Inter-organisational cooperation as a ground for empirically exploring the linkage between individual and organisational learning

Inter-organisational cooperation has advanced to a highly relevant issue of organisational research rooted in adult education. Although cooperation has tradition in the field of adult and continuing education in Germany, especially since about the Nineties it has more and more become a commonplace for adult educational organisations to strike up cooperation amongst each other or with other organisations located in and outside the educational sector (cf. Dollhausen & Feld 2010, p. 24). Partner organisations can for example be schools, museums, cultural institutes, companies, etc. Cooperation in this context is understood at organisational level, i.e. organisations jointly working together in order to fulfil a specific task (cf. Dollhausen & Mickler 2012, p. 9). Examples for such kind of tasks are corporately developed services, joint course offers, etc. On the one hand the grown emphasis relates to practical advantages and necessities, for example pooling capacities or easing transitions between different organisations. On the other hand, there has been major political emphasis due to correlating funding programs and also by legislation at federal level, binding funding for public adult educational organisations to involvement in cooperative activities (cf. Dollhausen & Feld 2010, p. 24). Accordingly, adult educational research on cooperation and networks started off mainly in the form of accompanying research in order to convoy or evaluate practical developments (e.g.: Emminghaus & Tippelt 2009; Tippelt et. al 2009; Nuissl et. al. 2006). During recent years though, the high attention to the topic has also led to an increase in knowledge-oriented fundamental research that focuses on specific problems concerning cooperative activities and undertakes empirical investigation (see for example: Alke 2015; Franz 2014; Maschwitz 2014; Dollhausen, Feld & Seitter 2013; Mickler 2013; Feld 2011; Jütte 2002).