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Journal of Social Knowledge Education (JSKE)

an Open Access Journal

Facilitating Informal Workplace Learning for Organizational Capacity and Public Service Improvement: Managers' Experiences in Cambodia's Sub-National Administrations

Sour Sokh
Royal University of Phnom Penh ROR
Cambodia
sokhsour@gmail.com
Bunhe Harth
Royal University of Phnom Penh ROR
Cambodia
Thearom Ret
Royal University of Phnom Penh ROR
Cambodia
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  • Purpose of the Study: This study explores how managers facilitate informal workplace learning within Cambodia’s sub-national administrations. It examines the managerial practices, workplace conditions, and organizational factors that support employee learning and development and contribute to organizational capacity within decentralized public-sector organizations.

    Methodology: A qualitative exploratory design was employed to examine managers’ experiences of facilitating informal workplace learning within Cambodia’s sub-national administrations. Data were collected through 14 semi-structured interviews involving 16 managerial participants, including governors, deputy governors, administrative directors, deputy administrative directors, and office chiefs across multiple levels of sub-national administration. Interviews were conducted in Khmer, transcribed, translated into English, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

    Main Findings: Four interrelated dimensions of managerial facilitation of informal workplace learning were identified: structuring opportunities for learning, creating supportive learning climates, developing employee capability through work participation, and managing organizational constraints affecting learning. The findings demonstrate that managers play a central role in creating learning-supportive workplace environments that foster employee development and strengthen organizational capacity within Cambodia’s sub-national administrations.

    Novelty/Originality of this Study: This study provides an empirically grounded framework of managerial facilitation of informal workplace learning within a decentralized public-sector context. It advances workplace learning research by introducing Constraint-Adaptive Learning Facilitation as an emerging conceptual proposition and demonstrates how workplace learning can strengthen employee capability, organizational capacity, and public service effectiveness.

  • How to cite

    [1]
    S. Sokh, B. Harth, and T. Ret, “Facilitating Informal Workplace Learning for Organizational Capacity and Public Service Improvement: Managers’ Experiences in Cambodia’s Sub-National Administrations”, Jo. Soc. Know. Ed, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 399–416, Jul. 2026, doi: 10.37251/jske.v7i4.3421.

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