oa Het bevorderen van professionele expertise door functieverbetering

The development of professional expertise by job improvement

This article gives several outcomes of a study regarding the development of occupational expertise. The aim of the research part that is described in this contribution deals with finding out whether particular job-related factors within the domain of Socio-Technical System-Design (STSD) like job latitude, the learning value of the job, and job satisfaction, influence the development of occupational knowledge, skills and competencies throughout the career. Our sample consists of 559 employees, and 454 of their direct supervisors, working at middle and higher level jobs in large Dutch working organizations. Theoretical contributions from learning theory, Human Resource Management, and occupational and organizational psychology have been used to develop a theory about expertise building in careers. By providing more insight into the relationships between job-related factors on the one hand, and the development of occupational expertise on the other hand, this study is aimed to contribute to the increase of knowledge in the domain of adult development and education. Our study shows that attention for the content of individual jobs is very important in the light of a further development of employees. In particular the amount of job latitude seems to be an important predictor in the light of expertise growth. The article also pays attention to age-related stereotyping in competence assessments by direct supervisors.