Page 78 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

management and business knowledge are instrumental to improve the level of OL, leading to SVC (Alavi et al., 2006).
According to Child and Faulkner (1998, p. 371) “OL is based on three practical levels of learning: technical, systemic and strategic”. There are two options for learning situations, within a cooperation/ alliance/ agreement. The first option is learning based on an underlying spirit of collaboration. The second one is learning based on an underlying attitude of competition (e.g. learning from a partner). Judge, Thoresen, Pucik and Welbourne (1999) suggest three barriers to OL: misplaced strategic priorities, unfocused organisational control system and inconsistent human resource management (HRM) policies. As argued by Child and Faulkner (1998) theories of Learning (OL included) fall into several perspectives/paradigms, known as “directions” or “schools”. One of the basic directions is “Behaviourism” (Skinner, 1953; Pavlov, 1941; Black, 1995). It was developed in early 20th century as a learning theory, which can be traced down back to Aristotle, whose essay “Memory” was focused on associations, being made between events such as lightning and thunder. According to Mergel (1998) the Theory of Behaviourism is directed towards the observation and measurement of significant behaviours. The mind is viewed as a “black box” in the sense that responses to stimulus can be observed quantitatively, totally ignoring the possibility of thought processes, occurring in the mind (Good & Brophy, 1990).
Since “behaviourists” were unable to explain certain social behaviours, Bandura and Walters (1963) departed from the traditional operant condition explanation and argued that an individual could model behaviour by observing the behaviour of another person. This theory is labelled as “Cognitivism” (e.g. Chomsky & Halle 1960; Piaget, 1920; Good & Brophy, 1990). Similar to behaviourism, cognitive psychology can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Cognitive theorists recognise that much learning involves associations established through contiguity and repetition. They also acknowledge the importance of reinforcement, although they stress its role in providing feedback about the correctness of responses over its role as motivator. However, even while accepting such behaviourist concepts, cognitive theorists view learning as involving the acquisition or reorganisation of the cognitive structures through which humans process and store information (Good & Alleman, 1991).
“Constructivism” is another paradigm of Learning (Bartlett, 1932; Good & Brophy, 1990; Von Glasersfeld 1997). Constructivists believe that “learners construct their own reality, or at least they interpret it based upon their perceptions of experiences, so an individual’s knowledge is a function of one’s prior experiences,
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