Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of the learning organization, first discussed by Senge (1990), to determine if it can work as a model in the higher education sector.

Using a critical feminist framework, this paper assesses the possibilities and challenges of viewing universities as inclusive learning organizations, with a particular focus on women in academic faculty and leadership roles.

It argues that, ultimately, the impact of neoliberal values and underlying systemic structures that privilege male scholars need to be challenged through shifts in policies and practices to address ongoing issues of gender inequality in higher education.

The paper draws attention to the need to bring a critical feminist lens to an analysis of the concept of the learning organization if it is to be perceived as having merit in the higher education sector.

This paper aims to first introduce the four contributions to the themed issue of The Learning Organization entitled “Learning Organization/Organizational Learning and Gender Issues”. Second, the commonalities among these articles function as themes that can generate further research and engaged or problem-driven scholarship and practice.

Feminist critique.

These articles challenge commonsense, blur boundaries between reality and imagined visions and form a multilevel matrix for understanding and change regarding gendered learning organizations.

As an introduction to a special issue, this essay summarizes and extends on the four contributions and then extends the insights to encourage discovery, learning and engagement.

The purpose of this research is to explore the interaction between organizational policies and daily work practices of paramedics and firefighters within two emergency response organizations.

Data were collected in a case study consisting of interviews, focus groups, and observations. The theoretical grounding for this research is framed by learning in practice through legitimate peripheral participation.

Analysis of the data found that paramedics and firefighters value learning in their daily work above initial qualification training. They learn in practice through increasing collaboration with others, and in the broader context of legitimate peripheral participation. Organizational policies can help in guiding their decision making processes, but learning in practice and relying on experience is most helpful in their daily work.

The notion of situated learning is insufficient to explain the dramatic performance of emergent, creative, and autonomous actions often required of individual emergency personnel in crisis situations.

This study adds to the current literature on communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation. It applies learning theory to emergency response organizations to demonstrate the need to focus on practice and understandings in workplaces. The research also offers a greater understanding of the unique job of emergency response personnel who must often make instantaneous decisions in critical situations and must therefore understand their practice to ensure positive outcomes.

As a result of the recent changes in world politics, especially in Eastern Europe (and between the United States and the Soviet Union), there has been a re‐evaluation of the United States military forces. There is a movement to develop a variety of ways to trim the numbers of those in the active duty military. At the same time, there is a recognised need to offer assistance to those departing the military and to enable them to make a smooth transition into the civilian world of work. Although the research reported here was conducted over two years ago and focused on those retiring from the military, the issues raised may be more relevant today.

Construction organizations' investment in effective talent-development programs is a key strategy in attracting, developing and retaining staff. Such programs are especially important given the current challenges in the construction workforce, including labor shortages, an aging workforce, generational differences in the workforce, supply chain disruptions and the need to effectively train staff in the skills that are essential in a constrained labor environment. To address these challenges, this study proposes a performance measurement strategy that construction companies can use as input to design their talent development programs.

The strategy intends to assess the performance of project managers and develop criteria that define categories of their performance, including the top performers' category. This enables construction organizations to provide each project manager with individualized training that addresses areas of weakness and in turn, develops the skills that correspond with being top performers. The proposed strategy was developed and tested by surveying the immediate supervisors of 187 project managers working for general and specialty contractors in the United States. Principal component analysis was used to develop a single performance construct from seven performance criteria.

This construct was used to organize the project managers into the categories of top, above-average and below-average performers. According to the findings, top-performing project managers have well-rounded skills in the areas of leadership, communication, technical proficiency and overall job knowledge.

The outcomes of this study can help construction organizations focus their talent-development programs on the skills most associated with PMs being top performers.

This study provides construction organizations with a comprehensive performance-measuring construct to focus their talent-development programs on the skills most associated with top-performing project managers. Researchers can use this study as a foundation for further understanding how performance is related to various construction professions.