An assessment of autodidacticism on professional success as determined by managers in local Industries

Abstract

“An assessment of autodidacticism on professional success as determined by local managers” seeks to confirm or deny two assumptions: Assumption 1: ‘The desire and passion to learn can be seen as major determinants for managerial success’ Assumption 2: ‘An autodidactic personality is more attributable to managerial success than academic qualifications’ This was done through interviewing ten participants from mid-level and top-level management by asking about their professional development experiences and the aspect of Self-Directed Learning. A theoretical thematic analysis approach was used to infer the following themes: Continuous Learning, Powers of Observation, Reputation, Positive Mental Attitude, Work Satisfaction, Behaviour. These themes were then compared with the relevant literature and distilled further into more prevalent themes of: Continuous Learning and Professional Development, Centre of Knowledge, Situational Engagement, Formal Education, Growth Mindset and Work satisfaction. From this analysis it was confirmed that the two assumptions put forth at the beginning of the paper were accurate. In addition to this, of the ten participants, eight ranked academic qualifications lowly in terms of its attribute towards their managerial success while all ten of the participants related how their need and willingness to learn gave way to their career success. It is concluded that adopting such a lifestyle of continuous learning would be greatly beneficial to both young and old both in terms of maintaining relevance in the workforce but also providing greater opportunities.