Identification of fundamental and managerial challenges of applying E-learning in human resources education

Introduction E-learning, an unparalleled opportunity to face the limitations of face-to-face training, the realization of the goal of education for all, and the provision for sustainable and balanced development, has rapidly expanded in most educational systems and organizations, but despite this rapid growth, there are some issues and obstacles around it. According to Al-Hujran and et al (2013), the success of e-learning is significantly dependent on the accurate recognition of key barriers and requires the attention of system administrators and designers. If organizations are not ready to setting up and deploying e-learning because of the barriers, the capacities of e-learning remain unused. Without any bias, this research attempts to represent experiences and perceptions of managers and technical officers of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC). To reach an in-depth understanding of the nature and significance of the phenomenon under study, it is focused on identifying the infrastructural and managerial barriers to applying e-learning for a specific organizational environment (in this study: National Iranian Gas Company). Therefore, the present article seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What are the infrastructural barriers to implementing e-learning at the NIGC?  2. What are the managerial barriers to implementing e-learning at the NIGC? Method In order to identify the challenges, a qualitative approach based on the phenomenological study with managers and technicians of NIGC was used. From this statistical society, eight people were selected based on purposeful sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for data gathering until the theoretical saturation was achieved. The findings were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin coding method at two open and axial coding levels. Therefore, after the interviews, four steps were followed: Full transcript of audio interviews, Extracting spoken evidence from interviews, Conceptualizing spoken evidence and finally grouping concepts and extracting categories. Finally, to ensure that the findings of qualitative analysis are valid, the Member Checking method (three interviewees) and the Peer debriefing (two professors and two Expert Ph.D. students) from Creswell and Miller (2000) were used in coding documents and interviews. In total, eight items that embraced twenty-one concepts were extracted. Research findings In response to the first question, “What are the infrastructural barriers to implementing e-learning at the NIGC?” by the findings of a semi-structured interview with the NIGC’s executives and technical managers, the three barriers can be considered: Weak communication network, weak IT support, weak physical and hardware infrastructure. In response to the second question about the managerial barriers to the implementation of e-learning in the NIGC, considering the findings of a semi-structured interview with the NIGC executives and technical managers, the administrative barriers in five sections were discussed: lack of support on the part of managers of the organization, lack of motivation among the staff, lack of human resources expert in the field of technology, not taking virtual learning seriously on the part of the organization, deficiency of encouragement and motivation system of the organization. Discussion and conclusion The participants of the present study consider infrastructure barriers as one of the most important factors in the implementing process of e-learning. This dimension consists of three main categories: weak communication network, weak IT support, weak physical and hardware infrastructure. This subject is Consistent with the results of previous studies including (Anderson, 2008; Ali and Magalhaes, 2008; Haydari et al., 2009; Al Hujranet et al., 2013; Bagherimajd et al., 2013; Roy, 2015; Tarus et al., 2015; Jafari has been far et al., 2016; Al Gamdi and Samarji, 2016; Abbasi Kasani et al., 2017; Tari et al., 2017 Mohammadi et al., 2017). Also with the results of this study, managerial barriers are the other factors affecting the successful implementation of e-learning in the NIGC. This dimension includes of the five main categories: inattention and lack of support from the managers of the organization, lack of motivation among the staff, lack of human resources expert in the field of technology, not taking virtual learning seriously on the part of the organization, deficiency of encouragement and motivation system of the organization. This is consistent with the findings of the researches such as (Vencatachellum & Munusami, 2006; Ali and Magalhaes, 2008; Tavakol and Ghazinouri Naeini, 2010; Bagherimajd et al., 2013; Tarus et al., 2015; Roy, 2015; Jafari far et al. , 2016; Al Gamdi and Samarji, 2016). In reviewing the background of research on the barriers of the e-learning implementation, the first added value of the present study is that these barriers were identified locally and considered the context of the National Iranian Gas Company. On the other hand, the data collected by the opinions of managers and technical officers of the gas sector virtual company more precisely and proportionally identifies the obstacles of e-learning implementation. In previous research, the opinions of this group are not considered. Another point is that, compared with the management and infrastructure barriers identified in this study, management barriers seem to be of much greater importance and priority for the attention of virtual education practitioners. managerial problems can have a significant impact to address or alleviate infrastructure problems as well as other problems and obstacles to the proper use of virtual education in our country. Like many barriers and problems in other areas, it is no exception for virtual education that many existing problems are rooted in the inefficiency and inadequacy of management layers in policymakers or practitioners in the field of virtual education. Totally, a review of the theoretical and empirical foundations of the barriers to e-learning implies that each of these barriers or a set of them can affect e-learning programs. Certainly, designing and setting up an e-learning system in an organization requires the provision of appropriate management and professional backgrounds. Therefore, planning and developing appropriate strategies is necessary for overcoming these obstacles.