A new report based on a survey of 998 managers and a series of in-depth employer interviews on the use of online resources to support managers' learning.

Published: October 2007

Authors: Professor William Scott-Jackson, Terry Edney and Ceri Rushent

Recent years have seen a surge in the use of information and communications technology and its impact on the workplace and productivity. Yet the take-up of on-line learning has been remarkably slow, with companies reporting a disinclination among employees to use on-line learning packages and too many providers offering expensive learning management systems with little tailoring to the organisations’ needs.

The report presents the findings of a survey of 998 individual managers, in-depth interviews with 12 major public companies, a public sector employer and a charity, and interviews with three suppliers of on-line learning.

The research found that online learning is now well established, particularly where employers need to distribute knowledge to large numbers of employees, especially if they are geographically dispersed. The increase in compliance training has been a major driver for on-line learning. However, it remains the case that only a small proportion of management training is conducted on-line and most organisations do not see unsupported on-line learning as suitable for soft skill training.