Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the Nordic model, featuring highly regulated trade union-employer collaboration, has enabled the building of learning organizations through a co-generative learning model involving both practitioners and action researchers. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search on the Nordic sociotechnical…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) employees create formal and informal groups within workplaces to provide social support and to seek organizational change at their places of employment. I present a case study of a coalition of these groups working together to attain domestic partner benefits within a large three-campus…

The interest in research focusing on learning taking place at work, through work and for work has considerably increased over the past two decades. The purpose of the paper is to review and structure this wide and diverse research field. A tentative holistic model--the 3-P model of workplace learning--is presented, in relation to which the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying reasons why providing process improvement training, by itself, may not be sufficient to achieve the desired outcome of improved processes; and to attempt a conceptual framework of management training for more effective improvement. Design/methodology/approach: Two similar units within…

This paper presents an original approach to designing social media that support informal learning in the digital workplace. It adapts design-based research to take into account the embeddedness of interactions within digitally mediated work-based contexts. The approach is demonstrated through the design, implementation, and evaluation of software…

The aim of this article is to exemplify the value of using a phenomenological approach when investigating graduates' lived experiences of vocational learning. For this study, qualitative data was obtained during a series of email interviews with 35 participants. As a group they are highly aspirational and, during their graduate studies, were…

The purpose of this article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research "in complex organisations". Clearly, there are many approaches to the challenge of doing action research in organisations; approaches that are, and also must be, quite context dependent and specific. But my purpose is neither to give an…

The sense of calling that compels educators to persist through difficult times and cope with stressful situations, also puts educators at risk for burning out. In order to fight potential burnout, both schools and individual teachers must attend to the issue. Schools must develop themselves as supportive work environments and educators must be…

The field of workplace learning scholarship in Western countries is reviewed. First, the emergence of workplace learning scholarship is discussed historically for its relation to the emergence and ongoing development of capitalism beginning from early thought on markets and productivity, 20th century scientific management, industrialism and…

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) perform an important role in the long-term care system because they provide the majority of paid care to nursing facility residents. Unfortunately, annual CNA turnover often exceeds 100 percent nationally. Many factors account for this, including stressful working conditions, low pay, and limited benefits. The…

This article describes an example of how action learning was used as a framework for an organisational intervention to fundamentally change the organisational culture over a period of time. It also identifies our learning over that period of time and what worked well (and not so well) in an International Non-Governmental Organisation in Nepal.

The authors examined "perceived beneficiary" of employee development (self, organization) for relationships with employee development activity. Perceived organizational support served as a moderator. The authors conclude that employees may engage in development activities to partly benefit their organization to the extent that a positive exchange…

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the presence of learning conditions for non-formal and informal workplace learning in relation to the characteristics of the employee and the organisation he or she works for. Design/methodology/approach: The questionnaire developed by Clauwaert and Van Bree on learning conditions was…

This report examines the link between human resource management practices and innovation. It is based on a conceptual framework in which "human resource stimuli measures"--work organisation, working time, areas of training and creativity--feed into innovative capacity or innovation. Of course, having innovative capacity does not…

Purpose: This study aims to explore a relationship between the learning organization and transfer of training as strategies for learning and managing knowledge to make performance improvements and gain or maintain a competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach: Various similarities are identified in the literature that are indicative of a…