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…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for studying organizational learning, firm innovation and firm financial performance. Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines the effects of organizational learning on innovation and performance among 287 listed Chinese companies. Findings: The results indicate a positive…

Upon the realization that teachers inhabit a "cage" of their own, but one very different from that which ensnares school or system administrators, the author wrote the book, "The Cage-Busting Teacher," from which this article is drawn. The author spent a year interviewing a couple hundred teachers, teacher advocates, union…

Support for producing systematic reviews about health systems is less well developed than for those about clinical practice. From interviewing policy makers and systematic reviewers we identified institutional mechanisms which bring systematic reviews and policy priorities closer by harnessing organisational and individual motivations, emphasising…

Purpose: There is an ongoing shortage of talented supply chain managers with the necessary skills and business-related competencies to manage increasingly complex and strategically important supply chain processes. The purpose of this paper is to propose that organizations can create and maintain competitive advantage by leveraging the expertise…

Leaders of education organizations must determine how to positively impact students, staff, and families while ensuring organizational strength. Innovative leaders and entrepreneurs seek to develop and roll out new ideas to dramatically advance students' achievement. However, the need to innovate does not supersede the need to execute on a core…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to assess the extent to which these practitioners ' perspectives and practices match Willis's conception of a Revans "gold standard" of action learning. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a qualitative design and methodology based on interviews and the collection of cases or accounts of…

Purpose: Understanding the factors behind successful enterprise policy interventions are critical in ensuring effective programme development. The aim of this paper is to analyse an academic-industry initiative in Sweden developed to support knowledge-intensive businesses in expanding their operations. Design/methodology/approach: This paper…

Within the unique and complex settings of university hospitals, it is difficult to implement policy initiatives aimed at developing careers in and improving the quality of academic medical teaching because of the competing domains of medical research and patient care. Factors that influence faculty in making use of teaching policy incentives have…

Due to their important roles in organizational performance, internal marketing and organizational citizenship behavior have become more interesting subjects among researchers and practitioners. However, empirical research is limited in the literature, and the relationship between these two variables in higher educational institutions is not clear.…

To determine how academic library leaders make decisions about their organization's future and how they effect changes, the author interviewed 44 university librarians and deans from institutions belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). The author analyzed the interviews using content analysis to identify the most frequent…

Very little is known about leadership at an individual level in the scholarship of leadership and social change. In this study using institutional ethnography as a research method, I survey graduate students of the Organizational Development and Leadership program of a mid-Atlantic university. Qualitative data analyses reveal that majority of the…

Purpose: Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), the purpose of this paper is to develop a framework and instrument to measure the organisational capabilities of university schools/departments. In doing so, this study provides evidence of the way competitive resources are bundled to generate organisational capabilities that give university…

This study examines a Wallace Foundation-sponsored initiative aimed at improving the financial management skills and practices of 25 Chicago afterschool providers through training and coaching. Two models for this professional development were provided and each produced long-lasting improvements. Moreover, organizations receiving the…

This practice paper describes how leadership education faculty and students at Virginia Tech have facilitated change through the use of appreciative inquiry (Ai) at the departmental level, program level, and project level. Appreciative inquiry has been found to be a useful tool for leadership educators, as its foundation in social constructionist…