Healthcare is in a state of dramatic transformation and far reaching change, and there are significant barriers that stand in the way.  Healthcare organizations and hospitals are highly resistant to change, so to remain competitive and relevant in healthcare, organizations must ensure they are removing barriers.  Many studies show that the reasons for resistance are rooted in professional role behaviors, hierarchical structures, and the influence of hidden curricula that inform organizational culture.  Learning in practice; or workplace learning culture improvements, have the potential to address many barriers and can help solve many organizational problems.  Problems faced by healthcare providers can seem overwhelming, confusing, and ultimately lead to frustration and resistance.  Additional studies have identified central themes; learning by doing, navigating through communication, and entrustability as essential to learning in practice.  As learning and work continue to intersect, one of the most pressing issues is figuring out how people solve workplace problems through learning.  These are the types of problems that are complex in nature and difficult sometimes to identify.

Healthcare, as an industry experiencing frequent change and transformation, is faced with problems ranging from technology implementations, operational process improvements, consumerism, payment reform, and government policy.  To solve for these problems and to promote workplace learning as a culture, individual and group reflection has a critical role.  Previous studies have shown that group reflection is positively correlated with team effectiveness and team innovation.  A recent study revealed three dimensions of reflective leadership – open reflection, problem-based reflection, and goal-based reflection.  The study found that both open reflection and goal-based reflection had positive relations to workplace team learning.  The work suggests that teams can learn well when the leaders encourage members to speak up for their ideas or opinions, and to reflect on their work process in terms of mid- or long-term goals or visions.  Even though the research supports team reflection as having a positive impact on learning and performance, there still is a need to understand just how leaders, specifically in a healthcare organizational setting, facilitate reflection within teams to cultivate a culture of workplace learning.

Creating and maintaining a sustainable workforce in the healthcare industry is a global concern.  Results from my dissertation research may be leveraged to create a manifesto, or guiding principles, that systematically assists an organization in identifying and cultivating their own unique culture of workplace learning and professional development through reflection.  Additionally, through a workplace learning culture, healthcare organizations can greatly improve access to knowledge on demand with technology along with integrating learning within daily work activities.  This could encourage greater employee development and transformation.  Cultivating a culture of workplace learning and understanding workplace learning can set the foundation for improving ways in which groups develop, share and store knowledge, improve best practices, and solve problems.  Corporations that integrate workplace learning in their culture may see an improvement in company performance, an improved quality of their products and services, happier customers, a committed workforce that focuses on results, increased organizational agility and heightened ability to deal with change, employees that are more collaborative and open, a common vision and shared values among all, and a reduced “silo effect” with greater visibility and interaction across departments.