The purpose of this article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research "in complex organisations". Clearly, there are many approaches to the challenge of doing action research in organisations; approaches that are, and also must be, quite context dependent and specific. But my purpose is neither to give an…

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…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe fundamental concepts and theoretical challenges with regard to systems, and to build on these in proposing new theoretical frameworks relevant to learning, for example in so-called learning organizations. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on some crucial fundamental aspects introduced…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that changes in social systems do not occur randomly. They are consistent with what has gone on before, with the history and identity of the system. As long as the organizing principles of a dominant culture remain unchallenged, behavior of all the social-units originating from this culture will remain…

Purpose: This paper seeks to present organizational learning processes of knowledge accumulation, articulation, codification and subsequent routine development in a marketing services organization where judgment and rules of thumb were more the norm than codified knowledge and explicit routines. The case illustrates how organizational learning…

Purpose: Through a conversation with a practitioner, aims to understand the definitions given to the learning organization and how they relate to a model of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: Provides a brief overview of a conversation concerning organizational learning vs the learning organization. Findings: Organizational…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a new idea presenting the possible relationship between organisational learning and organisational design. Design/methodology/approach: The establishment of this relation is based upon extensive literature review. Findings: Organisational learning theory has been used to understand several…

Purpose: This is a comment for all those writers who claim that organizations cannot learn. The author consistently rejects this notion. Rather the author contends that organizations can learn, in at least two different ways. Design/methodology/approach: The author reviews some of the common arguments against organizational learning, and tries to…

This book is intended to give readers an observational scheme for understanding the process of organizational knowledge development at the individual and social levels. Chapter 1 examines devising a concept of organizational knowledge. In chapter 2, the place of epistemology within philosophy is discussed along with organizational, cognitivist,…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore if reflective inquiry and action learning have an influence on job and organizational effectiveness. A reflective-action learning framework will be used as a prior theory to illustrate its link to organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: The case organization is a Singapore higher learning…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of learning in a project-driven organization and demonstrate analytically how the learning, which takes place during the execution of successive projects, and the forgetting that takes place during the dormant time between the project executions, can impact performance and productivity in…

This paper provides a view of learner relationship management that looks to examine the potential for learning systems across an organizational value chain by addressing the potential for learning solutions beyond the Human Resources function in an organization. It identifies a return on investment strategy to align the goals of the organization…

This paper, while emphasizing the linkage between the concepts of "empowerment" and "learning", argues that empowerment provides the most appropriate base to effectively implement learning in construction organizations. It is argued that "efficacy-information", being a derivative of empowerment, helps influence…

Purpose: To track changes in management paradigms from the bureaucratic to the post-bureaucratic to the learning organization model, highlighting core differentiating features of each paradigm as well as necessary ingredients for successful evolution. Design/methodology/approach: The article takes the form of a literature review and critical…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the question "given all that we know about knowledge transfer in organizations, why do problems persist?" This is achieved by examining the challenges confronting organizations in developing an effective knowledge transfer strategy. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was administered to…