| The purpose of this study was to seek to explore the role that self-directed learning (SDL) plays in sales professionals. Research has indicated that sales professionals have a higher level of SDL readiness but has not explained or explored what factors may contribute to the higher SDL readiness level. Sales professionals represent a critical case for purposeful sampling to explore SDL readiness within the context of workplace learning because of their higher SDL readiness scores. In this study, I uncovered antecedent factors that contribute to higher SDL readiness among sales professionals by means of a qualitative, phenomenological study design. The study entailed semistructured interviews with experienced sales professionals to explore how SDL has manifested in their experience---both as sales professionals and more generally in their lives. The interviews were conducted with a sufficient number of participants to achieve saturation of information, and a team of researchers coded the interview transcripts for themes. The findings reveal antecedent factors both internal and external to the sales professionals contribute to their high SDL readiness. The results of the research contribute to the literature on SDL readiness and SDL in workplace learning and set the stage for quantitative research of the antecedent factors that contribute to SDL readiness in the workplace. In this study, I report and discuss findings in detail and propose recommendations for future research. |
