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Article history: As companies are driven to reshape their established practices with the impact of advancements in
Received 9 March 2016 information and communication technologies, corporate training emerges as a distinct area requiring
Received in revised form technological transformation. This exploratory study aims to examine the attitudes of a sample of 106 of
25 February 2017
the top 500 corporations in Turkey regarding the usage of e-learning for corporate training. Findings
Accepted 27 February 2017
Available online 28 February 2017
show that most of these firms currently have a hesitant attitude toward this development. Through
factor analysis, the main advantages for using e-learning in corporate training have been classified as
employee commitment and motivation, convenience and accessibility, customization and outsourcing,
Keywords:
E-learning
and cost effectiveness while the disadvantages have been grouped as personal and organizational.
Corporate training Consequently, attitudinal differences toward e-learning between companies have been explored ac-
Attitude cording to two scale-related variables (employee size and company revenue) and two variables about
Organization organizational readiness (the existence of a Learning & Education Department and the current use of e-
learning).
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.062
0747-5632/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
340 H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349
conducted by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (2014), the entire tangible aspects of adoption rather than the behavioral dimensions
e-learning market is forecast to grow by over 20% annually up which have been studied already in many attempts. This approach
through 2017. Specifically, for corporate e-learning, which is stated has resulted in an assessment of the importance of various opera-
to be one of the most impressive growth segments in the education tional issues different from the personal and behavioral sides of the
industry, the expected growth rate is 13% up through 2017. topic.
Although global figures show a solid growth in the e-learning Finally, this study has examined the drivers and drawbacks of e-
industry, evidently, current penetration and diffusion rates are not learning for companies that are at the very early stages of adoption.
necessarily the same for all regions and countries of the world. Instead of posing a limitation, this actually provided a projective
Bucciarelli, Muratore, and Odoardi (2010) have grouped European nature to the study regarding the opportunities and challenges
Union (EU) Member State and candidate countries according to the surrounding the e-learning market. Although studying the satis-
percentage use of e-learning in corporations. Turkey appears to be faction, success or performance of companies or employees who
on the average with 29% of organizations using e-learning appli- have already welcome this technology is valuable, understanding
cations according to this study. Aydin and Tasci (2005) have found the views of non-adopters or early adopters as they see this
that although companies have a high level of e-learning readiness development from a distance is also one of the important alter-
in Turkey, they need to improve the people factor strongly native perspectives and contributions of this study.
compared to technology, innovation, and self-development for
successfully implementing e-learning. From a sectoral perspective, 2. Theoretical background
the banking sector is one of the significant users of e-learning in a
corporate setting while similar projects are on the rise in the The current state of the literature about corporate e-learning is
retailing sector in Turkey (Yamamoto & Aydin, 2010). Overall, characterized by different approaches. There are studies that have
Turkey must be considered as a country with great potential for the utilized a specific technology adoption model or an integration of
distance learning market since it is has the largest percentage multiple models to evaluate the success and diffusion of e-learning
(16.6%) of young population in Europe (TUIK, 2014), an Internet systems in organizational environments.
penetration rate of 59.6% (Internet World Stats, 2016) and an One such framework is the IS success model of DeLone and
employment rate of approximately 50% in the 15e64 age range McLean (1992) where the system quality and information quality
which is approximately 53 million of the total population as of 2015 of an information system precedes system use and user satisfaction
(TUIK, 2015). which, in turn, determine its impact on individuals and ultimately
In light of the fact that the global corporate e-learning market is on organizations. Wang, Wang & Shee (2007) have developed and
booming and the conjecture that Turkey has a serious potential in validated a multiple-item scale to assess e-learning system success
this area, this research aims to explore perceptions about and (ELSS) based mainly on the IS success model with an addition of
attitude toward the usage of e-learning in corporate training in service quality as an antecedent and a more comprehensive
Turkey. More specifically, the research questions of this study are: approach to measure system use, user satisfaction and the net
benefits of system use. Chen (2010) has examined the relation be-
RQ1. What is the general attitude toward the use of e-learning for
tween e-learning system use and overall job outcomes also by
corporate training in organizations?
utilizing the IS success model and has found that the model can
RQ2. What are the advantages and disadvantages perceived by explain individual benefits of e-learning usage in terms of specific
companies regarding utilizing e-learning for corporate training? job outcomes, i.e. task completion, job satisfaction, and job per-
formance. In another attempt, IS success model has been integrated
RQ3. What are the differences in the advantages and disadvan-
with social cognitive theory and motivation theory to explain critical
tages perceived by companies according to employee size, company
success factors for e-learning in developing countries as judged by
revenue, existence of a Learning&Education Department, and the
ICT experts and faculty (Bhuasiri, Xaymoungkhoun, Zo, Rho, &
current use of e-learning?
Ciganek, 2012). While three dimensions of success, namely, infra-
This study aims to contribute to the current literature in the field structure and system quality, course and information quality, and
of corporate e-learning in a number of ways. One of the main institution and service quality have been included in the study from
contributions is to draw a more organizational perspective to e- the IS success model perspective, four additional dimensions which
learning adoption rather than an individual one. Most studies in the are e-learning environment, learner characteristics, instructor
literature test attitudes toward e-learning by using various tech- characteristics and extrinsic motivation have also been added from
nology adoption models and asking respondents to state their social cognitive and motivation theories.
personal opinions and attitudes regarding various aspects of e- As in most studies regarding the acceptance and adoption of a
learning. In this study, alternatively, key people from organizations specific technology, one of the most popular models that has been
have been contacted to represent their company's outlook toward used in the corporate e-learning literature is the Technology
this new learning system instead of their personal experience or Acceptance Model e TAM (Davis, 1989). Research attempts to utilize
approach. TAM for this context took an integrative or expansive approach. Lee,
Another important contribution is the exploratory nature of this Hsieh & Chen (2013) have tested an extended TAM model where
research. Currently, there are many valuable studies in the current organizational support, computer self-efficacy, prior experience in
literature testing numerous technology adoption and motivation using computer technology and task equivocality have been iden-
theories in the e-learning context. Integrative and extended models tified as the antecedents of perceived ease of use (PEOU) and
are used and important findings have been reached. However, perceived usefulness (PU). Findings show that all four antecedents
because of the theory-testing nature of such work, existing scales have full or partial effects on the two main independent variables of
have been adapted to the e-learning environment and although TAM. Similarly, Hsia, Chang and Tseng (2014) have added locus of
general behavioral approaches have been captured, context specific control as an antecedent to these two variables and found that both
issues have remained secondary or untapped. This study has made effects are significant. Mohammadi's (2015) study, although it is not
an evaluation of a comprehensive set of contextual advantages and conducted in an organizational context, provides another success-
disadvantages of corporate e-learning and has focused on more ful example of an integrative attempt where the above-mentioned
IS success model approach and TAM are combined. In his work, the
H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349 341
author has conglomerated educational quality, service quality, organizational issues such as lack of managerial support are also
technical system quality and content and information quality from numerously encountered drawbacks. Tables 1 and 2 list the
different sources in the literature being inspired by the IS success commonly cited issues in the literature.
model. He has used these four quality antecedents alongside PEOU
and PU to predict user satisfaction, usage intention and actual usage
of e-learning systems. Variations of the TAM model take many 3. Methodology of the study
other different forms. In Cheng, Minhong, Moorman, Olaniran, and
Chen (2012) work, authors have divided perceived usefulness into Due to the exploratory nature of this study, a rather lengthy
two dimensions as individual and social learning and have hy- questionnaire was used as the method of data collection. It was
pothesized that both dimensions will have positive effects on constructed mainly according to the existing issues arising from the
intention to use e-learning at work. Moreover, the antecedents of current literature and research examples conducted in different
PEOU have been added from an expectancy theory perspective as contexts. Opinions of e-learning experts and a pilot study con-
managerial support, job support and organizational support for e- ducted on five corporations helped the creation of the final form of
learning. the tool. A total of 19 questions in the questionnaire were related to
Another technology adoption model that has been used in this this particular study. The initial three questions were about the
research avenue is Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Tech- profile of the respondent (age, gender, and department worked in).
nology e UTAUT (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003). Yoo, Han Respondents who filled out the survey on behalf of their companies
& Huang (2012) have situated the variables of UTAUT into extrinsic were employed in managerial positions mostly in the Human Re-
and intrinsic motivation categories. Effort expectancy, attitude to- sources and Learning & Education Departments as well as some
wards e-learning, and anxiety have been categorized as intrinsic others that were still all relevant to the subject area of the research
motivation variables while performance expectancy, social influ- (nHR ¼ 67 (63.8%); nLED ¼ 18 (17.1%); nOTH ¼ 20 (19%)). The
ence and facilitating conditions have been used as extrinsic moti- respondent group was fairly equivalent in terms of gender distri-
vation variables. Intrinsic motivators has been found to have a bution with males slightly exceeding females (nM ¼ 59 (55.7%);
stronger effect on behavioral intention to adopt e-learning in the nF ¼ 47 (44.3%)). It was a young respondent group, approximately
workplace than extrinsic motivators. Motivational theories have half of which is in the 30e40 age range with the rest fairly closely
also been utilized in integrative approaches. Intrinsic value, self- distributed in the below 30 and above 40 groups (n<30 ¼ 25 (23.8%);
efficacy, and test anxiety were used in Joo, Lim, and Kim's (2012) n30-40 ¼ 51 (48.6%); n>40 ¼ 29 (27.7%)).
study as learners' motivational factors while PEOU and PU were This part was followed by questions related to the general
used as environmental factors affecting learning flow and profile of the corporations (province, number of employees, sector,
achievement. revenue, type, and location) as well as the current state of e-
In the literature, more specific and parsimonious studies can be learning in the sample. Companies were asked questions about the
found to study the effectiveness of corporate e-learning programs existence of a Learning & Education Department in the company,
as well. Cheng, Minhong, Yang, Kinshuk, and Jun (2011) have used a the number of employees in this department, the current level of
competency-based learning approach and studies perceived indi- and budget allocated to e-learning. Responses to these questions
vidual learning support and perceived peer collaborative learning can be found in the company profile results.
support as the two main antecedents of intention to use e-learning The next section included questions about the perceptions of
systems and both have been found to have a strong predictive the companies related to the importance of advantages and dis-
power on usage intention. As an example of another more specific advantages of e-learning compared to traditional learning for their
and niche approach, Rodriguez and Armellini (2013) have company. The questions related to the advantages (19 items) and
concentrated only on the comparative importance of learner- the disadvantages (12 items) were rated on a 5-point interval scale
content, learner-learner, and learner-teacher interactions in the from “very unimportant” to “very important”.
effectiveness of corporate e-learning. Findings show that learner- The data were gathered through an online survey, formed
content interaction is most important followed by learner-learner through Google Documents application and the survey link was
and learner-teacher interactions. sent to the top 500 corporations determined by a reputable Turkish
Although many studies have used a theory-testing approach in monthly business and economy magazine, for notification. Initial
the literature, this research has taken a more exploratory contact with the top 500 corporations was made through e-mail.
perspective. Considering the novelty of the corporate e-learning The body of the message included an explanation about the pur-
market in Turkey, assessing perceptions about a comprehensive set pose of the study and a statement of confidentiality of the infor-
of advantages and disadvantages was seen important in order to mation provided by the respondents. This first round resulted in 45
depict the current state of company attitudes toward this devel- responses in three weeks. An intense follow-up process through a
opment. Therefore, the literature has been scanned also from the second round of e-mails and telephone calls generated an addi-
perspective of a wide number of studies examining the pros and tional 61 returns adding up to an overall response of 106. Since the
cons of organizational e-learning systems. Findings about how target population was the top 500 corporations in Turkey, consid-
these issues are grouped together and the emerging categories of ering the extensive nature of the questionnaire, a response rate
variables show close resemblance with previous studies and slightly higher than 20% is accepted as adequate.
parallelism with related theories. Respondents contacted in each company were asked to answer
The most commonly mentioned advantages in the literature are the questions with an organizational identity, representing the
the flexibility of e-learning programs and efficiency, especially in company's current approach toward e-learning rather than per-
terms of cost minimization and time saving. However, higher-order sonal opinions. For this reason, care was taken to make sure that the
issues such as the permanence of learning material, personalization survey was answered by a relevant manager from the Lear-
of the learning process or enhancement of employee and customer ning&Education or Human Resources Department in the company.
satisfaction also appear as important positive aspects of e-learning Although this created an important challenge and slowed the data
compared to traditional methods. As for the disadvantages, while collection process, it was important to get the corporate perspec-
technical problems and technology resistance prevail, questions tive including positive views and resistance areas instead of the
about the lack of sociability, quality considerations and individual opinions of these respondents.
342 H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349
Table 1
Advantages of e-learning.
Advantages Reference
Flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere Gudanescu (2010), Hamid (2002), Tarr (1998), Benninck (2004), Fry (2001),
Nisar (2002), Setaro (2000), Faherty (2003), Burgess and Russell (2003),
Chen (2008), Newton and Doonga (2007), Batalla-Busquets and Pacheco-
Bernal (2013)
Self-directed and personalized learning Hamid (2002), Gudanescu (2010), Tarr (1998), Benninck (2004), Nisar
(2002), Setaro (2000), Burgess and Russell (2003), Chen (2008), Newton and
Doonga (2007), Batalla-Busquets and Pacheco-Bernal (2013)
Consistency of training and delivery Benninck (2004), Nisar (2002), Setaro (2000), Burgess and Russell (2003)
Permanent availability of cumulative archive of course content and timely updates Hamid (2002), Gudanescu (2010), Tarr (1998), Faherty (2003), Chen (2008),
Batalla-Busquets and Pacheco-Bernal (2013)
Saving of time and minimization of time away from work Nisar (2002), Setaro (2000), Burgess and Russell (2003)
Cost effective delivery and travel cost minimization Tarr (1998), Fry (2001), Benninck (2004), Setaro (2000), Burgess and Russell
(2003), Chen (2008), Newton and Doonga (2007), Faherty (2003)
Increase in productivity, improved value chain activities, ROI Burgess and Russell (2003), Chen (2008)
Increased employee and customer satisfaction Faherty (2003), Gwebu and Wang (2007), Benninck (2004), Kramer (2007)
Globalization Setaro (2000), Faherty (2003), Chen (2008)
Improvement of workforce Benninck (2004), Setaro (2000), Chen (2008), Fry (2001)
Table 2
Disadvantages of e-learning.
Disadvantages Reference
Technical problems (bandwidth limitations, Internet problems, Galusha (1998), Gudanescu (2010), Fry (2001), Benninck (2004)
incompatible technology, etc.)
Lack of sociability, lack of interactivity and feedback Galusha (1998), Fry (2001), Gudanescu (2010), Nisar (2002)
Lack of computer and Internet skills, fear of technology Gudanescu (2010), Fry (2001), Benninck (2004), Nisar (2002)
Educational problems (academic quality, assessment, methodology) Galusha (1998), Benninck (2004)
High development and maintenance costs Galusha (1998), Gudanescu (2010), Benninck (2004), Nisar (2002), Berge and Giles (2008),
Schweizer (2004), Chen (2008)
Organizational problems (lack of support, lack of trained staff, cultural Galusha (1998), Gudanescu (2010), Benninck (2004), Nisar (2002), Fry (2001), Berge and Giles
resistance) (2008), Faherty (2003), Chen (2008)
4. Findings of the study 4.1. Attitudes toward E-Learning for corporate training
The profile of the companies represented by the respondents in An important issue investigated in this study is the overall
the sample is shown in Table 3. As shown in this table, most of the attitude of companies toward using e-learning for corporate
companies that have been included in the sample are located in training. Managers have been asked to state their preference to-
Istanbul, while there are also a considerable number of companies ward learning approaches, their general disposition toward e-
from other cities in Turkey. In terms of employee population, 43.4% learning, and their expected usage of e-learning in the near future.
have 500 or less employees while another substantial 39.4% have As seen in Table 4, with respect to preference toward learning ap-
500e2000 employees. There are only 17 companies with an proaches, most of the contacted organizations prefer blended
employee size of 2000 or higher. This is a good distribution for this learning, which is a combination of traditional and e-learning for
study in the sense that it includes organizations with different corporate training. While a very minor group of four companies
employee populations that might have varying needs and ap- have made a particular preference toward e-learning, another mi-
proaches toward e-learning. The same idea is valid for company nor group has shown an intention to stick to traditional learning as
revenue and it is important that there is not a very dominant the most preferable approach for employee training.
concentration in any one of the revenue groups. These companies As for the general attitude of the organization toward e-learning,
are nearly totally from the private sector with an exception of only most of them are doubtful about its advantages and there are
four subjects from the public sector. They are mostly multiple conflicting views in organizations regarding this issue. Meanwhile,
location entities and the sectors they come from are distributed there is a small group of organizations that have a totally negative
diversely which is also crucial to achieve the heterogeneity needed approach stating that they find it inefficient while another group of
in this study. companies believe that e-learning is effective and efficient.
While 60% of these companies have a Learning & Education Findings about the expected usage of e-learning in the next three
Department, the rest of them do not have one. The level of e- years have shown that, although there is a minority of firms that
learning applications in these companies is currently not very high. aim to stick to traditional learning mostly for the near future, a
In 44%, there are currently no e-learning applications, 45% use it at a larger part of the contacted companies is ready to adopt e-learning
preliminary level and only a minority of 11% have common use of e- to some extent in the short run. Overall, these results show that,
learning applications. Consequently, those companies who have with the exception of a small group of companies holding a strong
spared a part of their training budget to e-learning have allocated position against adopting e-learning, most organizations have a
less than 25% to e-learning in total except for a very few exceptions. current tendency or intended future outlook that is mainly positive
This shows how preliminary e-learning investments are in these toward e-learning.
companies. These findings show that these corporations are currently at the
early stages of adopting this innovation. There are many existing
theories about categorizing adoption stages such as Rogers (1983)
H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349 343
Table 5
Advantages of E-learning.
Table 6
Disadvantages of E-learning.
behavioral aspects of the topic. This stems from the fact that this signifying the major areas of disadvantages in e-learning. Factor 1
research was conducted with an organizational perspective. has been named Personal Disadvantages as it includes difficulties
Studies concentrating on individual opinions do not stress that employees are expected to experience during the conduction
company-related factors that are equally important in the adoption of e-learning such as challenges related to concentration and
of a new system. Thus, this finding confirms the need for a wider communication. It also includes personal barriers that employees
perspective in studying corporate e-learning adoption from both might have against this learning approach such as their lack of
employee and organizational perspectives in future studies. acquaintance with and their overall negative prejudice against it.
On the other hand, Factor 2, Organizational Disadvantages, com-
prises difficulties that may be experienced from the company
4.3. Disadvantages of E-Learning
perspective such as not having the necessary infrastructure, qual-
ified team, supportive management and competent employees to
The 12 items measured with a five-point interval importance
benefit from e-learning. It also includes practical issues such as the
scale assessing the perceived disadvantages of e-learning have
difficulty of finding the right e-learning program so that a wise
been grouped into two factors as a result of the factor analysis. The
investment is made and furthermore, protecting the illegal prop-
KMO test of sampling adequacy is 0.827 which is higher than the
agation of the e-learning material. Thus, companies are faced with
acceptable threshold of 0.500 and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity is
challenges both at the personal and behavioral side of the issue and
significant at the 0.001 level which shows the suitability of the data
the technical and practical applicability of e-learning in the
for factor analysis. The total variance explained by these two factors
company.
is 58.1%. As seen in Table 6, this analysis has produced two factors
H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349 345
Descriptive findings display that the importance levels attached organizational disadvantages of conducting e-learning for corporate
to the disadvantages of e-learning are evidently lower compared to training. Companies that have an employee population of
the advantages. This confirms the positive outlook companies have 500e2000 people have attributed relatively greater importance to
toward adopting e-learning. The obstacles that have been perceived the organizational difficulties that might be encountered in
as relatively more important are mostly the personal issues implementing e-learning programs compared to the other two
regarding the lack of face-to-face communication, difficulty to groups. It is reasonable to expect that companies with a small body
conduct e-learning in a disciplined manner and motivation and of employees (less than 500) may not expect to experience major
concentration difficulties. This finding is parallel with previous organizational challenges such as infrastructure difficulties or lack
studies that have shown the importance of the social aspects of e- of management support since the investment made to perform e-
learning. Participants in such programs want to maintain sociability learning in smaller scale organizations will also be limited. On the
and interaction and fear of losing the social value of the learning other hand, large scale companies with an employee population
process is an important drawback. exceeding 2000 can be expected to have the necessary financial
On the other hand, issues like the lack of technological infra- power and managerial support to make the extensive investment
structure and skilled employees for e-learning or the difficulty of needed for e-learning. Thus, organizations with a medium
keeping e-learning material proprietary have not been perceived as employee body have shown the highest concern in terms of the
important disadvantages. These results are also very promising company-wide challenges that may be experienced.
since they show that companies do not refrain from e-learning Deeper analyses of differences regarding employee size confirm
because they do not have the necessary resources or strategic the above findings. Three groups of companies with different
commitment for this investment, but mainly because of the chal- employee populations have been further subjected to ANOVA an-
lenges related to conducting this approach in an efficient and alyses for each of the six specific disadvantages under the Organi-
effective manner. zational Disadvantages factor. Findings show that companies with a
Findings of this study about the advantages and disadvantages medium employee population (500e2000) have attached rela-
of e-learning are important from one other perspective. Although tively greater importance to the lack of the necessary technology
companies are currently at early stages of e-learning adoption, the infrastructure while this has not been perceived as an important
perceived advantages mostly outweigh the expected disadvan- issue for small scale and large scale companies. Similarly, these
tages. This is parallel to Herzberg's two-factor theory where there businesses have attached comparatively greater importance to the
are two groups of factors instigating motivation in organizational threat of lack of management support compared to the other two
environments: motivational factors and hygiene factors. Motiva- groups. Relevant findings can be seen in Table 9. These results
tional factors are in line with the four advantage factors and hy- support the general finding that organizational difficulties are most
giene factors are in line with the two disadvantage factors explored challenging for organizations with a medium-size employee
in this study. While it is essential to reduce dissatisfying hygiene population.
factors to increase motivation, it is crucial to flourish the satisfying
motivational factors in the long run. This study also confirms this 4.6. Difference analyses according to company revenue
perspective by showing that once personal and organizational
barriers are overcome, this new technology can penetrate into the Companies have been grouped into three as those with an
learning processes and culture in a company much more deeply annual revenue “below $125,000,000”, “$125,000,000-
and fluently. $375,000,000”, and “above $375,000,000”. One-way ANOVA ana-
lyses have been conducted for these three groups using the six
4.4. Difference analyses according to company profile advantage and disadvantage factors as dependent variables. As
seen in Table 8, companies with different annual revenues display a
After grouping the importance of various advantages and dis- significant difference with respect to the perceived importance
advantages of e-learning under six different factors, differences attached to the personal disadvantages of conducting e-learning for
between companies regarding these six factors according to corporate training. Companies with an annual revenue below
employee size, company revenue, existence of a Learning & Edu- $125,000,000, which is the lowest revenue group, have attached
cation Department, and the current use of e-learning have been the lowest level of importance to the possible personal challenges
explored. For this purpose, one-way ANOVA and independent- that may be experienced during e-learning. This may be attributed
samples t-test analyses have been conducted using these four to the fact that these are comparatively smaller scale companies
company-related characteristics as grouping variables and the four and issues such as lack of employee commitment or concentration
advantage factors and two disadvantage factors as the dependent do not have a lot of priority compared to the advantages that may
variables. Relevant findings are presented in Tables 7 and 8. be experienced through e-learning. Confirming this, the item-by-
Consequently, when a significant difference is found between item difference analyses that have been done for these three rev-
companies in terms of any one of the six factors, further difference enue groups show that companies with a lower annual revenue
analyses have been conducted to see which items under the rele- attach a significantly lower level of importance to the lack of
vant factors are the main cause of the resulting differences. These motivation and concentration, lack of face-to-face communication
findings are presented in Table 9. and the difficulty of conducting e-learning in a disciplined and efficient
manner compared to larger scale businesses as seen in Table 9. In
4.5. Difference analyses according to employee size short, the convenient environment established for their employees
are expected to outpace the personal disadvantages for smaller-
Companies have been grouped into three according to their scale companies.
employee size as those with an employee population of “below
500”, “500e2000”, and “above 2000”. One-way ANOVA analyses 4.7. Difference analyses according to the existence of a Learning &
have been conducted for these three groups using the six advantage Education Department
and disadvantage factors as dependent variables. As seen in Table 8,
companies with different employee sizes display a significant dif- Independent-samples t-test analyses have been conducted in
ference with respect to the perceived importance attached to the order to find out whether there are any differences between
346 H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349
Table 7
Difference analyses According to perceived advantage factors.
Employee Commitment & Motivation Convenience & Accessibility Customization & Outsourcing Cost Effectiveness
Table 8
Difference analyses According to perceived disadvantage factors.
Differences significant at the 95 % level are bolded and the p values are identified in parantheses.
companies that do and do not have a Learning & Education 4.8. Difference analyses according to the use of E-Learning in the
Department in terms of the six advantage and disadvantage factors. company
As seen in Table 8, these two groups of companies differ signifi-
cantly only with respect to the personal disadvantages of e-learning. It has been conjectured that differences will exist between the
Companies that have a Learning & Education Department have perceptions of companies regarding e-learning depending on
attached greater importance to this factor compared to those whether they have had any experience with this approach or not.
companies without such as department. This can be related to the For this purpose, companies have been grouped into two as the
fact that the contacted professionals in companies that have this experienced and unexperienced ones. Organizations that have
department have a higher level of awareness of the kind of chal- implemented some pilot applications and those who commonly
lenges and obstacles that can be experienced in adapting to a novel use e-learning have been grouped as the experienced firms rep-
learning approach like this. resenting some level of exposure to e-learning. Those who have not
Deeper analysis of this difference confirms the above findings. implemented any e-learning applications have been taken as the
Two groups of companies that do and do not have a Learning & unexperienced group. Independent-samples t-test analyses have
Education Department have been further subjected to been conducted in order to find out whether there are any differ-
independent-samples t-tests for each of the six personal disad- ences between these two groups of companies in terms of the six
vantages of e-learning. Findings given in Table 9 show that com- advantage and disadvantage factors. As seen in Table 7, these two
panies that do have such a department show a higher level of groups of companies differ significantly with respect to the
concern about the lack of motivation and concentration, lack of face- advantage of employee commitment and motivation. Companies that
to-face communication, negative attitude of employees, and lack of have experience in e-learning attach a relatively stronger impor-
awareness and acceptance of e- learning in the company that might tance to this advantage compared to the unexperienced ones.
all hinder the effectiveness of e-learning. Their awareness of These two groups of companies have been further subjected to
various social and behavioral barriers against a fruitful learning independent-samples t-tests for each of the seven items under the
environment is obviously higher. Employee Commitment and Motivation Factor. Findings show that
H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349 347
Table 9
Difference analyses According to items of perceived advantages and disadvantages.
Below 500 (n ¼ 43) Below 125,000 $ (n ¼ 25) Yes (n ¼ 63) Yes (n ¼ 56)
500e2000 (n ¼ 39) 125,000e375,000 $ No (n ¼ 42) No (n ¼ 44)
Above 2000 (n ¼ 17) (n ¼ 44)
Above 375,000 $ (n ¼ 29)
Perceived advantages
Employee Commitment & Motivation
Permanence of the knowledge acquired through e-learning t ¼ 2.215 (p ¼ .029)
m ¼ 4.39; m ¼ 3.98
Less stressful learning environment t ¼ 2.004
(p ¼ 0.048)
m ¼ 4.33; m ¼ 3.95
Perceived disadvantages
Personal Disadvantages
Lack of motivation and concentration F ¼ 15.464 (p ¼ .000) t ¼ 3.095 (p ¼ .003)
m ¼ 3.24; m ¼ 4.37; m ¼ 4.36; m ¼ 3.66
m ¼ 4.48
Lack of face-to-face communication F ¼ 12.912 (p ¼ .000) t ¼ 2.564 (p ¼ .013)
m ¼ 3.45; m ¼ 4.41; m ¼ 4.42; m ¼ 3.86
m ¼ 4.62
Difficulty of conducting e-learning in a disciplined an efficient F ¼ 4.583 (p ¼ .013)
manner m ¼ 3.68; m ¼ 4.34;
m ¼ 4.33
Negative attitude of employees t ¼ 2.406 (p ¼ .019)
m ¼ 3.98; m ¼ 3.42
High cost of e-learning technologies F ¼ 5.445 (p ¼ .006)
m ¼ 3.32; m ¼ 4.15;
m ¼ 3.75
Lack of awareness and acceptance of e-learning in the company t ¼ 2.377 (p ¼ .019)
m ¼ 4.27; m ¼ 3.72
Organizational Disadvantages
Lack of the necessary technology infrastructure F ¼ 4.126 (p ¼ .019)
m ¼ 2.67; m ¼ 3.52;
m ¼ 3.12
Lack of top management support F ¼ 3.765 (p ¼ .027)
m ¼ 3.47; m ¼ 4.15;
m ¼ 3.59
experienced companies show an especially more positive attitude This finding provides an interesting insight in terms of organi-
toward the permanence of the knowledge acquired through e- zational change. According to Lewin's (1951) early theory of change
learning and the less stressful training environment created by it management, change can happen effectively only when existing
compared to the unexperienced ones. Relevant findings can be seen structures that can create barriers against change are dissolve and
in Table 9. These results show that since this approach to training is reshaped. This is called the unfreeze-change-refreeze pattern.
very novel and alternative to conventional methods, companies However, Weick and Quinn (1999) propose that change does not
that have not yet been exposed to it might perceive the resistance necessarily have to be “episodic” where organizational are inertial
toward it more strongly. Conversely, once companies begin to and change is discontinuous and intentional. Instead, change can
implement e-learning, the importance of the advantages begin to also be “constant”, evolving and cumulative and in such cases, or-
outweigh the challenges. This pattern can be evaluated as the ganizations are more self-organizing. The strong tendency toward
natural diffusion pattern for any innovative technology related to blended learning shows that transition to e-learning must happen
any business function in companies. It shows that the learning in this incremental pattern.
curve in e-learning is expected to host more of the benefits Another main trend that is evident according to these findings is
compared to the barriers for the companies adopting it. that regardless of their scale, most companies have a positive
outlook toward e-learning and are currently on the verge of
infusing it into their established practices. The perceived advan-
5. Discussion and conclusion tages are very prominent: a very convenient, highly cost-effective
and customizable training opportunity with strong potential to
The purpose of this exploratory study has been to find out the capture substantial employee readiness and commitment. Besides,
current and expected future outlook of e-learning in a sample of top attaining a learning organization profile as leading businesses is
500 companies in Turkey to shed a light on the state of this industry also a main drive. However, the disadvantages pull companies back
and the major issues surrounding its adoption for corporate from rushing into this approach. Especially, human-related issues
training. One of the main themes that emerge from the findings is prevail in the factors that hinder companies from adopting e-
that most companies are willing to embrace e-learning for corpo- learning. Additionally, companies are aware that for an e-learning
rate training but they want to embed it more as a complementary package to be effective, it must suit the company needs very well, a
technology to accompany and enrich their traditional training competent team must be able to implement it and management
practices. The imminent tendency to prefer blended learning as the support is essential.
most ideal training approach is a strong indicator of this.
348 H. Kimiloglu et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 72 (2017) 339e349