Search results

Disparities in learning opportunities endure. This paper aims to investigate whether the learning representative schemes in the UK and New Zealand (NZ) may redress disparate opportunities for learning.

An interview study of UK trade unions' educational officers and an interview study of representatives of bodies involved in designing the NZ learning representative scheme are used to consider each scheme's capability to address disparate learning opportunities.

The paper finds that the UK scheme allows trade unions to initiate vocational and non‐vocational learning opportunities locally. Legislative and financial support allows some redress of inequalities in learning opportunities. The NZ scheme was introduced through a tripartite alliance of central organizations, without legislative support, to provide vocational opportunities. This scheme may facilitate learning opportunities at companies where the constituents of the central organizations support the initiative.

The UK scheme is firmly established, while the NZ scheme has only been developed recently. The potential for further developments in the New Zealand scheme must be acknowledged.

Union‐backed learning representative schemes in different countries have been introduced to redress the unequal distribution of learning opportunities that exist at work. However, to date, there has been limited research into the potential for learning representative schemes to promote learning in different organizational contexts. There is a need for further research in this area.

The paper presents findings from the first comparative study of the learning representative schemes in the UK and NZ.

Argues that trade union education has tended to mirror the wider fortunes and complexities both within the particular union (or unions) and within the wider socio‐economic environment. The present period is, arguably, one such “moment” where the conceptions and practices informing trade union education are strongly informed by wider societal considerations. This paper examines this “moment”.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how communication and cooperation in inter‐organizational networks may bring about organizational learning. A case study of 13 inter‐organizational school networks in Germany is carried out for this purpose.

Results of a quantitative survey assessing the performance of the 13 networks are presented. A subsequent qualitative survey of two highly innovative networks takes into account the learning effects in school practice. The analysis is predicated on an activity theoretic view on learning and development.

Two levels of consideration are distinguished: the learning platform where representatives of the schools regularly meet and the operational work at the schools. The perception of how the representatives in the network learned how the colleagues at the schools who are not directly involved learned and how the school as a whole learned is appreciated differently. Outcomes vary from “exchange of new ideas” to “implementation of school development.”

The paper is based on empirical research carried out at one point in time. A longitudinal study of inter‐organizational network performance could shed more light on the dynamic validity of the model.

Understanding networks allow to appreciate their outcomes. The outcomes of this paper provide guides on how to design more effective learning networks.

The conceptual model distinguishes between two network levels, its interrelated learning effects and the different stages of learning and development. Learning networks can be assessed due to the learning categories, and success factors can be identified.

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 through a conscious knowledge codification effort could lead to tangible benefits for consumer‐driven organizations and how heterogeneous and infrequent yet important routines can be aided by an explicit and dynamic learning process.

After a review of the relevant literature, a case is provided to illustrate many of the key concepts in the organizational learning literature as they are applied to a consumer package goods company.

The case study is followed by a discussion of how the organization in the case applied organizational learning processes through a knowledge clarification and codification system. The organizational learning process was enabled by contextual enablers such as leadership commitment to organizational learning, teamwork and organization‐wide participation in the knowledge articulation and codification processes, and multi‐lateral flow of information across the organization in developing the routines.

Implications of how companies in market‐oriented environments that often have nuanced practices and uncodified norms could utilize various organizational learning processes are discussed in the paper.

It is rare in the field of organizational learning to see the application of numerous learning theories in one place and one organization. Such was the case in this examination, where different roles played by different organizational components, such as support from leadership, teamwork and flexibility, organization‐wide participation, and multilateral communication, in addition to knowledge accumulation, articulation, codification, and circular learning loops were utililzed by the organization to produce marketplace success for a major consumer battery company with heterogeneous and nuanced yet important learning requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the degree to which current union learning strategy and practice in the UK can become a catalyst for greater activism and participation by their members in the workplace and beyond. To this end, the paper seeks to draw on the rich heritage of pedagogic theory and practice in adult education writing to bring a fresh perspective to a key aspect of industrial relations.

Through a meta-analysis of the current literature on the role of union learning representatives, learning centres and the context of that learning, the paper seeks to enhance understanding of how such initiatives in addition to upskilling workers lead to members' greater enlightenment with respect to the asymmetric power relations within the workplace and society. Using a conceptual model devised by the author from Freirean theory, this potentially increased awareness of their position in the organisation and society leading to greater levels of subsequent activism and participation by these learners is then critically assessed.

Utilising the radical perspective of Paulo Freire, the article critically analyses the key elements of current union learning strategies in the UK. The paper concludes that union pedagogy strategy not just often raises members' awareness, as Freire would advocate, of their “subordinate” position in society, but potentially also genuinely equips them with the skills, knowledge and understanding to challenge that position through subsequent union activism and, therefore, greater participation in decision-making in the workplace. Union-facilitated learning, it is argued, can also develop the skills and knowledge necessary to increase members' job security.

To the author's knowledge, this is the first time that a Freirean analysis has been applied to this key element of contemporary trade union strategy and practice. In particular, the study seeks to also go beyond most studies of union pedagogic approaches and focus on the learner's journey and how this may imbue a propensity to become more active in the union and, therefore, the workplace.

This paper aims to illustrate how innovative trade union strategies are emerging around the learning agenda and how these are being used to extend union strategies within the workplace and the community. However, it also shows how such strategies can be confronted with difficulties particularly when they are located in fixed spaces leaving them unable to develop or become sustainable once these spaces are challenged or closed due to inconsistent state and employer support.

An in depth case study approach was adopted for the research, using predominantly semi‐structured interviews with a wide range of individuals over an 18 month period.

The paper suggests that although unions are increasingly pushing forward their learning agenda and developing workplace and community learning centres, which undoubtedly generate benefits for all stakeholders, their learning strategies are often fixed into specific, closed locations and spaces, finding it difficult to develop once these spaces are challenged or closed due to restructuring and organisational change.

The paper does not suggest that this case is representative of all learning initiatives but it does seem that learning as a part of the inclusion and union renewal agenda is not clearly co‐ordinated in terms of their social, spatial and employment position.

This paper represents new empirical research presented at a time when learning initiatives as well as community initiatives are high on government's agenda particularly as they are encouraging “the third sector” to play an increasing role in providing public services. Similarly, the paper addresses issues of ethnicity, migration and learning, again a topic high on government agendas.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a qualitative study of the views of a cross-section of managers and union officials engaged in joint learning projects on the impact more generally on the employee relations climate in those organisations.

Findings are based on an analysis of interview data incorporating the views and experiences of 32 union representatives and managers engaged in promoting learning in a number of case study projects in North West England.

Findings suggest that union-led learning and development has a clear impact on pre-empting potential performance issues for individuals in terms of better equipping them with the skills to achieve expected performance levels, assisting individuals with managing work-related stress and also to prevent discrimination against workers. Collectively, the managing of downsizing in particular through union-led learning support to retrain in order to redeploy effected staff or better prepare them for new employment opportunities was also a significant finding.

The research suggests that successful union-management learning partnerships can also have a positive impact on managing conflict in those organisations. However, further research is needed to test these assertions in other union organised sectors.

There are implications for management in recognising the “added value” that partnership working with their unions on learning can bring in terms of also both pre-empting and resolving individual and collective disputes in the workplace.

The research is one of few studies that focuses on the link between promoting learning through union-management partnerships and managing conflict in organisations and offers a clear insight into how this can be achieved in practice.

The current Internet Outlook of the OECD states that e‐learning has the potential to revolutionise education and learning – if complemented by suitable didactic approaches. Therefore, the situation of e‐learning is analysed from a student's perspective with focus on a new master program in Global Studies. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the use of ICTs within Global Studies compared to other fields of study.

The empirical basis of this paper is one online survey for students of Global Studies Graz and personal interviews with students' representatives of three different courses of studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Graz and at the University of Vienna.

Although the intensity of e‐learning technologies is relatively low in Austria as compared to other OECD countries, several courses within the master curriculum of Global Studies Graz use innovative e‐learning techniques at several levels. The level and intensity of ICT usage in Austria reflects the interests of students: around 60 percent prefer ICTs as amendment to traditional teaching methods. Only around 7 percent demand a higher supply of pure online courses.

The findings of this paper can be helpful especially for universities that intend to initiate a master program on global equity, multiculturality, social inclusion, global development, or globalisation.

The findings show that students in Austria prefer on‐campus contact with students and lecturers. Nevertheless, in cases where e‐learning increases the quality of lectures and their academic outcomes, it is preferable from a student perspective to further promote the use of ICTs in tertiary education.

Authentic results of student experiences and approaches such as the present analysis are important in order to improve the quality of Global Studies and other similar academic programs.