How successful employees at Corporate Market in Síminn develop their competence at work: an interview study of some of the employees' own experiences.

Abstract: In today's ever changing business world, the competitiveness of organizations relies on employees' competencies, which entails the fact that employees' contributions become more valuable than ever before. The main purpose of the study was to identify which strategies are used by successful employees at Corporate Market in Síminn (an Icelandic company which handles telecommunications) in order to learn on the job, develop their competence and obtain success at work. Further, I explored and discussed possible relations between the strategies. The study was implemented through six qualitative, semi structured interviews with an inductive approach. In the thesis I also review earlier research on on-the-job learning and competence development, which I then intertwine with my empirical findings in the chapters of analysis and discussion. I identified twenty six different strategies which successful employees at Corporate Market, Síminn, use to learn on their jobs, develop their competence and obtain success at work. My results suggest that continuous learning is the key to competence development and thereby the key to success. My results further suggest that if employees are aware of their best ways of learning, they can use that knowledge in order to constantly improve their learning and thereby constantly improve their performance. There seems to be strong relations between the different strategies, and interpersonal strategies appear to be ones that cover all three areas of learning, competence development and obtaining success. The result might help employees and managers to choose and use the most effective strategies in order to obtain success at work, and thereby contribute to increased effectiveness of organizations.