HRM 5600 Module 1 Written Assignment: Adult Learning and What Blocks It Example

Why Experts Struggle to Learn: Adult Learning Theory at a Mutual Insurer

Student Name

Master of Science in Human Resources Management, Thomas Edison State University

HRM-5600: The Entrepreneurial Organization: Learning as Competitive Advantage

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Why Experts Struggle to Learn: Adult Learning Theory at a Mutual Insurer

Introduction

Garden State Mutual is a composite property and casualty insurer in Hamilton, New Jersey, with about 900 employees. Its leaders want employees to act more like entrepreneurs, spotting customer needs and proposing new products such as usage-based home coverage. Most of its underwriters and claims specialists have more than fifteen years of experience in work that rewards caution and rule following. Asking them to experiment requires them to learn, and adults learn differently from children. This assignment examines the main theories of adult learning, the methods they support and the mechanisms that get in the way.

Seminal Theories of Adult Learning

Andragogy

Knowles et al. (2015) set out assumptions about adult learners: they need to know why they are learning something, they see themselves as self-directed, they bring experience that is both a resource and a source of bias, they are ready to learn what helps them with real tasks, they prefer problem-centered learning and they are motivated mainly by internal factors. For Garden State Mutual, this means that new product thinking must be connected to problems underwriters already see, such as customers leaving for cheaper online insurers, and that their experience must be used, not dismissed.

Experiential Learning

Kolb (1984) pictured learning as a loop that runs from a concrete experience through reflection on it and the forming of an abstract idea to trying that idea out. Employees learn by doing something, reflecting on it, forming an idea and testing it. Underwriters spend most of their time in the middle of the cycle, applying established concepts, and rarely experiment. Instruction should start with concrete experiences, such as interviewing customers who left, and end with small experiments.

Transformative Learning

Mezirow (1997) argued that adults sometimes need to change their frames of reference, the assumptions through which they interpret experience. Transformation begins with a disorienting dilemma, continues through critical reflection on assumptions and ends with action on a new perspective. An underwriter who assumes that the company's job is to avoid every possible loss must reconsider that assumption before product experiments will make sense. That is harder than learning a new technique.

Psychodynamic Mechanisms That Inhibit Learning

Adults bring defenses as well as experience. Three mechanisms are especially relevant.

Defensive Routines

Argyris (1991) observed that highly skilled professionals are often poor at learning because they have rarely failed. When their performance is questioned, they become defensive and blame others or circumstances, which prevents them from examining their own reasoning. At Garden State Mutual, experienced underwriters may explain away a failed product idea as poor marketing rather than reflect on their assumptions.

Learning Anxiety

Learning something new means being temporarily incompetent. Adults who are respected for expertise feel this anxiety strongly, and they may avoid learning that threatens their identity. Unless the pressure to change, such as losing customers, outweighs the anxiety of learning, people will stay with what they know.

Immunity to Change

Kegan and Lahey (2009) describe how people hold competing commitments that undermine their stated goals. An underwriter may sincerely want to innovate yet be committed, often without being aware of it, to never being associated with a loss. Underlying that commitment is an assumption, such as that one bad decision would end a career. Until the assumption is surfaced and tested, the person will resist the change they say they want.

Recommended Methods

Four methods follow from the theories and mechanisms. First, use problem-centered workshops built around real customer cases, which respect andragogy's emphasis on relevance. Second, structure learning as Kolb cycles, with customer interviews, guided reflection, a concept and a small experiment, repeated over several weeks. Third, use the immunity to change exercise in small groups led by a trained facilitator, so participants can identify competing commitments and test their assumptions safely. Fourth, reduce learning anxiety by making early experiments small and explicitly protected from performance ratings, so that failure is treated as information.

Conclusion

Garden State Mutual's experienced staff can learn to act entrepreneurially, but only if learning is designed for adults and addresses the defenses that expertise creates. Knowles, Kolb and Mezirow explain how adults learn; Argyris and Kegan and Lahey explain why they resist. A program that uses both will build the foundation for the knowledge management and organizational learning work in Modules 2 and 3.

References

Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Harvard Business Review, 69(3), 99-109.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization. Harvard Business Press.

Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., III, & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (8th ed.). Routledge.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.

Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1997(74), 5-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.7401