Pub Date : 2023-09-07DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2255839
Hanne O. Finnestrand, Ola Edvin Vie, George Boak
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on a two-year program with a Norwegian public sector project-based construction company, where action learning groups and critical incident technique were combined to enhance organizational learning. Project-based organizations typically face difficulties of ‘project amnesia’, as they fail to integrate learning from experience into organizational memory. In drawing lessons from experience, employees often focus on solving short-term problems with individual projects rather than contributing to medium- and longer-term organizational learning. The program that is the focus of this paper engaged newly-appointed engineers in action learning groups and trained them to use critical incident technique to gather and analyze information about recent projects undertaken by the company. The groups reported back their findings to colleagues in the program and to managers and senior executives in the company. Originally designed as an alternative to the traditional induction training for new employees, the program generated useful practical learning across the whole organization about project success factors. This paper explains how action learning and critical incident technique combined in this program to enhance individual, team and organizational learning, and argues that the synergies between these three processes should be explored in other contexts.
{"title":"Critical incident technique and action learning to enable organizational learning","authors":"Hanne O. Finnestrand, Ola Edvin Vie, George Boak","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2255839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2255839","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper focuses on a two-year program with a Norwegian public sector project-based construction company, where action learning groups and critical incident technique were combined to enhance organizational learning. Project-based organizations typically face difficulties of ‘project amnesia’, as they fail to integrate learning from experience into organizational memory. In drawing lessons from experience, employees often focus on solving short-term problems with individual projects rather than contributing to medium- and longer-term organizational learning. The program that is the focus of this paper engaged newly-appointed engineers in action learning groups and trained them to use critical incident technique to gather and analyze information about recent projects undertaken by the company. The groups reported back their findings to colleagues in the program and to managers and senior executives in the company. Originally designed as an alternative to the traditional induction training for new employees, the program generated useful practical learning across the whole organization about project success factors. This paper explains how action learning and critical incident technique combined in this program to enhance individual, team and organizational learning, and argues that the synergies between these three processes should be explored in other contexts.","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45019116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2218133
Chris Blantern
In this book, Martin Parker inquires into the established discourses of organising and managing, and the way they are propagated, and finds them wanting. His basic thesis is that what business schools teach, and what they stand for, are very narrow, politically selective and presented as a form of naturalised truth (Jenkins 2007, 104) – rendering them unaccountable when it comes to their influence on society at large.
{"title":"Shut down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education","authors":"Chris Blantern","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2218133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2218133","url":null,"abstract":"In this book, Martin Parker inquires into the established discourses of organising and managing, and the way they are propagated, and finds them wanting. His basic thesis is that what business schools teach, and what they stand for, are very narrow, politically selective and presented as a form of naturalised truth (Jenkins 2007, 104) – rendering them unaccountable when it comes to their influence on society at large.","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47363860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2206994
Bernhard Hauser, C. Rigg, K. Trehan, R. Vince
ABSTRACT Critical Action Learning (CAL) is a well-established approach to action learning. However, it has not necessarily been clear to action learning practitioners what makes CAL ‘critical’ and what are the implications in practice. In CAL, the facilitator has a key role in helping the set to engage with underlying emotions and power relations that are inevitably embedded in learning sets, and that both promote and prevent learning. The paper explains the main ideas of critical action learning, why facilitation is important, and how to facilitate CAL. Examples are provided from the authors’ practice and eight key components are presented as a guide to facilitating CAL. The aim of the paper is to improve the action learning community’s knowledge of how to facilitate critical action learning and when it is appropriate to utilize this approach.
{"title":"How to facilitate critical action learning","authors":"Bernhard Hauser, C. Rigg, K. Trehan, R. Vince","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2206994","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2206994","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Critical Action Learning (CAL) is a well-established approach to action learning. However, it has not necessarily been clear to action learning practitioners what makes CAL ‘critical’ and what are the implications in practice. In CAL, the facilitator has a key role in helping the set to engage with underlying emotions and power relations that are inevitably embedded in learning sets, and that both promote and prevent learning. The paper explains the main ideas of critical action learning, why facilitation is important, and how to facilitate CAL. Examples are provided from the authors’ practice and eight key components are presented as a guide to facilitating CAL. The aim of the paper is to improve the action learning community’s knowledge of how to facilitate critical action learning and when it is appropriate to utilize this approach.","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42109108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2211936
S. Kahts-Kramer, L. Wood
ABSTRACT Continuing professional development (CPD) within a low resourced education environment necessitates context specific and needs-driven learning, particularly in Physical Education (PE) where personal and systemic barriers impede negatively on teachers and children’s educational experiences. This paper provides evidence-based guidelines as to how an action learning approach to CPD for PE might empower teachers to direct their own learning within low resource environments. A participatory action learning and action research design, using qualitative data generation methods, guided the inquiry. Ten teachers from two low resourced schools in South Africa, through participation in an action learning process, ultimately deduced five guidelines from their reflective enquiry to guide teachers to collaborate to transform their teaching of PE. The action learning approach to CPD supports teachers to take ownership of and responsibility for their CPD within the subject of PE. Ultimately, learning how to learn, enables teachers to champion sustainable change through establishing ongoing communities of practice.
{"title":"Guidelines for action learning as professional development to transform Physical Education in low resourced primary schools in South Africa","authors":"S. Kahts-Kramer, L. Wood","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2211936","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2211936","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Continuing professional development (CPD) within a low resourced education environment necessitates context specific and needs-driven learning, particularly in Physical Education (PE) where personal and systemic barriers impede negatively on teachers and children’s educational experiences. This paper provides evidence-based guidelines as to how an action learning approach to CPD for PE might empower teachers to direct their own learning within low resource environments. A participatory action learning and action research design, using qualitative data generation methods, guided the inquiry. Ten teachers from two low resourced schools in South Africa, through participation in an action learning process, ultimately deduced five guidelines from their reflective enquiry to guide teachers to collaborate to transform their teaching of PE. The action learning approach to CPD supports teachers to take ownership of and responsibility for their CPD within the subject of PE. Ultimately, learning how to learn, enables teachers to champion sustainable change through establishing ongoing communities of practice.","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44919833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2218136
George Boak
As we have said on these pages before, action learning and innovation are linked processes, implicit in Revans’ calls for action learning to produce fresh thinking, fresh questions, and questioning insight (Boak 2022; Pedler and Brook 2017). The 8th International Action Learning Conference took place in April 2023, with the theme of action learning and innovation. It was hosted by York St John University in York, England, and organised by this journal and York Business School, in association with the International Foundation for Action Learning, and support from the publisher, Taylor and Francis. It attracted 65 delegates from the UK, Ireland, Canada, the US, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Norway, and France. There were 25 presentations of papers, a symposium with six speakers, and nine interactive workshops. The theme of innovation was represented in papers featuring examples of action learning enabling new processes, practices, products, and services in a wide variety of organisations and communities. Workshops explored the use of, and possibilities for, action learning for new purposes, and action learning conducted in new ways. Keynote speaker Professor Kiran Trehan challenged the delegates to imagine how action learning can bring about revolutions in thinking and practice within the next 10 years. Fellow keynote speaker Yury Boshyk noted the many different varieties of action learning that are practised today and called for a global alliance of practitioners of these different varieties, to work together to tackle wicked problems and to bring about valuable changes. Complex innovation projects often require collaboration between different professional groups, different organisations, and different communities, and these differences, whilst valuable, can give rise to barriers to communication. In the symposium, speakers presented five complex projects that called for joint working and communication across group boundaries and explained how action learning processes had enabled successful collaboration. Innovation was also evident in the conference in discussions of the development and use of new action learning practices, including virtual action learning, using Zoom or Teams or similar platforms, which has become so much more common in the past three years. In this issue of the journal, the theme of action learning and innovation continues, with papers focusing on action learning in new contexts and on the practice of critical action learning, relatively recent development of action learning. A paper by Samantha Kahts-Kramer and Lesley Wood provides guidelines, based on their research, for how an action learning approach to continuing professional development can empower teachers to achieve their own learning and development within low-resource environments. The paper describes how teachers of physical education (PE) in two lowresourced schools in South Africa took part in a participative action learning and action research process to enable
正如我们之前所说，行动学习和创新是相互关联的过程，这隐含在Revans对行动学习产生新思维、新问题和质疑洞察力的呼吁中(Boak 2022;Pedler and Brook 2017)。第八届国际行动学习会议于2023年4月举行，主题为行动学习与创新。该论坛由英国约克圣约翰大学主办，由本杂志和约克商学院与国际行动学习基金会联合组织，并得到了出版商泰勒和弗朗西斯的支持。它吸引了来自英国、爱尔兰、加拿大、美国、南非、西班牙、德国、挪威和法国的65名代表。有25篇论文报告，一个有6位发言人的研讨会和9个互动讲习班。创新的主题体现在一些论文中，这些论文以行动学习为例，在各种组织和社区中实现新的流程、实践、产品和服务。讲习班探讨了为新目的使用行动学习和以新方式进行行动学习的可能性。主讲人基兰·特雷汉(Kiran Trehan)教授要求与会代表想象，在未来10年里，行动学习将如何带来思维和实践方面的革命。另一位主讲人Yury Boshyk指出，当今实践的行动学习有许多不同的种类，他呼吁这些不同种类的实践者结成全球联盟，共同努力解决棘手的问题，带来有价值的变化。复杂的创新项目通常需要不同专业团体、不同组织和不同社区之间的合作，而这些差异虽然有价值，但可能会导致沟通障碍。在研讨会上，发言者介绍了五个需要跨群体联合工作和沟通的复杂项目，并解释了行动学习过程如何使成功的协作成为可能。在讨论新的行动学习实践的开发和使用方面，会议上的创新也很明显，包括虚拟行动学习，使用Zoom或Teams或类似的平台，这在过去三年中变得越来越普遍。在本期杂志中，行动学习和创新的主题仍在继续，论文集中在新背景下的行动学习和批判性行动学习的实践上，这是行动学习相对较新的发展。萨曼莎·卡茨-克莱默和莱斯利·伍德的一篇论文基于他们的研究，为持续专业发展的行动学习方法如何使教师在低资源环境中实现自己的学习和发展提供了指导方针。本文描述了南非两所资源匮乏学校的体育教师如何参与参与式行动学习和行动研究过程，以使他们能够改变体育教学。对于学龄前儿童来说，体育尤其重要，因为它有助于他们的社会、身体、认知和情感发展，并有助于减少儿童肥胖。该文件详细介绍了参与计划的教师的指导方针，以便将这些指导方针引入其他资源匮乏的学校，使教师能够发展自己的能力，并改善他们的教学。Kahts-Kramer和Wood的论文描述了如何在他们的项目中使用批判性行动学习的各个方面。Hauser, Rigg, Trehan和Vince的一篇论文关注的是促进批判性
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Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2217085
J. Gold, Ollie Jones
ABSTRACT Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been particularly challenged by the Covid pandemic, the climate crisis, war and political tensions including the fuel price crisis. Strategic responses to crisis including cost-cutting as retrenchment in the short run, debt financing to preserve the status quo and exit. However, perhaps the most positive is to innovate for renewal. The paper considers how working with an approach to futures and foresight learning, three different SMEs during the Covid pandemic and beyond formed action learning groups and were able to find future opportunities from which innovation ideas for action in the present could be undertaken. The paper considers the meaning of innovation including what Revans saw as an ‘Innovation Paradox’ as a gap between invention and innovation. In SMEs, the importance of informal innovation and an innovation orientation are identified. The meaning futures and foresight learning is considered and the focus on the identification of new opportunities for products and services, delivered by a process of action learning. Findings from three SMEs are presented from meetings that took place during 2021 to 2022, when Covid restrictions were partly in place. They show how each programme begins with opportunity questions for the future which then lead to ideas after a consideration of trends and patterns. Further methods of futures thinking are presented which allow further ideas to be developed for innovation. In each case, ideas are selected for business planning after approval. Discussion of the findings considers the importance of futures and foresight learning combined with action learning for SMEs to become more strategic, future-oriented and creative in seeking opportunities for innovation.
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Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2218128
Olatz Errazquin, Ana Agirre, Amaia Miner, A. Murphy
ABSTRACT This account of practice describes how elected representatives, politically appointed managers and career officers of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council have adopted action learning as a way of learning how to transform their institution, an important aspect of which has been to find locally situated ways of establishing and consolidating the approach. The article provides pen portraits to illustrate what has been learned and achieved so far and in conclusion draws attention to the importance of shifting the balance of learning and challenge from a focus on individuals towards a collective effort which tackles deep rooted organisational problems.
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Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2218137
Cheryl Brook
{"title":"In memoriam – Professor John Burgoyne","authors":"Cheryl Brook","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2218137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2218137","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44187271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2218127
J. Creaton, C. Abbott, Genevieve Cother, C. Sanyal
The accounts of practice in this edition explore a diverse range of perspectives on action learning from the UK, Germany and the Basque Country and raise issues relating to facilitation, organisational learning and self-reflection. However, they are also notable for their use of literary devices to illustrate and illuminate the stories that they tell. The first account is Thinking in Colour from Neal-Smith, Bishop and Townley, three academics at a UK Business School. Their account is prompted by the review of a postgraduate module that had aimed to develop critical reflection and reflexivity skills among students through the use of self-directed action learning sets. The module had not been as successful as expected and the academics decided to set up their own action learning set to address the issues of student engagement and improve their own proficiency in teaching reflective skills. Through the action learning sets, they shared their personal stories and experiences, discussed imposter syndrome and the challenges students face in developing critical reflection skills. These reflections led to the introduction of trained facilitators into the module, leading to improved student participation and engagement. A distinctive feature of this account is the development of a visual metaphor called a mandala to explain the process of reflection and to represent the complex dimensions of ongoing personal development. The second account, Making action learning our own: A story from the Basque Country, by Errazquin, Agirre, Miner & Murphy reports on an initiative in the province of Gipuzkoa, where action learning has been used to underpin a new collaborative model of political governance. The initiative aims to transform the way politics is practised and foster community capacity to address contemporary challenges. This account of practice highlights the successful adoption and adaptation of action learning within the council by drawing on the authors’ experiences as participants and facilitators, and on three pen portraits – composite narratives based on qualitative interviews – to identify success factors and barriers to implementation. The key success factors are identified as: the involvement of multiple participants and perspectives to provide challenge and generate transformation; the creation of pockets of optimism; and the development of internal facilitators. However, tensions related to confidentiality, reflection and addressing institutional barriers were also encountered. The final account of practice from Thomas Radke is Sentimental Education – Learning from action to become an action learning facilitator. Radke shares his personal journey and the experiences he encountered while developing as a facilitator. Echoing Gustave Flaubert’s novel, the narrator starts the story with grand aspirations and ambitions, but encounters a number of harsh realities which result in some disillusionment and loss of innocence. He notes the scarcity of empiri
{"title":"Writing creatively about action learning: insights from practitioners","authors":"J. Creaton, C. Abbott, Genevieve Cother, C. Sanyal","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2218127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2218127","url":null,"abstract":"The accounts of practice in this edition explore a diverse range of perspectives on action learning from the UK, Germany and the Basque Country and raise issues relating to facilitation, organisational learning and self-reflection. However, they are also notable for their use of literary devices to illustrate and illuminate the stories that they tell. The first account is Thinking in Colour from Neal-Smith, Bishop and Townley, three academics at a UK Business School. Their account is prompted by the review of a postgraduate module that had aimed to develop critical reflection and reflexivity skills among students through the use of self-directed action learning sets. The module had not been as successful as expected and the academics decided to set up their own action learning set to address the issues of student engagement and improve their own proficiency in teaching reflective skills. Through the action learning sets, they shared their personal stories and experiences, discussed imposter syndrome and the challenges students face in developing critical reflection skills. These reflections led to the introduction of trained facilitators into the module, leading to improved student participation and engagement. A distinctive feature of this account is the development of a visual metaphor called a mandala to explain the process of reflection and to represent the complex dimensions of ongoing personal development. The second account, Making action learning our own: A story from the Basque Country, by Errazquin, Agirre, Miner & Murphy reports on an initiative in the province of Gipuzkoa, where action learning has been used to underpin a new collaborative model of political governance. The initiative aims to transform the way politics is practised and foster community capacity to address contemporary challenges. This account of practice highlights the successful adoption and adaptation of action learning within the council by drawing on the authors’ experiences as participants and facilitators, and on three pen portraits – composite narratives based on qualitative interviews – to identify success factors and barriers to implementation. The key success factors are identified as: the involvement of multiple participants and perspectives to provide challenge and generate transformation; the creation of pockets of optimism; and the development of internal facilitators. However, tensions related to confidentiality, reflection and addressing institutional barriers were also encountered. The final account of practice from Thomas Radke is Sentimental Education – Learning from action to become an action learning facilitator. Radke shares his personal journey and the experiences he encountered while developing as a facilitator. Echoing Gustave Flaubert’s novel, the narrator starts the story with grand aspirations and ambitions, but encounters a number of harsh realities which result in some disillusionment and loss of innocence. He notes the scarcity of empiri","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46040157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2023.2218134
J. Edmonstone
This timely book is focused on the use of large national and international management con-sultancies, often o ff ering one-size-fi ts-all, o ff -the-peg packages or ‘ pre-cooked ’ approaches, even though previous research has revealed that, in the public services at least, have made little or no signi fi cant impact (Kirkpatrick et al. 2018). One estimate quoted in the book suggests that the UK public sector alone awarded £2.8 billion in consulting contracts in 2022 – up some 75% on 2019 spending. Revans (2011), was typically scathing about: The undue intervention of experts carrying no personal responsibility for real life actions. It is at best, ambiguous, in general opinionative, and at worst, reactionary.
{"title":"The big con: how the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilises our governments and warps our economies","authors":"J. Edmonstone","doi":"10.1080/14767333.2023.2218134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2023.2218134","url":null,"abstract":"This timely book is focused on the use of large national and international management con-sultancies, often o ff ering one-size-fi ts-all, o ff -the-peg packages or ‘ pre-cooked ’ approaches, even though previous research has revealed that, in the public services at least, have made little or no signi fi cant impact (Kirkpatrick et al. 2018). One estimate quoted in the book suggests that the UK public sector alone awarded £2.8 billion in consulting contracts in 2022 – up some 75% on 2019 spending. Revans (2011), was typically scathing about: The undue intervention of experts carrying no personal responsibility for real life actions. It is at best, ambiguous, in general opinionative, and at worst, reactionary.","PeriodicalId":44898,"journal":{"name":"Action Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48426330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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