This chapter considers how the assumptions, principles, and overall mind-set of coaching may be useful as organizations seek to foster lifelong relationships with their volunteer constituents.

In recent years coaching has become an increasingly popular intervention used in both personal and professional development spheres. This chapter draws on industry research from scholars as well as professional organizations to map the history, definitions, and trends of executive and organizational coaching to provide clarity on a complex and…

The paper examines the benefits claimed for action learning at individual, organisational and inter-organisational levels. It goes on to identify both generic difficulties in evaluating development programmes and action learning specifically. The distinction between formative and summative evaluation is considered and a summative evaluation…

This article is an analysis of "Performance Improvement Quarterly" (PIQ) for the years 2001-2010. The intent was to examine the article types used, the authors who contributed the most to the journal, the topics the journal most commonly focused on, and the citation frequency of the journal's articles. The analysis revealed that…

The future of adult education in the military is in many ways tied to the future of adult education. If adult educators limit their vision of what adult education is to adult learning principles, to facilitated learning, to adult basic education, and to training and education, they limit the potential of what they can do and how they do it. Adult…

The focus of this issue of the "IJTD" on organization development reinforces the importance of a continuing exploration of change. This is even more significant when considering that change is not only unavoidable but is also occurring with greater speed. Models of planned change may no longer be sufficient to address the needs of today's…

This article describes the various aspects of human resources development and highlights the intersections and the differences between what are often mistakenly viewed as interchangeable concepts. It argues that, while it is generally accepted that developing staff is fundamental to good organisational health and business outcomes, a clear…

Globalization has become a household word, permeating workplaces and communities, while internationalizing the curriculum has become common practice, not just in higher education, but also reaching into the primary grades and outward into program planning efforts in the non-formal sector. Few fields, however, can claim two international bodies…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how interruptions in organizational learning effect institutional absorptive capacity and contribute to organizational inertia. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory model is presented as a heuristic to describe how interruptions in organizational learning affect absorptive capacity.…

The international community has identified a positive link between good governance and economic development. There is an increasing appreciation of the effective role that local policy research organizations (PROs) can play in providing evidence-based policy recommendations as the basis for sound legislation and in assessing the efficacy of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical contribution to explicate the various factors and aspects that influence Senge's five disciplines and their outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of antecedents and outcomes of Senge's five disciplines, and offers moderators to…

In this paper, academic developers from universities in three countries explore underlying assumptions about what we as developers do and why we do it in relation to evaluating development programs. Through addressing three questions, key ideas emerge that highlight what is often overlooked in day-to-day practice: the fact that academic…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning to create an alternative model of how learning facilitates performance in organizations. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper selecting targeted scholarly works that provide support for the…

This paper explores the conduct and outcomes of an action learning activity during a period of intense organisational change in a medium-sized vocational education and training organisation in Victoria, Australia. This organisation was the subject of significant change due to government-driven and statewide amalgamation, downsizing and sector…

The role of work-based learning is a pivotal part of developing the learning region. With rates of employment at their highest for many years across Europe, the need for up-skilling the workforce in many areas will be essential to retain competitiveness and employability. This paper will focus on quality management up-skilling in small to…