Engaging leadership training – fostering social interaction skills through e-learning and blended solutions

The Engaging Learning Environment (ELE) model was introduced into a company’s work-place to support the learning and well-being of the employees. The participants were 107 middle managers: E-learning group (n = 42) and a comparison group (n = 42) as well as a blended ELE intervention group (n = 23) assigned by the company that combined e-learning and face-to-face sessions. All groups participated in pre- and post-tests. The participants’ knowledge was assessed by 16 MCQs and their application skills by the Dealing with Challenging Interaction (DCI) method which consisted of case studies. The descriptions of how to act in case situations were content analysed. A repeated measures GLM was used to determine whether knowledge and skills changed during the leadership training, and whether their belonging to one of the groups had any bearing on this. The analysis showed that the e-learning group improved their performance more than the comparison group and the results of the ELE intervention group improved even more. Therefore, it is possible to learn communication skills online.