Shape Shifting Performance: Expertise Development in the Workplace a Grounded Theory Study

The rapid expansion of workplace learning research performed over the last 20 years produced a multidisciplinary field with a plurality of approaches and models due to the ubiquitous and multidimensional nature of learning (Sawchuk, 2010). The key driver of workplace learning research was the idea that competitive advantage lies somewhere within the relationship of skill, knowledge, learning, and work. As a result, many organizations viewed employee development as a strategic requirement for the survival and future growth of the organization especially in the advent of uncertain economic times and rapid change. Unfortunately, a pronounced gap continues to exist between novice and expert levels of performance perhaps due to downsizing, reengineering, automation, right sizing and retirement. Left unexamined, the novice-expert gap could expand and dramatically limit the full developmental potential of the organization, pushing intuitive expertise into extinction (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). In this study, focus was placed on clarifying the mystery associated with the development of expertise by exploring the reports of people who worked on projects under continuously changing conditions. The classic grounded theory method, as developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), was used to identify the participant's main concern and induce a theory that explained how they go about its resolution. The participants' main concern was sustaining the plan under conditions that compressed time and accelerated need. Left unresolved, plans collapsed, performance declined and projects failed. The participants resolved their main concern by shape shifting performance. The theory of shape shifting contained the proposition that workers sustain their plans by identifying and mastering variation caused by change in order to resolve contradiction and ensure the continuity of their work. Shape shifting filled a gap in the literature by explicating an empirical process that monitored performance as an indicator of behavior and implemented strategies that facilitated the development of expertise needed to engage workers in practice. Project managers used the theory of shape shifting to sustain their plans, develop a capacity of expertise and reproduce their organizational function. The theory of shape shifting has potential applications in the areas of worker development, project design and organizational sustainability.