Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine dilemmas in a district-university partnership that used network improvement communities (NIC) as a levers for systems change after COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: We draw on observations and in-depth, semi-structured interviews to understand the benefits and limitations of using network…

Program evaluation frameworks that assess organizations as complex adaptive systems can open our eyes to new approaches and understandings. The proposed iterative and adaptive developmental program evaluation framework interrelates developmental evaluation principles with adaptive action approaches. We explain and demonstrate the framework with a…

Urban school districts are often tasked with turning around poor school performance. Research, however, tends to focus on the school's role in reform and sustaining change, rather than the role of the school district, particularly the central office. This study of a mid-sized Midwestern urban K-12 school district attempts to address the gap in the…

Purpose: The faculties are crucial to education. They should have enough training facilities and be encouraged to actively contribute to high-quality education and successful learning. Faculty engagement and development activities should be explored and included in learning organizations and employee engagement in India. This paper aims to…

Purpose: Seashore Louis has enjoyed a long and productive career, contributing many key understandings to the field; among them, foundational theorizing regarding professional community, organizational learning and the role of principal leadership in organizational and student learning. In each, the role of organizational change and its bearing on…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the experience of working with different conceptualisations of participation and participatory practice. This is done through an examination of the involvement of a technology company within a multinational, 3-years participatory research project involving 13 partners and over 200 disabled people.…

Purpose: Quality management has become an integral part of management reforms in public sector organizations. Drawing on a new institutionalist perspective, this study aims to investigate the relation of management reforms and organizational performance in the context of higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyse the…

The study of disadvantages in education at all levels in Ireland is a well-researched field (Doyle and Keane 2019; Fleming and Harford 2021; Kellaghan 1995; Skerritt 2017; Tormey 2010). A variety of research approaches have been used by those involved in the endeavour to provide a range of valuable associated insights. We offer this paper at a…

The importance of professional learning and development for quality in kindergartens has been established in international research. The fact that the kindergarten is a learning organization can be crucial in achieving necessary professional learning. The aim of this study was to investigate what characterizes Norwegian kindergartens as learning…

The contemporary complex settings under which research and innovation (R&I) activities are executed in academic institutions calls for the definition of suitable management and administration approaches. To this end, (1) the existing literature on the management of R&I projects in the academia is reviewed; (2) major specificities of…

This dissertation study seeks to better understand two main ideas around institutional advancement in higher education: the knowledge and evidence that informs practice and the structures and systems that are set up for the sharing of this knowledge and evidence within and across these organizations. I use a conceptual framework based on…

Purpose: This study aims to introduce adaptive performance as an organizational performance dimension and examine the possible dynamics between the dimensions of a learning organization and adaptive performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a survey and applied factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis. Findings:…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use Watkins and Marsick model of a learning organization (1993, 1996), the dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire as a framework for interdisciplinary network collaboration and knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach: The research team used a mixed-methods approach for data…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper and the contribution to this special issue is to build on Kim and Watkins' (2018) recent finding that 'leaders mentor and coach those they lead' is the item in the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) that is most highly-correlated with performance. Given the criticality of providing…

Today, artificial intelligence technologies (AI) add significant complexities to organizational learning, performance, and change, and these technologies are proliferating across all industries at rapidly increasing rates (West, 2018). However, most organizations do not understand how to make sense of AI (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2017), and the…