A study of CEO perceptions of the competencies of workplace learning and performance professionals

The study examined CEO perceptions of competencies for workplace learning and performance professionals. The purpose of the study was to identify the most important abilities of the person responsible for an organization's workplace learning and performance programs. Participants in the study were CEOs in organizations with one thousand or more employees. Participants were identified through an affiliation with Penn State by searching the 1998 Dunn & Bradstreet directory of senior management. Eighty-three CEOs who worked in organizations located throughout the United States were contacted to participate in the study. Twenty-eight, 34%, CEOs from the eighty-three organizations contacted were interviewed. Data was collected through a four-question structured open-ended telephone interview. Data was tape recorded and transcribed for analysis through qualitative software.; The researcher constructed themes identified in the study after a comprehensive literature review on competency modeling within the field of human resources. Thematic analysis and frequency counts were used to organize the study findings. Themes identified in each question were grouped into clusters from which the study proposed final assertions. From data collected in responses to the four interview questions asked to each CEO the study's assertions were as follows: (1) Business challenges CEOs were most concerned with were equally balanced between people focused challenges and financial performance challenges. (2) CEOs were closely connected and concerned with their company's workplace learning programs. CEOs perceive workplace learning programs to address business challenges through increasing employee awareness of the company's current business challenges and by designing program content that is directly related to company specific conditions and issues. (3) CEOs generally perceive an active workplace learning environment to be an asset in recruiting and retaining employees. (4) CEOs perceive the most important abilities of people responsible for workplace learning and performance programs to be Process Oriented and Application Oriented competencies. Core competencies within these competency clusters were the abilities to demonstrate business knowledge and to effectively communicate throughout the organization.; Further study is needed on cross-industry comparisons of CEO perspectives on WLP. Within the study's reporting-analysis process the researcher examined perceptions of CEOs in manufacturing industries to CEOs perceptions in service industries and did not recognize any difference in perceptions on WLP. Due to time and resource restrictions, the examination could not be developed but could be pursued in another project. Another area for further study of CEO perceptions of WLP is based upon CEO demographics and tenure in their position. Lastly, the researcher suggests further research of CEO rankings of the top five competencies of WLP practitioners.