This account of practice offers reflections and insights on facilitating Action Learning (AL) in Leadership Programmes within the Higher Education context. The account shares our reflections and key observations as practitioner academics, facilitating AL Sets within three higher education leadership programmes. We draw on our knowledge and…

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…

Higher education institutions can be key agents of innovation and regional development. Nevertheless, they are in a transition period: good, tried, and tested practices no longer work or do not work as well as they used to, while new, fully developed, and widely applied solutions are yet to emerge. In this paper, we investigate to what extent…

This paper presents a framework which captures the complexity and multi-dimensional process of learning in action learning (AL) on an accredited executive Master's programme. The framework extends current knowledge by presenting a holistic participant perspective of learning. Underpinned by a social constructionist epistemology, the study…

This paper explores the professional practice of the Action Learning (AL) facilitator through a process of critical inquiry, self-reflection and evaluation of action learning practice within a Higher Education Leadership Programme, commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust. Action research was adopted as the overarching research approach…

This paper provides a thematic analysis of research papers published in Action Learning: Research and Practice over the past 20 years. The analysis concentrates on the different contexts in which action learning has taken place and on the variations of action learning that have been presented in different papers. Contexts discussed in this paper…

There is concern that management and business research favours rigour and theory over relevance and practice. There are pressures from funding councils for researchers to show more impact. The paper shows how the bridge between the academic world and the world of practice can be served by action learning. Consideration is given to the difficulties…

We discuss an innovative action-learning course co-developed by the University of Northern British Columbia, the Prince George Chamber of Commerce (Canada) and local businesses. The Carbon and Energy Management course is an undergraduate/graduate course initiated by the Chamber to address an interest in climate change amongst local…

This paper adds to the body of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of action learning to achieve measurable progress toward sustainability goals. It supports prior assertions that action and reflection develop the conditions of "awareness," "agency" and "association" required to develop the circular economy. The early…

Human resource development professionals in Higher Education are continually striving to develop efficient interventions to increase the capabilities of their leaders. As a result of evaluating feedback from an action learning (AL) programme designed and delivered in North West Higher Education Institutions in the UK for women in senior academic…

Insights into the learning environment are required especially when applying action learning commonly used in management development programmes (MDPs). The study reports on an emerging action learning conceptual framework that fosters an environment for individual transformative learning in an MDP. The purpose of this research was to make clear…

The article describes the experience of forming a set in a higher education institution and offers some observations and insights gained from the perspectives of the role of the set adviser, cultural differences and the challenges of attempting to align theory, practice and experience.

This account of practice describes the introduction of an accredited postgraduate management qualification which used action learning as a major contribution to a blended learning approach in a fragile cross-border setting on the edge of Europe. Conventional management education has frequently been challenged on the grounds of relevance, efficacy…

This paper reports the historical foundation of Northeastern University's course, LDR 6100: Developing Your Leadership Capability, a partial literature review of action learning (AL) and virtual action learning (VAL), a course methodology of LDR 6100 requiring students to apply leadership perspectives using VAL as instructed by the author,…

This article provides an account of self-managed action learning (SMAL), where it came from and how it has been implemented in practice. Self-managed action learning offers a way of realising action learning without the continuing presence of a set advisor in set meetings to facilitate the process. It enables participants to manage and facilitate…