How Personality, Emotions, and Social Interactions' Characteristics Affect Learning From Social Interactions in the Workplace

• In Event: Learning in the Workplace

Abstract

The present study examines the influence of social interactions’ characteristics, state emotions, and personality on learning from social interactions at work using a secondary analysis of diary study data. The final sample comprises 43 German trainees in various apprenticeship programs. Quantitative data of 1,328 social interactions were analyzed by means of multilevel analysis. The analysis revealed the social interactions’ baseline level of instrumentality, the emotional experiences of feeling bored / dull / uninterested and of feeling motivated / delighted / curious as well as the interaction characteristics instrumentality, questions asked and an interruption of the social interaction as positive predictors, while trainees’ speech proportion during the interaction was a negative predictor. Personality traits had no significant influence.

Authors

• Tamara Vanessa Leiß, University of Mannheim

• Andreas Rausch, University of Mannheim