This account of practice discusses how we have implemented an emerging action learning framework in the form of guiding questions that are relevant to key stakeholders: the client organisation (sponsoring organisation), the management development company, the participants and the Learning Process Facilitator (LPF) to aid participants in their…

Business Driven Action Learning (BDAL), as a learning philosophy that attempts to create real value for business is often used by executive education providers in their management development programmes. As the action learning facilitator, I found that the learning that took place during such a management development programme resulted in…

Teaching methods in MBA and Lifelong Learning Programmes (LLP) for managers should be topically relevant in terms of content as well as the teaching methods used. In terms of the content, the integral part of MBA and Lifelong Learning Programmes for managers should be the development of participants' leadership competencies and their understanding…

This account of practice presents two cases of the application of Action Learning (AL) communication methodology as described by Marquardt [2004. "Optimising the power of action learning". Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing]. The teams were Czech and international top management teams. The AL methodology was used to improve…

This article addresses an important, yet often underattended to, aspect of the strategy development process: fostering the use of strategic learning practices in the simultaneous practice of developing strategy and cultivating strategic mindset awareness. The need for addressing this aspect of the strategy development process is increasingly…

This account examines the action learning process adopted by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., embedded in the organization through the in-company Emerald Academy. In case study format, the paper emphasizes that in order to align learning with organizational objectives joined up thinking and practice is needed beyond the learning and development…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how owner-managers of small businesses can learn in peer networks to improve their management skills. It aims to offer a new way of understanding owner-managers' learning as part of a social process, by highlighting the complex, interactive relationship that exists between the owner-manager, his or…

The purpose of this study was to explore the processes and steps that business leaders go through as they champion sustainability initiatives, seeking to understand the learning strategies, knowledge and supports they found, as well as the mindset that helped them. This research contributes to an emerging body of knowledge that addresses the need…

This book assembles over 50 papers from the 7th Triennial European Research Conference of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA), which was held from the 4th to the 7th of September 2013 at Humboldt-University in Berlin. The title of the conference was "Changing Configurations of Adult Education in Transitional…

This paper explores the role that action learning might play in micro and small enterprise development. It is divided into two parts. The first part focuses upon the distinctive characteristics of smallness and ownership and their implication for management development processes in the owner managed firm. In particular the impact of personal…

The article describes an in-house executive development programme run by the authors in a leading banking group in the CEE region. The programme attempts to follow a systemic approach to learning and contains a mix of elements including action learning, classroom teaching, study, peer support and feedback and "learning visits" to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the fact that conferences for professionals rely on massive one-way communication and hence produce little learning for delegates--and to introduce an alternative, the "learning conference", that involves delegates in fun and productive learning processes.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that action learning (AL) may provide a means of successfully developing small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: The literature around SME learning suggests a number of processes are important for SME learning which similarity, it is argued, are encompassed in AL. AL may…

Kurt Lewin's epigrammatic paradox is particularly true for action learning. Marquardt and Waddill (2004), and previously Yorks O'Neil and Marsick (1999) have approached the issue of the relationship between theory and action learning by looking at a variety of theories which they have placed in "schools". This provides an interesting analysis, but…

A pilot action learning set was established in late September 2002, with the objective to develop a model of action learning appropriate for R&D managers. This initiative was one of a number of responses to a request for training and support by a small group of R&D managers who were based in non-teaching acute and primary care NHS trusts.…