interpretation of RMET results.