@article{Lucena_Cunha_2014, title={Retail Executives’ Professional Learning Contents}, volume={16}, url={https://rbgn.fecap.br/RBGN/article/view/1513}, DOI={10.7819/rbgn.v16i50.1513}, abstractNote={<p>The research question that is addressed in this<br />article is the following: what do the executives<br />from small retailing firms learn in their work<br />environment? The theoretical framework of the<br />study is based on texts from the field of learning.<br />This is a qualitative investigation. Ten interviews<br />with clothing retail executives were carried<br />out. Later, these interviews were transcribed<br />and analyzed. In the data analysis stage, two<br />categories were established in response to the<br />research question. Regarding the first, respondents<br />perceived difficulties (problems) in their work<br />environments and obtained specific information<br />and knowledge in order to deal with these<br />situations. So as to overcome different professional<br />difficulties, respondents learned about colors and<br />types of fabric and about certain manufacturing<br />process aspects referring to the clothing sold<br />by their companies. They also declared to have<br />learned about their companies’ suppliers and<br />about certain issues referring to sales, and to the<br />accounting and the financial management of their<br />companies. The second category refers to a change<br />in some of the respondents’ habits. This learning<br />content refers to predispositions to respond and/<br />or act in situations at their work environments.<br />Respondents reported having changed the way<br />they related to other people. They emphasized<br />that they had learned how to interact with the<br />employees at their stores and how to carry out<br />supervision. Differently from other studies, we<br />found that the retailers’ learning (individual<br />learning) affected their companies’ learning<br />(organizational learning) through changes in<br />certain aspects of the analyzed companies’<br />organizational structures.</p><p><br />Keywords: Managers’ learning. Organizational<br />learning. Learning contents. Retail executives.</p>}, number={50}, journal={Review of Business Management}, author={Lucena, Eduardo de Aquino and Cunha, Cristiano José Castro de Almeida}, year={2014}, month={Mar.}, pages={43–59} }