CHIEF LEARNING OFFICERS: PERSPECTIVES ON COMPETENCIES, ROLES, AND TASKS

Competencies of Chief Learning Officers

Researchers have discussed several competencies that are important to CLO roles. In their book subtitled “The evolving role of the Chief Learning Officer,” Elkeles et al. (2017) discuss developing the learning strategy, setting the investment level, aligning learning to business needs, shifting to performance improvement, creating value-based delivery, creating a culture of innovation, building employee engagement, developing leaders, demonstrating value through analytics, and developing effective business relationships. They note that it is essential for the CLO to have a good understanding of the organization’s strategic plan and identify talent requirements and on-the-job performance gaps to impact business results. Similarly, Hall and Patel’s Leading the Learning Function (2020) emphasizes strategy and strategic alignment with the organization, determining organizational needs, the use of metrics and dashboards to record impact, building coalitions and collaboration, encouraging innovation, and leveraging technology.

To contribute to the limited academic research on CLO profession competencies, Haight and Marquardt (2018) conducted an exploratory, qualitative study focusing on the CLOs’ roles in leadership and change in their organizations. The 20 recruited CLO participants came from organizational contexts, such as government, consulting, and healthcare, in the United States and had at least 2 years of work experiences in this position. Among them, 55 percent of the participants were also the first appointed CLO in their learning organization. Using the systems learning model (Marquardt, 2011) as the theoretical framework, Haight and Marquardt analyzed the collected interview data from the five dimensions of “learning, organization, people, technology, and knowledge” (p. 332). Their findings revealed that the CLOs from different industry workplaces emphasize collaboration with internal and external stakeholders in building their organization. The CLOs showed their efforts in consistently assessing and evaluating their programs during the change process. The CLOs made efforts to create opportunities to develop their programs by seeking funding. The CLOs also emphasized the importance of creating a vision for sustaining their actions and efforts for program and organization development. In addition, Haight and Marquardt also acknowledged that the dimensions of technology and knowledge, based on the systems learning model, were not fully addressed in the study. The CLO typically leads a number of diverse functions. However, Haight and Marquardt (2018) believe the primary function of a CLO is to create and develop learning organizations in order to establish organizational change.

Garavan et al. (2020) highlight the importance of competencies in “business knowledge, relationship skills, expertise in L&D, strategic and cultural management and the management of change.” Their caveat is worth noting:

… the relevance of these competencies is contextually determined. Dimensions of context that are relevant include the size of the organisations, the sector in which the organisation operates, the geographic location of the organisations, its level of technological complexity and characteristics of employees… (p. 12).

Kamikow (2005), reporting on a summit of learning leaders hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and Wharton Executive Education, summarized the leadership needs of learning leaders as organizational, instructional, technical, and problem-solving.

Roles and Tasks of Chief Learning Officers

A role is the function assumed or part played by a person or thing in a particular situation (Dictionary.com). A few researchers have discussed the roles of CLOs. O’Connor (2004) refers to the role of the CLO as analogous to the president of an organization’s learning university model. The role of the CLO was initially developed from a human resource development platform (HRD) (Farrell, 2017; Gehl, 2014). The primary role of the CLO is to develop an organization by managing and expanding the organization’s learning capacity (Ash & Persall, 2000; Cross & Quinn, 2009; Gehl, 2014; Haight & Marquardt, 2018; Nathan, 1998). DeFilippo (2017) describes the CLO role as that of an educator, coach, and standard-bearer for organizational performance. Much of the literature posits that it is the CLO’s responsibility to have a thorough understanding of the company’s strategic plan in addition to a thorough knowledge of recruitment, onboarding, training, retention, and succession planning (Farrell, 2017). Baldwin and Danielson (2000) discuss the role of integrating a comprehensive learning strategy with the organization’s overall strategic direction. The professional literature often refers to this strategic role as “having a seat at the table”, meaning a presence and voice at the highest level of the organization (Carpenter, 2015: Gatti, 2022; Meister, 2007; Moore, 2009; Phillips & Phillips, 2017; Scott, 2011). L’Allier (2005) emphasizes the importance of a long-term strategic focus for the learning function and notes the need for a “… new business vocabulary for the training world [that] … sensitize[s] us to see that all learning must be articulated in the language of business and, ultimately, focused on business goals” (p. 26). He also reports the results of a chief learning officer survey that highlighted the top four critical competencies for CLOs: 1) demonstrated leadership skills; 2) experience with strategic planning; 3) knowledge of the learning and development process; and 4) demonstrated impact on business performance. In a follow-up survey of executives on the Business Intelligence Board, the executives agreed that the CLO of the future would need experience in strategic management, general management, knowledge management, leadership skills, and learning methods and concepts (L’Allier, 2006). Garavan et al. (2016) note that learning leaders are required to understand an organization’s strategy, business models, and organizational capabilities. As a result, the role of the CLO can often be viewed as an HRD executive position that is directly connected to the support they provide for an organization’s employees (Dutton, 2016; Farrell, 2017). Ware (2019), in a reflection on the first 30 years of the CLO position, notes the focus on driving change and improving organizational performance. She proposes that three shifts in the CLO role are important to consider for the future: a shift from a static employee mindset to a dynamic learner mindset, a shift from designing for learning outcomes to designing for learning and organizational impact, and continuing to embrace change and focus on learning and learning impact on a larger scale rather than only focusing on employee training and development within the confines of a single organization.

Phillips (2004a ; 2004b), in a series of articles published before the release of the seminal The Chief Learning Officer (Elkeles & Phillips, 2007), highlights nine strategic areas of focus for CLOs: 1) creating a strategy and setting the appropriate investment level, 2) aligning the learning enterprise with the business, 3) improving individual and organizational performance, 4) designing efficient and effective delivery strategies, 5) managing the learning enterprise as a business, 6) developing productive internal partnerships, 7) managing organizational talent for business growth, 8) demonstrating value of the learning enterprise, and 9) maintaining a customer focus. Elkeles (2007), in her own summary of the best practices of successful CLOs, argues that successful CLOs must: 1) ensure that all learning and development initiatives are aligned with a larger business purpose, 2) know the business they are in and clearly articulate their competitive advantage, 3) share the “right” benchmark data with executive management—that is, metrics that are rigorously collected and contextually-compelling, 4) create and implement a learning strategy for their organization, 5) create a strategic role for their learning organization, 6) heavily invest in leadership development, 7) always link learning to the business, and 8) continually reinvent their learning organization.

Additional researchers have further described the role of the CLOs as a change agent, visionary, or developer of leaders. Gehl (2014) notes that the CLO is a change agent who promotes differing perceptions of stakeholders “within and without the organization” (p. 187). Billington (2005) adds that one of the responsibilities of a CLO is to generate sustained change that is “ingrained in the practices and values of the company” (p. 30). Similarly, Chang (2005, 2007) highlights the role of the CLO as a strategic change catalyst, and Klapper (2010) highlights the role of the CLO in business transformation. Dutton (2016) suggests that the strength of the CLO position is as an internal consultant and agile business partner facilitating change to drive business value. Nathan (1998) identifies the CLO’s role as one where the CLO models learning, develops the vision and design of an organization, and promotes and assesses the learning that happens within an organization. According to Duke (2018), the role of the CLO includes managing “a company’s intangible employee-based assets through the developmental growth of its people” (p. 18). As the visionary of the human capital of an organization, the CLO needs a clear understanding of where the firm is going, prior to making decisions on how to get there (Cross & Quinn, 2009). Another aspect of the CLO role mentioned by Anderson (2015) is the ability to develop leaders. CLOs should have a focus on the empowerment and growth of the organization’s employees as a means of succession planning (Anderson, 2015). Todd et al. (2014) views the role in a more general sense, encompassing functions as a chief of organizational outcomes, an innovation catalyst, and an enabler of strategic change. In an online post at the Association for Talent Development, Douglas (2021) outlines three roles of a CLO: a learning and development strategic leader, business leader, and internal consultant.

Many CLOs also play a significant role in project management in learning organizations, and they are often considered as project management experts in these workplaces. Their experiences have been highlighted in empirical studies for practitioners in the learning and development professions (Williams van Rooij, 2013). In addition, Todd et al. (2014) suggest that a substantial level of innovative acumen be included in the foundational functions drive the organizations that CLOs lead.

Conceptual Framework

There have been some frameworks developed for competency development. Frequently, a linear relationship from roles to competencies to tasks is envisioned (Alvarez et al., 2009; Bawane & Spector, 2009; Martin et al., 2019). However, in this study, we assume that the relationship between roles, competencies, and tasks is nonlinear and more complex (Figure 1). Tasks are “collections of activities that are directed toward the achievement of specific job objectives” (Morgeson et al., 2020, p. 7). We view competencies as enablers of tasks. The possession of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics enables an individual “to effectively perform the activities of a given occupation or function to the standards expected in employment” (Richey et al., 2001, p. 8). The relationship between tasks or activities and competencies is not necessarily one-to-one, so competencies might be best thought of as foundational to all useful work. Groups of tasks are clustered into a role, and a job may consist of one or more roles. A complex job, such as that of a CLO, will likely consist of several roles. For example, the competencies of strategic thinking, business acumen, strategic business management, and needs assessment enable a CLO to create or supervise the task of the creation of a three-year learning and development plan for an organization. That task is likely critical to the role of strategic planner. However, the same competencies, possibly in combination with others, may be required for other tasks.

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Purpose of the Study and Research Questions

There are competencies identified for various learning and development roles (IBSTPI, 2021a) but there is a gap in identifying competencies for leadership roles. The latest edition of IBSTPI’s training manager competencies (Foxon et al, 2003) was published 20 years ago and largely addresses tactical issues. While doctoral programs attempt to prepare students for leadership positions in learning, design, and technology, there is a lack of research on competencies for non-academic learning leaders. The purpose of this study is to identify the roles, tasks, and competencies of chief learning officers or learning leaders in non-academic settings. This qualitative research study addresses the following questions:

1. Building on prior frameworks, what are the identified competency domains for chief learning officers?

2. What are the essential professional competencies required to perform the role of chief learning officer, contextualized in organizations in the United States?

3. What are the different roles and tasks performed by chief learning officers in organizations in the United States?

Participants

All but one of the CLOs were the most senior leader responsible for learning and development in centralized learning functions within their organization, using Carliner and Driscoll’s (2019) typology. The one exception was the most senior learning leader within a large division of a global enterprise that uses a decentralized, division-level learning organization model. The organizations were medium to large in size, with the smallest organization having approximately 7,000 employees and the largest having over 800,000. The learning organizations employed between 12 (a centralized function in a highly decentralized model) to 350 full-time-equivalent employees. Detailed demographic information of the participants is provided in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Participant Characteristics

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Data Collection through Interviews

The 12 CLOs were invited to participate in this study via email. Once they agreed to participate in the interview, they provided their consent to participate in the study to fulfill Institutional Review Board requirements. Each interview was conducted via Zoom with the same two researchers over the course of two months during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews were 50 to 80 minutes in duration and consisted of 10 open-ended questions, most of which had optional follow-up questions. The focus of the questions included the organizational contexts, career paths, roles, and tasks of CLOs, supporting competencies, and current and future challenges in the CLO job. The interview questions are listed in Appendix A. Using Langley and Meziani’s (2020) genres of interviewing for organizational development, the interviews were in both the apprentice genre, eliciting knowledge to understand practice and expertise, and the investigative genre, tracing facts and events. Demographic information on the CLOs was gathered based on their LinkedIn profiles, by asking them at the beginning of their interviews, or via a follow-up email.

Data Analysis

The researchers maintained a detailed audit trail during data collection. The interview recordings were downloaded from Zoom and transcribed using Otter.ai transcription software. The transcription was then verified by two researchers before coding and analysis. The primary data source for the present study is the aggregated interview transcripts. Data were analyzed throughout the duration of the study, allowing for the ongoing adjustment and negotiation of the data collection process as different patterns emerged. We implemented a cross-case analysis to provide more compelling and robust evidence by following the replication logic to predict a similar theoretical replication (Yin, 2018). We held biweekly group meetings to develop and refine the coding scheme iteratively in order to facilitate analytical thinking and establish the trustworthiness of the data analysis process.

Specifically, following the three-step coding procedure provided by Saldaña (2015), we analyzed the dataset through three coding cycles, using both inductive and deductive coding approaches. During the first coding cycle, the research team screened the transcribed dataset and implemented a provisional coding method to develop 6 primary competency domains, including 30 subcategories, based on the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) model (see Table 2). During the second pattern coding cycle, we performed data analysis using MAXQDA software for pattern coding by examining differences and similarities across the 12 cases. During the third theoretical coding cycle, we themed the emerging patterns across these cases based on the identified codes.

TABLE 2 Chief Learning Officer Competency Domain Framework

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CLO Competency Model Development

Since the limited literature on CLO competencies is largely anecdotal, the researchers could not find a strong existing model to frame the collected data. The closest parallel was the SHRM Competency Model (2016). SHRM’s development methodology was rigorous, and the results are widely used. All but one of the CLOs interviewed reported to a human resources leader, most frequently the chief human resource officer. As a result, the researchers used the SHRM Competency Model as the foundation of their work.

Beginning in 2011, SHRM developed a comprehensive competency model for human resources (HR). The work was guided by industrial psychologists and followed the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) protocols. The model was based on face-to-face contributions from over 1,200 HR professionals at all levels from 33 countries. The content was validated by data collected from over 32,000 HR professionals as well as by an additional series of criterion validation studies correlated to job performance (Cohen, 2015). The SHRM Competency Model (Table 2) consists of four competency clusters (analogous to domains) and nine competencies. Each competency has a significant number of sub-competencies. The competency clusters include Technical (HR Expertise), Leadership (Ethical Practice, Leadership & Navigation), Business (Business Acumen, Consultation, Critical Evaluation) and Interpersonal (Communication, Global and Cultural Effectiveness, and Relationship Management).

Particularly pertinent to this study, the SHRM Model identifies four HR Professional Career Levels, providing associated proficiency standards for each level. The highest level is the Executive Level, which is characterized as “typically … one of the most senior leaders in HR, [who] holds the top HR job in the organization or VP role” (SHRM, 2016, p. 13). Similarly, the CLO, regardless of title, is the most senior leader in the learning and development function in the organization and typically reports to the most senior HR position in the organization. All the CLOs interviewed reported that there were only one or two positions between themselves and the CEO. Thus, the Executive Level of the SHRM Competency Model became the foundation of the CLO Competency Model.

RQ1: Building on Prior Frameworks, What are the Identified Competency Domains for Chief Learning Officers?

The Society for Human Resource Management Competency Model (SHRM, 2016) was modified based on the emergent codes from the data collected. The Technical competency cluster and its competency, Human Resource Expertise, was replaced with two related but distinct technical competency domains: Learning and Development and Organizational Development. It is noteworthy that almost every CLO broadly described their responsibilities as both learning and development and other, variously titled responsibilities, frequently organizational development or talent development. The combination of learning and development and organizational development fits Swanson’s (2001) definition of human resource development, but interestingly, no respondent used the term human resource development. In addition, respondents identified a number of Personal Attributes, such as learning agility, passion, creativity, and specific personal values, as essential to the success of a CLO. These correspond to the aforementioned “other characteristics”. Table 2 provides the Chief Learning Officer Competency Domain Framework.

RQ2: What are the Essential Professional Competencies Required to Perform the Role of Chief Learning Officer, Contextualized in Organizations in the United States?

The chief learning officers were asked what competencies were essential to perform their roles. Using the previously identified domains, we coded the data on the competencies of the CLOs. We identified 31 competency areas mapped across the 6 domains. Table 3 shows the CLO competencies in the six domains. The CLOs not only articulated their competencies within the learning and development domain, such as instructional design and development, but also indicated several business competencies, including strategic business management, strategic thinking, problem solving, and decision-making.

TABLE 3 Chief Learning Officer Domains and Competencies

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RQ3: What are the Different Roles and Tasks Performed by Chief Learning Officers in Organizations in the United States?

The CLOs who were interviewed were asked to describe their roles in their organization. The following 13 roles emerged from the interviews (Table 4) and were further mapped to the 6 domains. During the interviews, the CLOs were also asked “What are the five most important tasks that you perform in your role?” Examples of frequently noted tasks were grouped and identified based on role.

TABLE 4 Chief Learning Officer Roles by Domain

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Competencies of CLOs

Six competency domains were identified in this study by building on existing frameworks as well as information from literature and interviews. These include Leadership, Business Management, Learning and Development, Organizational Development, Interpersonal, and Personal Attributes. The existence of critical but relatively established personal attributes suggests that not everyone can be developed into a CLO. Within these broad competency domains, 31 competencies emerged. In the interviews, we noticed that the competencies required also varied based on the roles the CLOs were performing and the contexts they were in. Some CLOs were overseeing larger organizations, whereas some were overseeing smaller, more centralized teams. However, all the CLOs provided examples of critical competencies within each domain, with only one exception. One CLO did not have any responsibilities or requirements for competencies in Organizational Development.

Ware (2019) discussed that in the last three decades, though it is shifting to a broader aspect, the primary function of the CLO remains as a focus on the learning function. Several learning and development competencies emerged, including instructional design and development, delivery systems, learning management infrastructure, needs assessment, and evaluation. These competencies are in alignment with prior research by Haight and Marquardt (2018) who asserted that the primary function of a CLO is to create and develop learning organizations. In our interviews with CLOs, we found organizational development competencies, such as change management, talent strategy and management, knowledge management, workforce development, and diversity and inclusion, among others. this aligns with Swanson’s (2001) definition of human resource development, combining learning and development and organizational development functions and responsibilities. Similar to Haight and Marquardt’s qualitative findings that CLOs were involved in creating a vision for program and organizational development, in our study, as part of the leadership competency domain, vision, strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making were some of the competencies that emerged as required for CLOs. Our findings were also in alignment with those of Chouhan and Srivastava (2014) and Wong (2020), who recognized values, personal traits, and motives as important aspects of competencies. The CLOs we interviewed also discussed the importance of interpersonal and personal attributes, such as relationship building and management, communication, collaboration, emotional intelligence, personal values, and learning agility, among others. Overall, the competencies required of the CLOs were broad. However, they also varied based on the organization and the size of the team they were leading.

Roles and Tasks Performed by CLOs

Thirteen roles emerged from the interviews with the chief learning officers, and these roles were mapped to five domains: leadership, business management, learning and development, organizational development, and interpersonal. The CLOs identified at least two to three roles per domain, showing the importance of the role of the CLO across all five domains. While some of these roles had been identified in the prior academic literature, some of the roles were new. The findings were in alignment with the results of Nathan (1998) and Cross and Quinn (2009), who discussed the importance of the CLO being involved in developing or reinforcing the vision of the organization. In the interviews, the CLOs discussed the importance of them being strategic planners who shape business strategy in alignment with the vision and mission of the organization. Anderson (2015) and Gehl (2014) discussed the CLOs building leaders, empowering others, and increasing learning capacity. In this study, we found that the CLOs served in similar roles as capability builders, providing their employees with the skills and knowledge that they need. Similarly, the findings were in alignment with Dutton (2016) and Farrell (2017), who considered CLOs to be managers. In this study, the CLOs reported that they served as leaders and managers and provided expertise in project and people management. We also found additional roles that were performed by the CLOs, such as organizational designer, relationship builder, communicator, and collaborator, which shows the importance of organizational development and interpersonal domains. The findings on roles from this study add to the literature and support CLOs in their positions.

The CLOs were asked to name and explain the five most important tasks they perform in their roles. The findings on frequently repeated tasks performed were mapped to each of the identified 13 roles. The tasks they performed were less focused on learning and development. CLOs are, first and foremost, executives. Their expertise, namely, learning and development and organizational development, appears to be secondary to their roles as leaders, managers, and executives within the organization. The CLOs discussed several tasks that they perform in their roles as managers. This could have been because we had CLOs in our study from organizations of different sizes. Some of them headed small learning teams, whereas others led large teams. The importance of project and people management and the tasks they perform in learning and development functions were also discussed by Williams van Rooij (2013).

Limitations

Interviews were conducted virtually via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of the CLOs were in the middle of transitioning their teams to virtual settings and their offerings from classroom-based to online, as well. Some of their discussed roles and tasks may have been influenced due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, other than frequent references to a leadership role in selecting or overseeing the implementation of new technical infrastructure, the impact of the pandemic seemed minor. In addition, as noted above, the respondents were largely selected based on prior connections with one of the researchers. Blichfeldt and Heldbjerg (2011) recognize that prior connections may be unavoidable in some fields and that those connections have certain advantages, as well.

Implications

As the roles, competencies, and tasks of chief learning officers have rarely received academic attention, this study provides a foundation for the future. Building on the SHRM (2016) HR Competency Model, we present a Chief Learning Officer Competency Domain Framework that has the potential to provide a useful organizing scheme for future research. The Personal Attributes competency category may be of particular interest to HR development professionals as well as to those who aspire to the most senior positions within learning and development. As discussed, “other characteristics” in KSAOs may be innate or otherwise difficult to develop in an individual.

We also propose a more nuanced approach to the relationships between roles, tasks, and competencies that may have value in the study of other complex jobs. Some competency studies have been hampered by the assumption of a linear relationship from roles to competencies to tasks. However, we assume that the relationship between roles, competencies, and tasks is nonlinear and more complex. We view competencies more as enablers of tasks. Thus, the possession of KSAOs enables an individual to successfully complete tasks. The relationship between tasks and competencies is not necessarily one-for-one, so competencies might be best thought of as foundational to all useful work. Groups of tasks are clustered into a role. A job may consist of one or more roles. A complex job, such as that of a CLO, will likely consist of several roles. A clear and consistent finding of this study is that CLOs are, first and foremost, organizational executives. As such, they need to balance technical expertise in learning and development and organizational development domains with strong general management skills, abilities, and practices.

The findings have implications for educational and organizational leadership graduate programs to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their graduate students in these domains. This study also provides recommendations for partnerships between educational and organizational programs with local organizations for aspiring learning leaders to gain experiential and project-based experiences.

Future Research and Practice

The past decade has seen a blossoming of doctoral programs aimed at developing the KSAs of CLOs. This study provides a framework for reviewing those programs. Particularly, since this study has emphasized the importance of strong executive skills in CLOs, it may point to the need for much greater collaboration between business and education faculties in the development of CLO-oriented programs (Kamikow, 2005).

The framework of competencies, roles, and tasks in this study likewise has implications for career reflection and development on the part of learning and development professionals. Cody and Shoup (2016) note the importance of up-to-date competency frameworks for what they term “self-management”. Current CLOs, in seeing how others perform their job roles and tasks as well as the competencies that they need for those roles and tasks, may be able to better reflect on their current job design or plan for their personal development. Similarly, those who aspire to the role of CLO may be assisted in their own personal development planning.

Future research can expand this initial work in a number of directions. As a preliminary study, an in-depth focus on 12 respondents provides insight. However, additional respondents may add nuance or weight to the roles and competencies. The use of quantitative tools might be helpful in this vein. In addition, this study focused solely on CLOs in business enterprises headquartered in the United States. Future studies may find variation in academic, governmental, or military organizations as well as those headquartered outside of the United States.