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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explicate how the processual third context learning approach provides new understandings and dimensions to the well-established terminology within the fields of inter-organizational learning and university-industry collaboration. These understandings and dimensions are empirically informed by an analysis of a collaboration between Aalborg University and Bang & Olufsen, a Danish loudspeaker manufacturer. Design/methodology/approach: To fulfill the research purpose, a case study based on a participatory data collection strategy was applied in the collaboration between Aalborg University and Bang & Olufsen. Data were collected through a qualitative multimethod approach, comprising semi-structured interviews, field observations and field notes. Phenomenologically inspired content analysis revealed the themes outlined and discussed. Findings: The third context framework was useful in outlining the complexity of a bidirectional collaboration. The inter-organizational learning processes were, for example, influenced by the actors' recurrent inquiry of perplexities regarding the purpose and content of the collaboration. The extracted empirical findings are discussed and related to the fields of inter-organizational learning and university-industry collaboration, thereby explicating how a processual learning perspective provides new understandings and dimensions to collaboration across organizations. Originality/value: The paper contributes empirically informed processual-learning dimensions to the literature on inter-organizational learning and university-industry collaboration.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore how the involvement of workplace teams in experimenting with changes in their work practices through short, time-boxed, experiments (STBEs) can support organizational learning. It is explored how staffs' experiences with experimental practices give rise to shared knowledge and how this is supported by the design of the STBE-procedure. Also explored is how the STBEs support knowledge retainment. Design/methodology/approach: The study builds on the authors' participation in a research and development project across seven financial enterprises in Denmark. Qualitative material was developed as part of the experiments. Theoretically emphasizing experience, knowledge creation through dialogue and knowledge retention, the material was analyzed, focusing on participants' experiences and interactions, as well as on procedures. Findings: The STBEs occasioned direct experience with new work practices for managers and employees. Supported by the STBE-procedure, these experiences generated new knowledge individually, collectively and on an organizational level. The procedure also created routines that can underpin the retainment of the new practices and knowledge related to incorporating it in the organization. Research limitations/implications: The study implicates experience with changes in work practices to be understood as predominantly mindful in opposition to simple, even when the changes appear to be simple. Practical implications: The STBEs are applicable when working with organizational learning related to new work practices. Procedures supporting dialogue and mindful processes appear to be advantageous in relation to learning from experiments. Originality/value: Based on an original research and development project and unique qualitative material, the study adds to discussions on how to best conduct and learn from experiments in organizations.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how an academic graduate from the cross field between the humanities and the social sciences and blue-collar workers learns to scaffold knowing in a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME). Design/methodology/approach: A case study was conducted in an SME that employed the first academic graduate among the company's blue-collar workers. The paper applies a practice-oriented theoretical framework to study scaffolding knowing among the workers. Findings: An academic graduate does not necessarily apply subject-specific knowledge from his or her university education in the SME practice. Rather, general academic knowing and academic work practice is applied when scaffolding knowing in the SME. Further, this depends not only on the knowing of the academic graduate but also on his/her ability to apply knowing and the willingness to change in practice. Research limitations/implications: The study is a single case study gaining in-depth insights into one particular case. This calls for more research. Practical implications: The study points at the importance for managers and academic graduates in SMEs to foster learning activities and to be aware of and develop ways to integrate the general academic knowing. Originality/value: The case study provides new insights into the concept of scaffolding knowing in practice theory. Further, it gains unique insights into the practical possibility of employing graduates from higher education in SMEs.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how workplace interventions may benefit from a simultaneous focus on individuals' learning and knowledge and on the situatedness of workplaces in the wider world of changing professional knowledge regimes. This is illustrated by the demand for evidence-based practice in health care. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is based on a case study in a public post-natal ward in a hospital in Denmark in which one of the authors acted as both a consultant initiating and leading interventions and a researcher using ethnographic methods. The guiding question was: How to incorporate the dynamics of the workplace when doing intervention in professionals' work and learning? Findings: The findings of the paper show how workplace interventions consist of heterogeneous alliances between politics, discourse and technologies rather than something that can be traced back to a single plan or agency. Furthermore, the paper proposes, a road down the middle, made up by both an intentional and a performative model for intervention. Originality/Value: Intervention in workplaces is often directed towards changing humans, their behaviour, their ways of communicating and their attitudes. This is often furthered through reflection, making the success of intervention depend on individuals' abilities to learn and change. In this paper, it is shown how intervention may benefit from bringing in workplace issues like different professional knowledge regimes, hierarchical structures, materiality, politics and power.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and business sustainability (BS) and to carry out its empirical examination. Design/methodology/approach: Extensive literature research was carried out. Then, an empirical study was conducted in 694 Polish and Danish companies. Two phenomena related to OL were adopted: OL processes and organizational learning capability (OLC). BS was examined through the concept of sustainable performance (SP). Research models were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings: The empirical studies have shown a positive, statistically significant relationship between OL and BS. The research supports the view that the intensification of the OL processes is substantial for BS, whereas the OLC concept is less relevant to the development of BS. The effect of OL on total SP was stronger than on any SP dimension. OL supports the synergies of the results obtained by the organization for the benefit of BS. Research limitations/implications: The model verification is based on the samples from two countries, and, therefore, the hypothesis requires further verification in different business contexts. In addition, there are different factors influencing BS, which have not been included in the research and should be analyzed in the future. Originality/value: An in-depth, critical literature analysis shows that the theoretical foundation of the role of OL in shaping BS is fragmented and poorly empirically verified. The value of this paper is the presentation of large-scale empirical studies comparing the relationship between BS and two phenomena: OLC and the OL processes. The results obtained in the course of the research open up new research directions with respect to both the relationship between OL and BS as well as between OL and organizational performance.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Dewey's notions of experience, inquiry and reflection can increase managers' capacity to cope with sustainability transitions. Design/methodology/approach: Problem-based learning is discussed as an approach for enabling sustainable management learning. Dewey's concepts of experience, inquiry and reflection are used to conceptualize learning as an iterative "self-corrective" learning process toward sustainability. Two public managers' experiences of a personal development module in a management education program are used to discuss how Dewey's concepts work to integrate practice and theory. Findings: Dewey's problem-based learning framework has the potential to increase managers' capability to cope with complex and multifaceted challenges such as sustainability because of its focus on problem-solving. Practical implications: Management is a social practice. Management education can support management learning if management is perceived as a practice. Originality/value: Sustainable management learning is presented as an iterative and gradual learning process aimed toward settled inquiry that emerges when sustainable solutions work satisfactory in relation to the multiple and contradictory forces, which are in play in real-life situations.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to group coaching in the workplace that can enhance shared learning in groups and teams through dialogue as opposed to group members' individual positioning through discussion and debate. Design/methodology/approach: An action research project conducted throughout one year in collaboration between the management groups of the Elderly Care in a Danish municipality, two organizational consultants and two researchers from the Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University. The dialogical approach to group coaching is developed in the interaction between dialogue theory and the performance and close analysis of 12 video-taped coaching sessions with four management groups. The development of the dialogic group coaching concept is further supported through common reflections between researchers and groups in initial meetings as well as during the coaching sessions and final interviews, reflections between researchers and groups in initial meetings as well as during the coaching sessions and final interviews. Findings: The non-directive approach of dialogic group coaching is inspired by Transformative Mediation. This approach includes a focus on empowerment and recognition within the group in terms of promoting common reflection and learning. This also appears to diminish conflict talk and conflict-based relationships. Further, the dialogic approach emphasizes the importance of a coaching contract to create a common basis for reflection and action, which is found to reduce individual positioning. Originality/value: The paper develops a dialogic concept of group coaching in theory and practice, while focusing on the learning processes and development of the participating management groups.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how vocational teachers' everyday practices can constitute innovative learning spaces that help students to experience engagement and commitment towards education and thus increase their possibilities for completing their studies despite notable difficulties. Design/methodology/approach: Based on two ethnographic field studies, we analyse vocational teaching situations in which teachers and students engage in daily remaking of the vocational educational training practice. It is argued that these everyday situations can be understood as innovative transformation of participation and practice. Findings: The exploration of teachers' practicing new learning spaces sheds light on innovation potential embedded in everyday educational practices. The paper thus challenges the celebration of radical innovation and argues that innovation emerges from everyday activities in which teachers succeed to balance continuities and discontinuities. Studying innovation as a balance between change and stability thus involves emerging, negotiated processes of learning and participation in everyday practices where people talk, interact and conduct their work and studies. Practical implications: Based on the analysis, we argue that students' engagement in education can be enhanced by transforming the educational settings on various parameters such as buildings, artefacts, emotions and experiences. Thus, innovation should be recognised as emerging everyday activities in which frontline workers like vocational teachers are drivers for innovation. Originality/value: Innovative everyday activities are often invisible; however, we suggest that they can be studied and thus become visible by use of the analytic term: "boundary-pushing".

Purpose: Because of high drop-out rates among the students entering vocational education in Denmark retention of students has become pivotal to Danish educational policy. Thus vocational educational training (VET) colleges have been asked to work on implementing different kinds of retention initiatives and as a result, most colleges have established extended basic courses aimed at students with personal, social and/or academic difficulties. This paper aims to explore the emotional aspects of vocational educational teachers' work and present a preliminary analysis of the notion of care as socially situated within the vocational educational system. Design/methodology/approach: This paper derives from a study based on fieldwork at a VET college offering extended basic courses. During the fieldwork nine weeks of participating observations and 13 interviews with teachers were conducted. Findings: The paper provides empirical insights into the emotional practices and the management of emotions related to prevention of dropout within an educational setting. It shows how emotional practices can provide both teachers and students with positive identities and make out a productive force that prevents students from dropping out. However the management of emotions also involves a range of dilemmas and ambivalences revealing the difficult limitations related to an institutionalization and professionalization of human care. Research limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research design more studies on the emotional aspects of prevention of drop-out from both the perspective of teachers and students are needed. Practical implications: The emotional dimension of retention remains to be recognized and critically discussed more widely among stakeholders at different levels within the VET system and policy makers within education. Handling both the possibilities and the pitfalls of emotional practices requires that teachers are not left alone feeling responsible for the fate of their students. Originality/value: The paper contributes with descriptions of how emotions can be productive forces preventing students from dropping out of education. At the same time it identifies a need for further critical examination of the emotional aspects of teachers' working life.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of recognition in learning processes among female nurses, social and health care assistants and occupational therapists working with people with dementia and other age-related illnesses. Design/methodology/approach: The paper highlights the need to experience recognizing learning spaces among social and health care workers dealing with elderly care. Such learning spaces are crucial/imperative in order to come to terms with emotionally stressing experiences from daily work, and in order to be prepared for future challenges, such as new tasks or patients with a complex diagnosis. Drawing on Nordic research into health and care work, it is argued that, particularly in work fields which are mentally loaded or which are not held in high esteem culturally, this condition seems to be important. Findings: The main argument is that learning is related to recognition--especially when it comes to groups of professionals, who are low ranked in the workplace hierarchy and therefore seldom experience recognition in their daily work. According to interviews with members of the mentioned professional groups, learning spaces, in which the medical and professional hierarchies are suspended, promote learning processes. Originality/value: Axel Honneth's critical theory of recognition is used as the theoretical framework for understanding more generally the relational nature of human learning processes and the need for recognizing contexts. The paper concludes that this need is particularly imperative in health and care work for the elderly, but may also promote learning more generally.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to situate the concept of gendered learning in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the results of two closely related, qualitative studies of apprenticeship learning in two major industrial companies in Denmark. Findings: The paper finds that the creation of a situated-gendered "being" or "doing" in the workplace constitutes an important and often overlooked aspect of young people's learning processes in vocational training. Two themes of gender and learning are identified and discussed in an empirical analysis. These themes are learning and gendered identities, and gender and future family life. Research limitations/implications: The paper is exploratory in nature, so that it would be useful to confirm the results through further validation and comparison with other professions and workplaces. Practical implications: The design of proliferate learning practices in the workplace should consider gender as a factor which influences the trajectories of the individual learner. Originality/value: The main thrust of the paper is that young people engaged in vocational training in the workplace are "gendered" through their participation in particular work and work-related practices. The "telos" of learning in the context of vocational training in the workplace entails more than just the pursuit of a career trajectory or an occupational identity. The main contribution of the article is therefore its emphasis on the notion that theories on workplace and apprenticeship learning should consider a broader perspective on the learner than possible when focussing only on professional or occupational identity. (Contains 1 table.)

Purpose: This paper reports on the development of a workplace-based e-learning programme for small and medium enterprise (SME) managers in five European countries. The course is designed to address the specific needs of SME managers who, it has been noted, represent a significant proportion of the EU workforce but often experience difficulty in finding time or resources to undertake relevant training. The aim of this paper is to present the design principles developed to underpin the programme. These principles were developed specifically to address the need for greater pedagogic structure in the design of e-learning courses. Design/methodology/approach: The course design was informed by a literature review of e-learning and management learning and by a set of focus groups conducted to identify the specific concerns of SMEs with regard to accelerating their learning in the workplace. The course structure was further refined through trial workshops in all five partner countries. Findings: The paper presents a pedagogic framework and a structured set of design features, both of which were built into the course as a result of the research undertaken. It also provides reflections on the efficacy of the design process that resulted in the formation of the design principles, and also the prospects for e-learning programmes in supporting accelerated learning in the workplace. Practical implications: The design process and reflections may usefully be extracted to inform other cross-national or SME-focused e-learning programmes. Originality/value: The paper draws on theory and research data to demonstrate the importance of thorough research in e-learning course development. (Contains 2 tables and 3 notes.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is important to focus on the apprentices' collaborative learning processes when addressing issues of learning transfer. Design/methodology/approach: The claims about the importance of addressing processes of collaborative activities and learning in relation to learning transfer are based on the study following the completion of questionnaires by 243 apprentices and interviews in which 19 baker apprentices participated. Findings: The research results prove that it is important to pay attention to collaborative activities among learners in order to ensure learning transfer. Research limitations/implications: One limitation of the study is that it does not elaborate on reasons that some apprentices are motivated to integrate what they were taught at vocational college in a workplace setting while others are not motivated to do so. Practical implications: Educators will become more aware of individual and collective initiatives to cross the boundaries between vocational school and workplace practice. Originality/value: The study adds to the discussion of learning transfer through an investigation of learning transfer from a collaborative perspective. Most transfer studies have focused on the nature of knowledge or the structural barriers between college and workplace practice, while this study emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning transfer. (Contains 3 notes.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the key project learning points and outcomes as a guideline for the future quality management of demand-led learning and development. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology was based upon a corporate university blueprint architecture and browser toolkit developed by a member of the team to provide depth in practice evidence and a searchable database for comparative case to case practice evaluation. Findings: It was found that the corporate university organisation and business development concept is a subject area which is either well understood by company management and education institutions or there is considerable confusion about its role and purpose. In large part this arises from the very different interpretation in the concept's development and practice across the world, region by region. From a wide and diverse portfolio of companies and organisations who where invited to participate in the action research case studies, those who accepted have one very important characteristic in common: they are all intensively engaged in managing a major innovation, i.e. they already have the commitment to making new ideas work in practice. In addition it also demands serious reflection about the creative nature of the learning leadership role and also the style of its management. Practical implications: The results of the project show that a successful corporate university intervention needs to be founded upon a sustainable commitment by top management who should promote, if not present already, a spirit of curiosity leading to better ways of doing business today and in the future. It requires an in-depth understanding of the organisation's strategic learning needs and good knowledge of the models of corporate university development that are available and reliable. Originality/value: The database of case foundation information, key performance indicators (KPIs) and best practice outcomes will be one of the most comprehensive and world class quality reference sources published to date. The variables that make up the portfolios of emergent best practices--process and management--have originality and value both individually and collectively. The impact of these best practice ways of working will have far reaching consequences for leadership and the future shape of lifelong interdependent learning between employers and employees and policy in government departments and education institutions.

Purpose--The aim of this article is to examine network-based learning and discuss how participation in network can enhance organisational learning. Design/methodology/approach--In recent years, companies have increased their collaboration with other organisations, suppliers, customers, etc., in order to meet challenges from a globalised market. They form and participate in a variety of different networks in order to improve innovation, organisational learning and effectiveness. These networks can be considered as one context for learning parallel to training institutions and workplaces. In this paper characteristics of and preconditions for network-based learning are analysed and compared with school-based learning and workplace learning. The analysis draws on experiences from an action research project aiming at improving the occupational health and safety work within 11 Danish enterprises forming a network. Findings--Network learning might hold potential for forming an important supplement to school-based learning and workplace learning. Some of the difficulties related to these two learning arenas can be reduced in a network setting, and in that way network-based learning can help building bridges between the two "traditional" learning arenas. Originality/value--Examines network-based learning and discusses how participation in network can enhance organisational learning. (Contains 1 table.)

Purpose: To explore whether deliberate organisational change of a public sector organisation (a local municipality) would create an avenue for organisational learning. Design/methodology/approach: A case study was set up to study the means by which the organisational change towards a digital administration was to come about. The organisational change was interpreted through the optics of theories of organisational learning. A pragmatic version of these theories is presented and applied in the study in which learning is understood as being triggered by the meeting with uncertainty and the relation between the individual and the organisation (subject-world) as transactional (a continuous mutual formation). Findings: Viewed through the lenses of a pragmatic understanding of organisational learning it is possible to extend this understanding to an understanding of organisations as arenas made up by social worlds created and held together by commitments to organisational activities. Further, elaborating the idea of learning as being triggered by the meeting with uncertainty into the organisational arena, it is possible to characterise organisational tensions made up by different commitments to the organisational change and development as tensions between social worlds. It is argued that these tensions may act as closures or openings towards organisational learning understood as the continuous transformation of the organisation. Originality/value: This paper offers an understanding of organisational learning that ties the subject-world, the individual-organisation, together in a way that is coherent with the learning theory. Further, it offers possibilities for working with the enhancement of organisational learning by way of paving a way for joint critical thinking or inquiry. (Contains 1 note.)