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By definition, all organizations that survive as their environment evolves are learning, at least to some degree, but proposes that the learning capabilities of most organizations are extremely limited, especially when learning requires that diverse constituencies build shared understanding of dynamically complex business environments. As such, learning capabilities become increasingly needed, and those organizations which possess them will have unique advantages. Discovering how organizations might develop such learning capabilities represents a unique opportunity for partnership between researchers and practitioners. Suggests that to do this will require consensus about the research territory, research methods and goals, and how meaningful field projects can be designed and conducted.

Career anchor theory developed by Ed Schein in 1978 has been subject to limited further research, despite being widely used as a career tool within organisations. This article describes the importance of career anchor data for organisational as opposed to individual use and reports on a study of the career anchors of 374 employees in the UK. The results show that age, gender and length of service have no significant effect on the distribution of anchors, although there are grade‐related differences. Suggestions are made on how career anchor distribution data could be used by organisations to determine appropriate career development strategies.

For 30 years the series, Research in Organizational Change and Development (ROCD) has provided an extensive range of scholarly research and philosophical reflections on the field of organization development and change (ODC). On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first volume, this chapter poses the question as to how we might learn about the philosophy of ODC research from the 24 published volumes. Taking the author’s explicit pursuit of the question as a process of interiority, it invites readers to engage with the question themselves and thereby enact interiority within ODC itself.

This paper examines the relationships between career anchors, age, culture, gender, employment experience and the impact of downsizing on career planning. Presents the results drawn from 423 graduate business students in Australia, the USA, Malaysia, South Africa and the UK. Aims to explore Schein’s contention that employees develop a self‐concept or career anchor that holds their “internal career” together even as they experience a dramatic change in their “external career” that leads to greater self‐discovery. Previous studies have examined differences in career orientations in Europe, the USA and the UK. This research allows examination of the distribution of career anchors within a multi‐cultural sample across age groups, gender, culture and work experience. The data also enable investigation of the relationship between career anchors and reported impact of organisational downsizing on career decisions.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Organization Development (OD) is one of the newer HR buzzwords, driven by a variety of business needs such as leadership development, change management, internal communication and business process re‐engineering. Text book definitions of OD make it sound as if it should be a lot more systematic and methodical than it is in practice. While OD writers such as Warner Burke, Richard Beckhard and Ed Schein define specific phases of organization development, the reality within an organization is different, with the HR or OD practitioner having to work more opportunistically.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to provoke academic and practitioner thinking by asserting a set of leadership principles first in oneself and then in others.

The paper asserts a set of leadership principles, including a new definition of leadership, namely to manage energy. First, most managers seem to use more traditional definitions, like getting people to focus on a common goal, and, second, to focus on others at the expense of recognizing how their own energy level affects those around them.

Leaders and managers should first reflect on leading themselves and their own energy, while paying more attention to real buy‐in rather than superficial buy‐in. Moreover, leader/managers should pay more attention to the degree to which they live “outside‐in” and therefore behave less “leader‐like” on the inside. Leader/managers can begin to use “level three” techniques rather than the more superficial “level one” (visible behavior) and “level two” (conscious thought) techniques. In this way, managers change the way they think about managing themselves.

This paper builds on, and adds to, the work of Ed Schein, Albert Ellis, William Glasser, Tony Damasio, and others. The originality lies in the collection and integration of concepts raised by these writers, and others.