All Show and No Know? The Effects of Outcome Transparency and Learning Path Personalization on Employees’ Investments in Learning

Abstract

Although firms implement employee learning programs to benefit from employees’ improved knowledge, such benefits fail to materialize when employees fail to invest in their own learning and use ineffective learning strategies. Using an experiment, we examine the effects of two features of employee learning programs frequently discussed as ways to motivate learning or to discourage ineffective learning: outcome transparency and learning path personalization. We predict and find outcome transparency increases the propensity to use ineffective learning strategies. Further, we predict and find a personalized learning path that provides employees the ability to direct their own learning decreases the propensity to use ineffective learning strategies, thereby offsetting the negative effects of outcome transparency. Our results contribute to a better understanding of how firms can design their employee learning programs by highlighting the costs of outcome transparency and the myriad benefits of a personalized learning path.

Keywords: Employee learning, outcome transparency, learning path personalization, performance and mastery orientation, employee curiosity

JEL Classification: M41, M40, M53