Editorial

Citation

Cunningham, I. and Gimson, A. (2008), "Editorial", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 22 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2008.08122faa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 22, Issue 6

This is my last editorial contribution as Anne Gimson is officially taking over as editor from the next edition. I say that Anne is “officially” taking over as the reality is that, as Deputy Editor, she has been doing most of the work in recent times anyway. She has been especially important in arranging the reviewing and editing of authored articles and will continue to develop the Journal in the coming years.

This Journal started life as Training Strategies for Tomorrow and, in this mode, had a narrow focus that came out of the training era. In changing the title and re-focusing the Journal we have created a broader work that has encompassed wider developmental issues in organizations.

Most forward-thinking organizations now recognize that learning and development has to be pursued in this wider framework and that training is just one tactic in a larger pallet of choices. This new era also provides recognition for the social context of learning – purely individualistic approaches alone are not sufficient. Learning and development functions also have to operate closer to the business and provide real demand-led support to leaders and managers.

I am confident that under Anne’s leadership the Journal will go from strength to strength. I would like to thank her, the Editorial Advisory Board, our colleagues at Emerald and all our contributors for making the Journal the success it has become.

Ian Cunningham

It is a great privilege to pick up the reins from Ian Cunningham as the future editor of this journal. Under Ian’s leadership, DLO has established itself as a cutting-edge resource for those interested in learning and development that is driven by the real needs of organizations.

Over the last five years, not only has he navigated the journal into far more creative and expansive waters, he has also directly challenged our thinking and assumptions about learning through his regular Viewpoint column. Happily, we are not losing Ian’s insights altogether – I am pleased to say he has agreed to remain on the editorial board.

In this last issue for 2008, Ian’s latest Viewpoint explores the emergence of learning & development departments. He gives a potentially controversial perspective on how they might be most usefully organized and structured in the future – that is, aligned with organizational development (OD) rather than human resources (HR). He also offers a useful definition of “static” and “dynamic” OD through the example of teamworking.

This teamworking theme is picked up and developed further in our first article by Michael Bokeno. Applying four principles from complexity theory, he paints a rich picture of a different pedagogy that would result in truly collaborative activity.

Sticking with collective action, Clinton Longenecker, Greg Papp and Tim Stansfield set out a succinct framework to encourage and practice organizational post-change analysis. They highlight how businesses could learn much from the way time for reflection is an integrated part of any team performance in the worlds of sport and the military.

Employee engagement is on the agenda of many organizations. Kate Pritchard offers some insights drawn from evidence in UK public and private sector businesses, inviting us to consider appropriate interventions during an “employee lifecycle”.

Tish Matuszek, Dennis Self and Mike Schraeder delve into the complexities of mentoring in our increasingly globalized world. They ask us to consider particular challenges of effective communication between mentor and protégé such as proximity, language barriers and cultural differences.

Our review articles begin with “Good leaders loyal to learning: competitive edges sharpened by knowledge”. This piece looks at a number of ways leaders can assist people in their organizations to have a more learning oriented approach to their work. A specific method is then explored in “Failing happily: how emotions and self-leadership can lead you back to success” – looking at how to adopt a learning approach to failure and mistakes. How did you respond to your last mistake?

The practice of using drama for leadership development is examined in “The act becomes real: drama study and leadership development”. Shakespearean plays such as Henry V and Macbeth are used to explore leadership, power and influence, leading change and disruptive behavior.

Our last review article, “Management development methods: how to get the right balance” looks at a survey of trends in this area – highlighting that experiential techniques and longer-term programs received the highest ratings of learning effectiveness.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a healthy and happy New Year and I hope you will join me in thanking Ian as outgoing editor and wishing him all the best in the future.

Anne Gimson

Ian CunninghamBased at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Anne Gimsonbased at Strategic Developments International. anne@stratdevint.com