The global, knowledge-based economy is causing rapid change when it comes to workforce composition and the nature and character of work itself. At the same time, ‘e-learning’ is increasingly positioned as the panacea for workplace learning needs for a transforming workplace and the global, knowledge-based economy (Industry Canada, 2005; Rohrbach, 2007). In this information age of intense political, social, technological, and environmental upheaval, do organizations bear any social responsibility towards their employees when mandating workplace learning from their employees through e-learning? The International Organization for Standardization (ISO, 2007a) specifies four key areas that all organizations need to pay heed to for ‘social responsibility’ to be accomplished: “environment; human rights and labor practices; organizational governance and fair operating practices; and, consumer issues and community involvement/society development” (para. 6). Accordingly, given the criteria of “organizational governance and fair operating practices,” this article argues for e-learning adaptability as a burgeoning social responsibility in the workplace, when thinking about workplace learning, by discussing: (a) the workforce diversity, and other workplace changes, that increasingly challenge the current approaches to e-learning at work; and then, (b) highlights the e-learning adaptability framework (Remtulla, 2007) as one methodology to assess and enable e-learning adaptability to meet this social responsibility for the benefit of a global workforce.
Transition to the Knowledge-Based Economy and the Digital Economy – The Context of the Company Management, Stakeholder, and Social Responsibility Approach
