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Since the late 1980s, the concepts of organizational learning (OL) and learning organization (LO) has prospered and been advocated as an effective strategy for organizational excellence. However, there was a lack of systematic documentation or cases reported proving the sustaining effect of OL. The purpose of this paper is to present a successful 15-year OL case in China, with which to prove PAL is a sustainable vehicle for OL.

This study documents a 15-year successful journey of a project-based action learning (PAL) driven OL setting in a multinational high-tech manufacturing company in China. The case study has been focusing on the progress of the four pillars in the PAL framework (i.e. policy and strategy; learning facilitation; resources and technology; and performance management) throughout the 15-year journey. Besides secondary data collection, on-site interviews with participants and the management of the company were carried out.

From this longitudinal case study, it can be seen that the four pillars form a very robust infrastructure supporting PAL for driving OL within the company. Each pillar is indispensable and evolves according to the needs of the others. Both management and learning team members perceived that PAL is an effective tool to drive OL within the case company.

This paper presents a unique15-year longitudinal examination of a successful OL story in a high-tech company in China, through the adoption of the PAL driven framework and the evolutionary road of the associated parts. While successful, this paper is considered as a “stage” summary of the long range road of OL adoption, with PAL proven to be a sustainable OL vehicle.

This paper aims to present the result of the pilot run of a research project which aims at evaluating the applicability of project-based action learning (PAL) to shop floor organizational learning (OL) component in a manufacturing company in Dongguan, China. How the PAL framework was introduced and implemented is described. The factors that influence PAL implementation are examined in this pilot implementation. The implications and effectiveness are discussed. The findings shed light on the modifications needed in the PAL framework for shop floor implementation.

This is a longitudinal case research which is conducted in a case company (APT) located in Dongguan, China. PAL framework was introduced and implemented in APT. A wave-like approach was used to repeat launching PAL projects in cycles. Data of learning and work performances were collected for review during each phase and each cycle of the project. The result presented here is from the early round of the pilot PAL implementation.

Result indicated that the PAL framework is applicable in the shop floor level OL. Learning and performance have been found to have improved in all the PAL groups participating in the pilot run. Result also shows that the PAL implementation framework needs some fine tuning to meet the needs of the unique shop floor environment particularly with regard to performance measure and evaluation.

No such case study has been conducted in shop floor level before. The research study will be valuable experience and example for other organizations to implement OL in shop floor level.

Concept of “organisational learning” has been widely advocated as one of the solutions for organisational development, especially for those companies requiring high level of technology and knowledge. While being applied to the entire organisation, the concept of organisational learning can also be applied to specific function or project teams, which can be named as “project” based organisations. This paper presents a new approach of learning for the project‐based teams, which integrates learning and project in one, towards organisational learning ideals. Performance evaluation mechanism is also developed. With the developed evaluation, three dimensions of team performance, within the scope of project action‐learning framework would be measured. It would tell the team where it stands at a particular point of time. In order to track the critical variables required to reach the goals, the developed measurement system framework will be adopted in the implementation phase.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and technology through the lens of strategic factors and to ascertain future research directions.

The systematic literature review method was applied in three stages to the 76 articles obtained from Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and EBSCO databases.

This research revealed the evolution of the role of OL in innovation, performance, knowledge management and technological adoption and showcases a detailed conceptual model relating technology outcomes (technological innovation and capabilities) to OL outcomes (technology absorptive capacity, technological proactivity, as well as information technology [IT] and organization process alignment).

This review includes articles mainly in English and excludes conference proceedings.

This research attempts to guide managers and policymakers to foster an organizational culture conducive to technological adoption and OL. It helps organizations develop strategies for new product development, including strategic alliances and strategic leadership.

This review formalizes the linkages between technological absorptive capacity, technological proactivity and IT with technological innovation and capabilities. It identifies research gaps and elucidates future research directions.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper aims to describe the development and introduction of the project action learning (PAL) framework as the OL vehicle in a company's move towards a learning organization.

This is a longitudinal case study of this company‐based LO and OL project. The paper describes the development and implementation experiences of PAL within the company, located in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China.

This paper describes the first four rounds of the PAL implementation within the case company. This is a work in progress. To date a very successful start to PAL implementation has been reported.

After a successful start of the PAL implementation, the authors and the sponsoring company anticipate a continued propagation of PAL activities as the main OL vechicles of the company.

This is a useful case reference for LO and OL development and implementation in industrial organization particularly for manufacturing enterprises in Southern China.

The purpose of this paper is to report an interdisciplinary, cooperative-learning project in a second-year course within the “Enzo Ferrari” Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering. The work aims to raise awareness of the educational impact of additive manufacturing and reverse engineering.

Students are asked to develop, concurrently, the design and the manufacturing solution for an eye-tracker head mount. A digital head model is reverse engineered from an anatomical mannequin and used as an ergonomic mock-up. The project includes prototype testing and cost analysis. The device is produced using additive manufacturing techniques for hands-on evaluation by the students.

Results of the presented case study substantiate the authors’ belief in the tremendous potential of interdisciplinary project-based learning, relying on innovative technologies to encourage collaboration, motivation and dynamism.

The paper confirms a spreading conviction that the soon-to-be engineers will need new practice-oriented capabilities to cope with new competitive scenarios. Engineering education must adapt to the social, rather than industrial, revolution that is being brought about by additive fabrication.

The main challenge of special education in Norway, as in other Nordic countries is to implement the inclusive school in practice. Even if there is a strong commitment to the idea of full inclusion in a one-track system, there are still several indications of segregation tendencies in the schools. The long-term goals of Norwegian school reforms to promote an inclusive school with high-quality special education and assistance do not seem to match the practical realities in the municipalities and local schools that are responsible for putting the ideals into practice. There are disagreements about how to create a good balance between the general and the specific or between adapted and special education. According to special education research, there are ideological, organizational, financial, and practical obstacles in the process of including students with special needs. One of the promising research based approaches to the inclusion of special needs students, and particularly those who are difficult to include, is the model of school-wide positive social and academic learning support and intervention. This model has been implemented and evaluated in Norwegian elementary schools with encouraging results.

This paper addresses the importance of a more proactive role of organizational learning (OL) facilitators, learning motivation reinforcer, through a two‐part longitudinal study in a case company. The first part of this study aims to investigate and analyze some unexpected challenges in the project action learning‐driven (PAL) OL implementation in the case company, and the second part seeks to discuss an enhanced role of OL facilitators to cope with the new challenges.

A longitudinal case study supplemented with a series of carefully choreographed field research activities, e.g. interviews, on‐site observations, survey tests, was conducted to achieve the research purpose. In the first part of this study, the feedbacks regarding PAL implementation were collected from different PAL stakeholders to identify the problems and barriers that undermined the effectiveness of PAL implementation. In its second part, the proposed facilitator's interventions were introduced in the case company. The results were examined through a controlled group experiment conducted with an on‐going round of PAL implementation.

The study found that adverse changes in business circumstances and organizational restructurings could dampen staff's motivation toward organization's OL initiatives which would further reduce the OL effectiveness. To redress the situation, a set of facilitator's interventions was developed to reinforce OL members' learning motivation. Study results indicate that the proposed interventions can positively influence the learning motivation of the PAL members in the case company.

This paper describes the difficulties encountered in a real life OL journey and the role OL facilitators could take on to help overcome them. It provides empirical evidence of how the learning motivation and commitment of OL members can be positively influenced by OL facilitation.

The authors believe such longitudinal case based OL research is rare and valuable to OL theorists and practitioners.

This paper aims to highlight the nature of strategic learning in Bollywood, India's Hindi Film Industry. Film making is an art that requires continuous learning as a prerequisite to creativity and innovation. Improved competitive performance goes beyond operational organisational learning into strategic learning. This research investigates the extent to which strategic learning, as opposed to operational learning, is taking place within film making organisations operating in the Bollywood setting.

The research was conducted through two descriptive case studies of production houses in Bollywood using semi‐structured observations and interviews with producers and directors in the case study sites. Data are analysed using techniques of interpretive “illuminative evaluation”.

The research suggests that the current frame of film making at Bollywood is stuck in a learning trap, in that organisational learning tends to be adaptive not generative and leads only to technical innovation. There has been no change in the paradigm of film making from one rooted in the past and the present, in terms of India's history, social and political context, to one looking to the future. For this paradigm shift to take place a future vision is proposed in the form of strategic learning and innovation, allowing Bollywood to go beyond the domestic Indian market and make a contribution to world cinema by breaking away from its current formulaic approach to film making. These findings also have implications for other management learning and practice contexts.

Although this research is limited to Bollywood, it has implications which potentially go beyond it in the form of a new frame as described above, and also for the organisational learning literature which has tended to focus on learning in general, rather than differentiating between operational learning and strategic learning; whereas operational learning can improve production processes, strategic learning depends upon creativity and innovation as the basis of improved competitive performance.

The paper concludes that the research site is trapped within its current frame of learning and, in order to break away from it, it must embrace strategic learning to move beyond the traditional loops of organisational learning. The practical implications of the paper lie in furthering the understanding of the nature of strategic learning in a creative industry, which may, in turn, shed new light on strategic learning within similar contexts.

The originality of the research stems from the focus on strategic learning and a new site for its exploration in the form of the Bollywood setting. Furthermore it extends understanding of the organisational factors affecting the status of strategic learning in organisations.