Exploring How Learning Style Relates to General and Career Management Self-Efficacy Beliefs in a Managerial Context

ABSTRACT

This study examined how learning style relates to self-efficacy beliefs in a managerial context. To make a theoretical frame, the study relied on Kolb’s experiential learning theory and a model of self-efficacy–performance relationship proposed by Gist and Mitchell. The study analyzed not only general efficacy but also specific efficacy focused on career management. Participants of this study consisted of 235 managers who worked for the Ministry of Finance in Indonesia. Results showed that managers’ learning orientation towards abstract conceptualization over concrete experience was associated with increased self-efficacy beliefs, whereas an orientation towards active experimentation over reflective observation was associated with general self-efficacy development but had a marginal influence on career management self-efficacy. This study sheds light on a link between learning style and self-efficacy development in organizations. Based on the findings, the study offers theoretical and practical implications for leveraging learning styles and self-efficacy beliefs in organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning style
• self-efficacy
• managers
• government officers
• Indonesia

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yoshitaka Yamazaki

Yoshitaka Yamazaki is a professor of management in the Faculty of Business Administration of Bunkyo University in Japan. He received his PhD in organizational behavior from Case Western University and his master’s degree in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management. His research interests include expatriate management, learning and development in organizational settings as well as higher education contexts, and foreign language learning and its effective environments. He teaches human resource management, human resource development, international career development, and organizational management. He can be reached at [email protected].

Michiko Toyama

Michiko Toyama is a professor of English in the Faculty of Business Administration of Bunkyo University in Japan. She received her PhD in linguistics from Sophia University, Japan. Her research interests include computer-assisted learning, affective learner variables, English as a foreign language education, and intercultural communication. She is currently involved in three research projects: Internet use in higher education, classroom strategies to improve affective learner variables, and effective learning environments relevant to learning style. She is responsible for curriculum management in foreign language and cultural studies for the business students at Bunkyo. She can be reached at [email protected].

Roby Syaiful Ubed

Roby Syaiful Ubed is currently taking a position of the head of Publishing Unit, PKN STAN Publishing Unit in PKN STAN (STAN State Finance Polytechnic), Finance Education and Training Agency, Ministry of Finance in Indonesia. He received his MBA from the International University of Japan. His research area is related to human resource development, human resource management, and organizational behavior. Particularly, he is interested in leadership training and development in a context of public organizations. He can be reached at [email protected].