Electronic human resource management: organizational responses to role conflicts created by e-learning

Could enthusiasm for e-learning be dampened because it is detrimental to the relationships between those undergoing e-training and their direct managers or colleagues? Interviews conducted in four French banks provide material to explore this question. We see that e-learning has increasingly been adopted because it goes beyond the role limitations imposed by traditional training formats. Initially, however, the uptake of e-learning was hampered because it imposed a role on trainees which did not correspond to their socialization needs. The companies in question responded to this problem by proposing ‘blended learning’ (that is, alternate sessions of e-learning and in class face-to-face sessions). Nevertheless, the development of e-learning remains limited today partly because of the role conflict it creates in the workplace: should an employee engaged in e-learning in his office workstation be considered ‘at work’ or ‘in training’? This role conflict is detrimental to the relationships between the e-learners, their colleagues and the direct manager. Solutions offered by companies may address this particular problem, but all of these reduce the efficiency of e-learning sessions, and thus contribute to limiting its future development.