International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning On-the-Job E-Learning: Workers’ Attitudes and Perceptions

On-the-Job


Introduction
Training of workers has become, since the final third of the 20 th century, one of the key factors of company competitiveness within an economy that Castells (2003) describes as informational and global. Massive incorporation by business of information and communication technologies (ICT) has changed production processes as well as business activity itself (Valdaliso & López, 2000). Simultaneously, and in a reciprocal way, it has speeded up economic globalization processes. This broader penetration of ICT has entailed an increase in the use of knowledge as both a business input and output. This has, at the same time, led to a profound change in the conditions and characteristics of the labour market (Vilaseca & Torrent, 2003).
Changes to the workforce in OECD countries are causing changes to companies: more flexibility for companies when creating job titles, more frequent developments in labour activity, modifications of worker responsibilities within the company and even within the economic sector as a whole. Companies and workers face an increasing need to recycle knowledge and skills (Carnoy, 2001). A consequence of this process of business digitalization is the increase by companies in the demand for new job skills. Thus, for jobs that require higher levels of training, more worker autonomy and new management skills are favoured (Bresnahan et al., 2002). This new demand, dubbed selfprogramming work by Castells (2003), requires workers with autonomy, initiative, and the capability to make decisions, as well as the ability to reprogram their skills and knowledge according to the different tasks that they are entrusted with in the everchanging business environment.
Massive incorporation of knowledge into business activity and increasing labour market malleability has, in recent decades, led to a generalized increase in the need for continuous vocational training (Castells, 2003). The entirety of training activities developed by companies, workers, or their representing organizations must be directed to improving the professional competencies and skills of active workers, so that they may face the needs of a changing and digitalized global reality.
The importance of learning is primarily because of the need for organisations to respond to rapid and continuous change in the organisation's external environment (Coetzer & Perry, 2008). Also, the need for ongoing employee training requires a learning environment that makes it possible to progress professionally and, at the same time, to acquire general and firm-specific skills and new competencies (Fan & Wei, 2010 In the report Learning for Jobs, edited by the OECD (2010), the four main advantages of workplace learning are, firstly, a high-quality learning atmosphere that allows students to acquire practical and updated skills with trainers who are familiar with working methodology and the use of new technologies. Secondly, workplace learning makes bidirectional flow of information between potential employers and employees easier, which makes possible later recruitment much more efficient and less costly.
Thirdly, the fact that companies train their workers is a sign that a vocational training programme is valuable in the labour market. Finally, workers trained on the job can make a productive contribution to the company.
The consequences of traditional management, production, and working methods in a knowledge-based economy are that they have a direct impact on people's lives by making labour relationships more flexible, either voluntarily or by imposition, thus requiring openness to innovation as an essential value in the company as well as a continuous vocational recycling process. Such constant processing of knowledge, updating of skills, and continuous relearning favours the use of e-learning as an essential methodology that guarantees the perfect symbiosis between work and training (Batalla et al., 2010).
Within the framework of e-learning for on-the-job employee training, this research aims at studying what the workers' perception of e-learning is as well as the motivations that make them pursue training with this methodology. The main purpose of this paper is to answer these two questions related to on-the-job e-learning, questions which have been tackled by very few studies.
To this end, the next section is a brief review of literature on use of in-company elearning, stressing the workers' perceptions and motivations. Subsequently, we will explain the methodology and finally we will discuss the main results and the conclusions reached.

Conceptual Framework
Before outlining the theoretical framework of this paper, it is appropriate to explain what we understand as e-learning. E-learning has been defined by many authors in recent decades (Wilson, 1996;Piccoli, et al., 2001;Rosenberg, 2001;Nisar, 2002;Ruipérez, 2003;Taylor & Osorio, 2005;Bates, 2008;Sangrà, et al., 2012). In our paper, following research by Piccoli, et al. (2001), Ruipérez (2003), Taylor and Osorio (2005), The use of on-the-job e-learning, in constant growth in recent decades, is a relatively new form of providing training to workers (Lim & Kim, 2003;Brewer et al., 2008).
Likewise, most of the scientific community recognizes e-learning as an efficient and valid strategy (Nisar, 2002). The goal of e-learning is to ensure that technology contributes effectively to developing the workers' skills and knowledge and to support their career progression (Pantazis, 2002;Ong et al., 2004).
According to Nisar (2002), e-learning allows an efficient response to the following specific objectives: (1) to identify and record training needs of workers, so as to facilitate the development of ad-hoc training processes; (2) to provide up-to-date training and support to workers who need it, allowing a personalized interaction between user and tutor; (3) to evaluate through digital technologies the established training objectives, via a process of continuous assessment in order to facilitate the assimilation of knowledge acquired by the worker; and, finally, (4) to establish a registry and record of training activity and of each participant's assessment.
Several studies have identified the main benefits that e-learning can bring to organizations which use this methodology (Carnoy, 2004;Wang et al., 2006;Hodges, 2009). These can be divided into four categories: cost reduction, flexibility and adaptability, permanent updating, and personalized attention. According to Grollman and Cannon (2003), a well-designed e-learning course is usually as efficient as face-toface training and much less costly if applied to large groups. Other cost reductions commonly quoted by scientific literature refer to the reduced cost of trips, the minimization of lost working hours and, consequently, of less productivity loss (Clarke et al., 2005;Shankar, 2007;Wurtmann & Galli-Debicella, 2008). There is also more flexibility regarding the time taken for employees to plan work (Clarke et al., 2005) and also the possibility of adjusting each individual's pace of work (Ashmalla et al., 2001;Grollman & Cannon, 2003;Shankar, 2007). These are the main benefits associated with e-learning. Pulley (2005) further underlines that e-learning is the only methodology which allows workers to take part in the training process from their workplace, including from different and distant geographical locations, in a synchronous or asynchronous way. Such asynchronicity makes access to learning resources possible 24 hours a day 365 days a year (Childs et al., 2005). Zhang and Nunamaker (2003) estimate that skills and knowledge used by a worker today will be obsolete in three to five years time, whereas corporate education using virtuality allows the worker to keep his/her skills continuously updated. E-learning facilitates the customization of learning according to each worker's needs, choosing the most suitable learning materials and making continuous updating possible (Shankar, 2007) due to the fact that electronic content makes it possible for teachers to update content instantly and easily through the network (Grollman & Cannon, 2003 Ruiz et al. (2006) suggests that e-learning is more effective in the acquisition of new skills and attitudes than face-to-face methodology. Bachman (2000) states that training based on virtuality has between 50-60% better results than face-to-face due to the fact that there is greater control over the learning process. E-learning can deal with individual differences by virtue of the wide blend of resources and activities which can be utilized, such as games, tests, and practice exercises, among others (Shankar, 2007;Peretti, 2008).
According to the above evidence, it appears clear that, from the point of view of the organization, virtual learning has many advantages, but what are the perceptions of elearning from the employee's standpoint? And, which are the workers' motivations regarding training received in-company? The worker can evaluate the received training, whether face-to-face or virtual, according to perceptions of the training components; this may depend to a greater extent on the company (Rabak & Cleveland-Innes, 2006) and tend to be in line with the attitudes, beliefs, and personal values linked to the training which are more difficult to distinguish (Daneshgar, et al., 2008).
Among the features, external to the worker, attributed to virtual training, we can include course design, the ability of teachers to attract and maintain the attention of the participants, the existence of interactive and collaborative training activities, how up-todate and relevant the content is, and the flexibility and adaptability of courses (Bonk, 2002;Baldwin-Evans, 2004). Academic literature identifies several intrinsic motivations that the worker possesses in order to take part in training activities. Bonk (2002), in a study of over 201 companies who invest in training, in which both employees and employers participated, concludes that personal growth and the feeling of belonging to the organization are two highly valued aspects. Doo and Hyunjoong (2003) include emotion among the motivational variables that they identify in their research. This has an influence on employee attitudes when it comes to being trained.
Emotion depends on the corporate atmosphere or culture, the viewpoints of fellow workers and of management, and personal attitudes to change, and so on. 2) What are the intrinsic attitudes or motivations of the worker towards training received in the organization?

Methodology
In order to answer these research questions, a survey of CaixaBank employees who had attended several virtual training courses was conducted. In the context of large companies in the financial sector, CaixaBank has been one of the pioneers in introducing e-learning as a method for training its employees 1 . Data were gathered by means of an online questionnaire sent to the email addresses of 2,000 CaixaBank workers. They had attended two kinds of virtual training, which Jauregui (2002) describes as follows.
• New employee training (NET). This is a plan specifically for training new employees in the organization and is managed by the Central Services human resources team. The training lasts one year, during which the worker is employed on a temporary contract.
Once the training has been completed, if there is agreement between both parties, the contract becomes permanent.
• Training for professional promotion (TPP). These are ongoing training processes aimed at employees who have been working with the company for a long time. This training is often transformed into customised training, with the objective of meeting the different needs and characteristics of each banking entity's delegation. The training is managed by the regional human resources team.  Between 7 and 9 years: 14.3% More than 10 years: 11.4%

Results
Employees' perceptions concerning face-to-face and virtual training.
The perceptions of employees regarding face-to-face and virtual training have been obtained through the association of these training methods to a series of attributes related to the contents of the training courses (i.e., to their adaptability and applicability to the trainee's professional activity and the ease of communication with the course instructor/tutor). These aspects have been extracted from the literature regarding elearning referenced in the theoretical framework in this work. Table 3 shows the percentage of employees that associated which aspect with which type of training (virtual, face-to-face), to both types equally, or to neither of them.  To take a more in-depth look at associations between the different characteristics of training and the two methods observed in this study, a simple correspondence analysis was carried out. Benzecri (1982) (Table 4). The values represent the number of times each type of training is rated as being characterized by that attribute. Thus, higher frequencies indicate a stronger association between that training and the attribute in question.  Table 5 shows the eigenvalues and the cumulative and explained percentages of variation for each dimension, corresponding to the two factorial dimensions taken from the analysis of correspondences. The symmetric relationship between factorial axes makes it impossible to take out more than K factorial axes, being K = min (I, J) -1, where I is the number of attributes and J the number of training methodologies analysed (Hair et al., 2010). Thus, in this case, the maximum number of factors to be taken out is 2 (2 = min (11, 3) -1). It can be seen that the first factor or dimension explains the overall data to a great extent, 82%, whereas the second dimension explains the remaining data, 18%. Table 6 shows the coordinates of the items analysed and the types of training and their contributions to training on the two factorial dimensions. We can see that the attribute flexible timetable has much weight in the first dimension, along with virtual training methodology. As regards the second dimension, there is no primary contributor; however, the type of training does have an influence when it comes to explaining it, particularly the two types of training methodology, face-to-face and virtual. The data obtained highlights the importance of one of the analysed attributes, flexible timetable, in the contribution on the horizontal axis. This attribute would be positioned close to online training and far from the rest of the attributes on the positioning map.
With the aim of determining if the elimination of this attribute would give rise to a clearer interpretation of the relationships between the attributes and the types of training, the analysis was repeated excluding this attribute. The resulting perceptual map (Figure 1) shows that the attributes that in the previous analysis did not appear to be clearly associated to either training method are "captured" by virtual training, giving it characteristics related to flexibility (adaptable to the trainee's pace of study, more indepth learning, and updated contents).

Employees' motivations for participating in on-the-job training.
A 10-point scale (ranging from 0, strongly disagree, to 10, strongly agree) was used to measure questions about employees' attitudes towards the training received. The perception of CaixaBank workers concerning the training received was, in general, very positive. Therefore, the level of agreement shown with the positive aspects evaluated is notable, while the most negative associations were not shared by the majority of employees. It is remarkable that 92.5% of employees were quite or completely in agreement that training offers an opportunity; 96.3% of respondents perceived training as a way to progress professionally; 92.7% considered it a way to keep their job; and 83.6% thought that training links them to the company.
Likewise, employees who have been at the company for less than two years had an appreciably more positive opinion of training than more veteran employees (a group which includes those who trained as TPP). With respect to the consideration of training  Table 7 shows the percentage of workers who strongly and quite agree with each one of these motivations, according to the training undertaken by the employees (new-employee training or training for professional promotion). In order to confirm the existence of interdependent relationships between the variables that measure employee motivations for training, a factor analysis was carried out. We employed this multivariate technique from an exploratory perspective to identify a structure among the set of items analysed. Standard methods of performing factor analysis (i.e., those based on a matrix of Pearson's correlations) assume that the variables are continuous and follow a multivariate normal distribution (Hair et al., 2010). In our research, the variables were measured on a 0 to 10 scale, so we took this ordinal metric into account and examined the dimensionality of the scale using factor analysis based on a matrix of polychoric correlations 2 , following the recommendations made by Panter et al. (1997).
To justify the application of factor analysis the Barlett test of sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test were applied. KMO measure of sampling adequacy was good (> 0.80); and the Bartlett test of sphericity was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Table 8 shows the results of these tests.  The analysis used principal components to extract the maximum variance from the items. According to the results, the number of factors suggested based on the polychoric correlation matrix is three when mean of random eigenvalues is considered. Table 9 contains the information regarding the 11 possible factors and their relative explanatory power as expressed by their eigenvalues. Finally, to minimize the number of items that have high loadings on any given factor, and in order to determine the interpretation of factors, a Varimax rotation was applied. Interpretation of the rotated component matrix allows us to identify and interpret three main factors, obtained from grouping the initial 11 variables.  Wang, et al. (2006), or Hodges (2009 are perceived by workers of the financial institution.
By analysing the attitudes of employees regarding on-the-job training and their motivations for actively following the training courses, we can also conclude that there are three main groups of attitudes: those more affective and social motivations, those which reveal poor adaptability or fear of the new training requirements, and, finally, those linked to the knowledge society. These results highlight the need to break with the reluctance expressed by some of the workers from the fact that training is essential in the business world. To do this, we consider that the use of e-learning facilitates the development of training activities in the company, reducing training costs and achieving more flexible learning processes. As a final conclusion, employees must have an open attitude towards online training in order to achieve higher levels of efficiency in an onthe-job distance learning environment. On-the-job e-learning is most beneficial in situations where there is a great similarity between approaches to learning and to working, where a career in the intensive use of ICT is developed, and where up-to-date learning content is required.
Endnotes 1 According to the report Learning for Jobs (OECD, 2010), there are multiple on-the-job training typologies, of a punctual nature or structure and of longer length, aimed at inexperienced trainees, or with the purpose of their career promotion. Different training practices are described and classified regarding length of time and their level of structuring. At the shorter end of the time spectrum there is "Job shadowing" and at the longer end there is "Apprenticeships". Likewise, the typology aimed at students entering the labour market is called "Service learning", at which end we can find "Employee training". This work focuses on the workers included in the latter training typology, "Employee training", directed at workers who hold a permanent or temporary contract, with well-structured contents and carried out entirely in the workplace.
Vol 14 | No 1 March/13 60 2 Tetrachoric and polychoric correlations are based on the assumption that the response categories (dichotomous or ordinal scales, as Likert scale) are proxies for unobserved and normally distributed variables. Factor analysis of tetrachoric or polychoric correlation matrices are essentially factor analyses of the relations among latent response variables that are assumed to underlie the data and that are assumed to be continuous and normally distributed (Panter et al., 1997). For computing polychoric correlations, the Factor program by Lorenzo-Seva and Ferrando (2012) was used.