THE MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENCES ON LEARNING: SEASONAL STAFF MEMBER PERCEPTIONS Gwynn M. Powell, University of Georgia Robert D. Bixler, Clemson University Deborah M. Switzer, Clemson University The training of seasonal staff generally involves some type of formal program for intentionally communicating information and expectations to staff members. In one sense, the purpose of the training is to impart the rules, elements and norms that define the community ... to impart the culture of the program. While varying degrees of attention are focused upon the formal aspect of training, the organizational learning process is comprised of more than the formal training program. During formal training, informal learning also occurs and continues to occur later through on-the-job experiences. One way to further explore the informal learning aspect is to examine it in respect to different learning contexts and different socializing agents. Seasonal employment is an interesting platform to examine informal learning in that often the job situation is characterized by a limited amount of time for training and a specific set of content to be imparted. Management makes choices, whether conscious or not, regarding which elements to include in formal training. Those elements left out of formal training may still be important for optimum outcomes and organizational community development. No research has been found that examines the learning process of seasonal staff training relative to knowledge gained as a result of interactions between previous learning, formal learning, and informal learning. Nor has research examined seasonal staff training in a systematic way to explore the integration of learning processes and contexts. This study examined summer camp staff-member perceptions of the most important influences on their learning in terms of who influenced the learning and how the skill or knowledge was learned. This information documented the baseline of the types of influences in operation within the community. Camp counselors arrive with a set of beliefs, attitudes, and skills. The summer camp context stimulates the cognitive and social development of the staff members who work there. Once on-site, a pre-camp orientation period is provided, and after the training period, the counselors begin work and apply their skills while "unlearning" and "relearning" these skills based on feedback from peers, supervisors and children. Camp directors seek to create a community that may be based upon a shared culture. The creation of culture has three main concepts: information, context, and change. Culture contains information within a context that evolves (individually and collectively). The information is transmitted or acquired through various complementary and contradictory forms of learning (implicit, informal and formal). The context or environment is both acted upon and limits or enhances the scope of the information. Furthermore, culture cannot be considered transmitted or acquired until an individual makes enough connections to be able to function appropriately within a given context. Therefore, one of the roles of training is to make those connections between the known and the new information to facilitate the growth of a shared culture. Eisenhart (1990) focused upon individual elements that are exhibited during the process of an individual acquiring culture (developing expertise and increasing cognitive understanding and development) which blend as overt examples of how variability in the integration process (Strauss & Quinn, 1992). Eisenhart observed differences between informants and their acculturation in terms of the use of specific vocabulary to communicate within the culture, the amount of active participation with the culture, the effectiveness of handling social elements, the ability to handle emotions linked to aspects of the culture, and the patterns of responses chosen for roles people felt were available to them within the culture. Lyons (1998) investigated the development of a sense of community through camp staff training. His investigation revealed three main themes regarding how community was formed during staff training: 1) intentional unity was a product of conscious effort; 2) traditions played a role in defining boundaries of membership; and 3) distinctions were made between life inside and outside of camp. The adoption of culture and occupational socialization is occurring in the development of community within the summer camp, but the process has not been examined in light of the knowledge available about culture. This study examined staff perceptions of the most important influences on learning in terms of who influenced the learning ("learned from") and how the skill or knowledge was learned ("how learned"). The results provide insight into influences upon their learning change as their contexts for learning change, and, if so, whether they represent different types of learning or sources of learning. Method The study population consisted of a purposeful, stratified sample of summer camp directors and their staff members in the Southeast United States. Participants were asked to complete the same questionnaire at three points in time: the first day of staff training (to capture information about prior knowledge), the last day of training (to investigate the training period), and at one-month-on-the-job (to examine learning while doing the job). Staff members indicated the most important influence (learning source vs. learning type) on a choice matrix. In order to examine changes in responses relative to the different data collection points (first and last days of staff training and