Although new technologies are highly helpful in businesses, at least because they provide opportunities for simulation in the training processes of different organizations, there are various obstacles to adopting e-learning. Such impediments include cultural resistance, the difference in learning style, threats to the human resource (HR) offices, delivery costs, and risks of replacement. In this paper, all the listed obstacles will be critically discussed and arguments will be supported by the citations of the proper academic sources.
To begin with, it is hard for a learner to continue studies without tools of motivation (homework, class); thus, it is easier for an employee to engage in e-learning if it is incorporated into the work itself. On the one hand, e-learning may motivate a person to study, making education more enjoyable for him or her (Tigowati, Efendi, and Budiyanto, 2017). On the other hand, according to Summers (2004), cultural resistance has been cited as the second most significant obstacle to e-learning. This is true because new products place great responsibility on a learner, but it is not a problem to engage in e-learning at work for those who are used to online products and services. Moreover, an employee would be more motivated to study if his or her career depended on the learning outcomes, which makes e-learning in the workplace more acceptable in any society.
Another impediment to new technologies, such as e-learning for employees, diffusion is the depreciation of the HR departments. According to Summers (2004), those workers that are motivated enough not only to study in the framework of the company’s requirement but also to seek education outside the corporation impose a threat to the HR managers. In other words, it is not beneficial for a company to hire new workers if it has self-motivated learners that will study new information and improve their skills, increasing productivity and common revenue on their own.
Moreover, a company using a single method of employee training or a simulation used by its workers does not consider the fact that each person studies in his or her way. In other words, if a company adopts new technology, it may be beneficial for one type of people and stressful for others. According to Summers (2004), simulation products are the same for each person and cannot satisfy the needs of everyone. For instance, some employees prefer self-education, and others – with mentors and under the experts’ control, but e-learning and other adopted technological advancements, such as simulation, cannot guarantee to be equally useful for every worker.
Delivery costs can be considered another obstacle to new technology diffusion. According to Brandon-Hall (2002), simulations require more hours spent on their development than on e-learning: 750-1300 hours of work for each hour of simulation and 220 hours for each hour of content. There are also cases when this time can be even longer: the Strategic Management Centre increases the time for the development of simulation up to 1200-1500 hours (Aldrich, 2001). Therefore, it is very costly in terms of time, human resources, and money to develop a simulation and apply it in a company’s training process.
The final impediment includes the fact that a simulation may replace the methods that were used for studying businesses, producing other obstacles to its diffusion. As it was claimed by Faria (1987), simulation exercises involve the usage of cases, lectures, training films, readings, and group discussions. In other words, it means that e-learning has adapted to be similar to the methods that it risks replacing by simulation itself.
In conclusion, it is necessary to state that simulation and e-learning face various obstacles to becoming fully adopted methods of employee training in business companies. All people are different in terms of their learning styles and preferable ways of gaining education, which does not allow new technologies to diffuse. Moreover, simulation and e-learning are costly in terms of development and delivery. New technologies also have an obstacle tied to employees’ lack of motivation for self-education, replacement of existing training methods, and threat to the HR departments. Therefore, one may drive the conclusion that although new technologies are beneficial to businesses, it is hard to adopt them and make them useful to workers.
Reference List
Aldrich, C. (2001) ‘The state of simulations: soft-skill simulations emerge as a powerful new form of e-learning’, Online Learning, 5(8).
Brandon-Hall. (2002) Executive summary of E-learning simulations: tools and services for creating software, business, and technical skills simulations.
Faria, A. J. (1987) ‘A survey of the use of business games in academia and business’, Simulation & Games, 18, pp. 207-224.
Summers, G. J. (2004) ‘Today’s business simulation industry’, Simulation & Gaming, 35(2), pp. 208-241.
Tigowati, T., Efendi, A., & Budiyanto, C. (2017) ‘The influence of e-learning use to student cognitive performance and motivation in digital simulation course’, Indonesian Journal of Informatics Education, 1(2), pp. 127-134.