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1 – 10 of 121A change is occurring in how people think about who in the organization has credible and valuable knowledge that the organization can use to solve its difficult problems. This…
Abstract
A change is occurring in how people think about who in the organization has credible and valuable knowledge that the organization can use to solve its difficult problems. This shift is a movement away from the idea that knowledge is found only in a select group of experts or “best” practitioners and toward the idea that useful knowledge is distributed throughout the whole of an organization. Knowledge‐sharing systems at Ford, British Petroleum and Lockheed‐Martin reflect this change.
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Managers frequently experience difficulty in implementing skillsthey learn in management development courses owing to two obstacles; (1)the conflict between the skills being…
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Managers frequently experience difficulty in implementing skills they learn in management development courses owing to two obstacles; (1) the conflict between the skills being taught in the course and the manager′s current skills which may be so well learned as to be automatic; and (2) the conflict between the skills being taught and the manager′s assumptions about self, others and the organisation which may not support the new skills. The combination of Action Science (Argyris) and Action Learning (Revans) provides a powerful methodology to surmount these two obstacles. The processes involved are: critical reflection, re‐framing, and unlearning/relearning. These processes are practised in heterogeneous small groups which meet over several months to resolve real organisational problems.
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As organizations move toward organizational learning the responsibilities of members change. Organizational members, themselves, should be giving consideration to what these new…
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As organizations move toward organizational learning the responsibilities of members change. Organizational members, themselves, should be giving consideration to what these new responsibilities should be, rather than leaving this task to management. Six possible responsibilities are suggested here to begin such a discussion. These responsibilities call on organizational members to accept greater responsibility for the generation and sharing of knowledge, but equally important is determining the organization’s purpose and sharing in its governance.
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This paper proposes a framework for understanding the concept of a learning organization from a normative perspective. A questionnaire was developed to operationally measure the…
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This paper proposes a framework for understanding the concept of a learning organization from a normative perspective. A questionnaire was developed to operationally measure the described management practice attributes of a learning organization. Using a sample of four organizations and 612 subjects, support was found for three a priori predictive hypotheses derived from a conceptual framework. Implications of the results and further empirical research are discussed, especially for linking learning organization attributes to performance using larger samples and multiple measures.
Peter A.C. Smith and Judy O’Neil
Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of…
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Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.
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Leaders often display the all-too-human characteristic of talking only or mostly to people with whom they agree. Yet, to be effective as a leader in many circumstances requires…
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Leaders often display the all-too-human characteristic of talking only or mostly to people with whom they agree. Yet, to be effective as a leader in many circumstances requires reaching out and engaging in dialogue with those who one may fundamentally disagree and may even view as an enemy. To do so requires a particular conception of leadership, one that values dialogue. Effective dialogue, however, requires both skill and will. This article describes the concepts and strategies of a university program developed to encourage the will to engage in dialogue.
This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Nancy Dixon, who has been at the forefront of the learning…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Nancy Dixon, who has been at the forefront of the learning organization discussion since the 1980s.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a conversation with Dixon, and a scan of some of her works, this paper discusses several topics pertaining to the evolution of the learning organization debate, from Dixon’s perspective.
Findings
Dixon’s understanding of learning organizations was influenced by concepts related to action learning where people in organizations learn through meeting and talking about their problems. What distinguishes her understanding from others in that it is built more on the perspective of psychological safety, as inspired by Amy Edmonson's work.
Originality/value
Dixon acknowledges that her work has had more impact on the practitioner side. Dixon maintains that learning organizations are more egalitarian and move away from hierarchy. There are ethical underpinnings to this understanding as, with psychological safety, people are willing to speak up in those situations when their voices are needed to be heard.
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Women are, in increasing numbers, participating in the labour market and are an important part of an organisation’s human resource pool. Nevertheless, women still face…
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Women are, in increasing numbers, participating in the labour market and are an important part of an organisation’s human resource pool. Nevertheless, women still face inappropriate treatment at work. One cause of this is family‐related issues. In particular, pregnancy and child birth present special challenges for working women. Discrimination towards pregnant women is commonplace in work settings. Problems are often related to individual work relationships, for example, the one between the pregnant follower and her manager. It is important to understand problems that impact on women in working life that can disturb their job satisfaction, their performance and willingness to give their best for the organisation. Therefore, for the benefit of both employer and employee, existing practices in leader follower relationships during pregnancy are worth studying in more depth. In leadership studies, the Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) theory is focused on dyadic leader‐follower relationships and is thus used here to understand this phenomenon. In the present article, the literature on pregnancy and work as well as on LMX is re viewed. On the basis of these reviews, a future research agenda is offered.
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