ABSTRACT
The dynamicity and complexity of the current business landscape mean that, now more than ever, organizations must rely on workplace learning and continuous improvement to gain and sustain competitive advantage (Salas & Cannon-Bowers, 2001). However, the same trends that are driving the renewed emphasis on workplace learning have also introduced new training challenges. Traditionally, training has focused on developing routine expertise, or providing employees with competencies that directly transfer to the job. Yet, the changing nature of work has increasingly shifted attention toward the development of adaptive expertise, or competencies that are not only specialized but also flexible enough to be modified to changing circumstances. Although our understanding of how to develop adaptability remains limited, emerging research suggests that training designs that selectively influence cognitive, motivational, and affective self-regulatory processes to induce an active approach to learning may hold promise for developing adaptive capabilities (for a review, see Kozlowski, Toney, et al., 2001, and chapters by Mayer and Cannon-Bowers & Bowers, this volume).
