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Could enthusiasm for e-learning be dampened because it is detrimental to the relationships between those undergoing e-training and their direct managers or colleagues? Interviews conducted in four French banks provide material to explore this question. We see that e-learning has increasingly been adopted because it goes beyond the role limitations imposed by traditional training formats. Initially, however, the uptake of e-learning was hampered because it imposed a role on trainees which did not correspond to their socialization needs. The companies in question responded to this problem by proposing 'blended learning' (that is, alternate sessions of e-learning and in class face-to-face sessions). Nevertheless, the development of e-learning remains limited today partly because of the role conflict it creates in the workplace: should an employee engaged in e-learning in his office workstation be considered 'at work' or 'in training'? This role conflict is detrimental to the relationships between the e-learners, their colleagues and the direct manager. Solutions offered by companies may address this particular problem, but all of these reduce the efficiency of e-learning sessions, and thus contribute to limiting its future development.

PurposeCompetencies have come to play a central role in a wide range of settings in UK public and private sector contexts. This phenomenon is usually analysed but rarely recontextualised. The purpose of this paper is to identify the epistemological and ontological paradigms on which these approaches are couched in a British historical socio‐cultural context.Design/methodology/approachTo put into light what this alternative perspective on competencies could add to reflection and practice, this paper realizes an in‐depth two‐year ethnographic study (employing participant‐observer methods) of a consultancy delivered training programme for customer service competency based vocational qualification in a water utilities company based in the north of England.FindingsBased on a wide literature review on competencies, the first main result of this paper is to show that many of competencies approaches are underpinned by an empirical, pragmatic and ultimately modernistic, positivistic predilection. In an attempt to reappraise this rigid and highly structured representation of competencies, the paper draws on the resources of critical management approaches and notions of “lived experience”. The main empirical result is that competencies are richer than competencies (especially NVQs) usually suppose it and that critical perspectives are valuable in seeking to address these lacunae.Originality/valueThe paper offers an innovative insight to alternative dimensions of the experience of working with competency frameworks. Overall, a further value of this paper is to provide an assessment and a critique of the experience of competencies and vocational training in the UK. This recontextualisation underlines that competencies are weak at capturing and portraying the rich panoply of multifarious emotions and social interactions that take place in the workplace and everyday job life.

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La diffusion de la gestion des compétences permet aujourd’hui d’analyser la manière dont elle est utilisée par les salariés (Gilbert, 2003). Cet article montre que l’analyse des usages imprévus des instruments de gestion des compétences permet de mieux comprendre leur dynamique. L’analyse empirique est centrée sur le cas d’une entreprise pétrochimique qui rémunère les compétences depuis 10 ans. Un instrument de gestion est composé d’éléments hétérogènes articulés. Les usages imprévus affaiblissent cette articulation. Ils constituent donc un élément d’explication de la trajectoire de l’instrument de gestion.