The event has ended.

On Wednesday 27 March 2024, FAR organized an Masterclass with Eddy Cardinaels & Qinnan Ruan on: All Show and No Know? The Effects of Outcome Transparency and Learning Path Personalization on Employees’ Investments in Learning

What wasthis Masterclass about?
Employee learning programs are often common in audit organizations, where staff members go through learning modules to master certain requirements or certain certifications that auditors need for their current job assignments or future careers. Recent cases in audit settings suggest that these learning programs are not always effective and may produce ineffective learning outcomes which can be detrimental to audit quality. In an experiment (in a non-audit setting), we examine what organizations can do to improve effective learning and discourage the use of ineffective learning in these learning programs. In our experiment, workers participated in an online study program and could make use of ineffective learning strategies to inflate their learning outcomes. We show that outcome transparency (e.g. disclosing learning outcomes to peers in leaderboards) can lead to more workers resorting to ineffective learning. We further show that 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. Ineffective learning has consequences as workers who used the option indicated less competence improvement, hinting at the potential dysfunctional effects of using ineffective learning strategies. We further discuss the effects materialize via theoretical mechanisms on employee’s learning orientation. 

Who should attend?
This master class is relevant to all staff members working in the audit profession. It is also relevant to academics and practitioners with an interest in how to motivate effective learning among employees.