Obviously, just-in-time learning requires extensive employee orientation, and it must offer demonstrable advantages for the e-learning employee. This form of learning may be most effectively employed if it is coupled with effective performance appraisal systems, to which I turn in future essays. An employee can partially base his decision to gain new skills and knowledge on the feedback he has received from his supervisor, and, in the case of 360 Degree feedback systems, other colleagues as well. An employee thus knows what she needs to know and can effectively diagnose the needs of her own workplace, in part because she can benefit from insights offered by her colleagues. The Human Resource Bank, which I described in earlier essays, can also assist the just-in-time learning process. When an employee can easily access a bank of information about the talents of other employees in her organization, then they can readily contact these people to acquire needed skills and knowledge. In this way, the employee bypasses the impersonality of e-learning and the complexity of computer-based on-demand training and education programs.
Just in time training and education also generates a set of unique problems and shortcomings that can’t easily be addressed with effective performance appraisal systems or human resource banks. First and foremost, computer-mediated instruction lacks the interpersonal contact and social context that made apprenticeships, as traditional forms of just in time learning, so powerful and effective. The on-demand program can neither offer an encouraging slap on the back when the learner is successful nor explain to the learner why and how he made a mistake when he is unsuccessful. The human element has been taken out of the equation. This, in turn, can lead to inadequate education and training. Developmental programs are limited to technical and cerebral matters. Minimalist learning modules are designed to address only the most trivial issues. This dilution of HRD is unacceptable in most contemporary organizations—especially given the recent emphasis on emotional intelligence and interpersonal relationships (high touch) as a necessary counterbalance to the inevitably push in most organizations toward greater technological complexity (high tech).
