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This chapter adopts an enactivist framework to analyze the incidental and informal learning of a middle-school teacher.

Purpose: Employees are increasingly expected to organize their own human resource development activities. To what extent and how exactly employees in various organizational contexts manage to shape their individual learning paths however remains largely unclear. The purpose of this present study is to explore, leaning on the empirical Learning-Network Theory (LNT) research and its findings, how employees in different occupations create learning paths that are attuned to their specific work context. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews 23 MSc theses based on 14 distinct data sets collected between 2005 and 2015, containing approximately 1,484 employees from some 45 organizations and across various professions. The teachers, nurses, postal, software, telecom, railway and logistics company employees were mostly based in the Netherlands. The analysis focuses on learning-path types and learning-path strategies found in the 23 studies. Findings: Motives, themes, activities, social contexts and facilities were found to be instrumental in explaining differences among individual learning paths. A total of 34 original learning-path types and strategies were found to cluster under 12 higher-order labels. Some of these were based on learning motive, some on learning theme, some on core learning activities, some on social learning context and a few on a combination of these elements. Overall, the socially oriented learning-path strategy was the most prevalent, as it was found among nurses, employees of software/postal/telecom, railway and logistics company employees, as well as teachers in two schools. Originality/value: The paper presents the first overview of empirical studies on employee learning path(s) (strategies). In addition, it strengthens the empirical basis of the LNT.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine whether employability activities are driven by employee learning motives and their perception of learning opportunities. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a closed questionnaire survey from three different profit organizations (N = 405). Hypotheses were tested through hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Findings: Hierarchical regressions showed that the learning motive "personal development" had a positive relationship with "perceived learning opportunities" and "employability activities," as hypothesized. "Perceived learning opportunities" did not mediate the relationship between the learning motive "personal development" and "employability activities." No relationships were found among the learning motives "social pressure," "perceived learning opportunities" and "employability activities". Originality Value: This study is among the first to investigate the motives that employees must engage in individual learning paths. It attempts to predict their self-reported employability activities based on these motives and on the learning opportunities that employees perceive.

We explore the need for empathy in diverse groups, conceptualize the epistemology of empathy in relationship to "whole-person dialogue," and examine strategies for creating empathic space that take into consideration the "paradox of diversity." Two examples from our practice illustrate the role of empathic connection in personal learning and organizational change.

Interconnections between workplace and organizational learning can highlight the ongoing changes taking place that prestage the need for learning cities and regions. The diverse institutions that comprise cities and regions can function as organizational learning mechanisms in the 21st century. Learning cities themselves can also be conceptualized as societal learning organizations.

This study by Meera Alagaraja and Toby Egan provides a case study of a Lean strategy implementation in which HRD was an integrated part of the process and offers a model that can give direction for both future research and strategic advocacy on behalf of HRD practice. The case is actually more a study of the importance of cross-functional and corporate-SBU collaboration in implementing strategic business plans than of HRD per se. The HRD contribution is contextualized in the strategic implementation process. As such, it offers a comprehensive and contextualized perspective on the process through which the strategic aspirations of HRD can potentially be realized in practice. That said, there is a broader story that needs to be known in order to contextualize and further understand how the study fits into the broader discussion about SHRD.

This article addresses an important, yet often underattended to, aspect of the strategy development process: fostering the use of strategic learning practices in the simultaneous practice of developing strategy and cultivating strategic mindset awareness. The need for addressing this aspect of the strategy development process is increasingly important because of the intensifying complexity of the task environment. Following a framing of this context in terms of a complex adaptive systems perspective, a conceptual model for addressing this strategic HRD challenge is presented. The model is based on two distinct, yet in terms of potential implications for HRD practice, interconnected streams of literature: strategic learning practices, and adult development theory (specifically, constructive developmental theory and developmental action inquiry). The implications for HRD practices seeking to address this need, along with implications for future research, are also discussed. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Social capital has been receiving increasing attention in the field of human resource development (HRD). However, little is known as to how social capital has been formed or has grown over time with HRD interventions. There is limited research and discussion on how reflective practices play a role in the development of social capital as individuals reflect together in interactive social contexts such as networking activities. This article looks at how reflective practices can inform organizational social capital building. This article reviews relevant social capital and reflective practices literatures. An integrative model of institutional social capital and reflective practices is introduced to help explain how the two areas can be interrelated. The article suggests future efforts to integrate research and practice to better develop social capital in organizations. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Collaborative/cooperative inquiry (CI) is both a method for engaging in new paradigm human inquiry and a strategy for facilitating adult learning. Adult educators who use CI in institutional settings must be aware of potential corrupting influences. The authors alert educators to three factors interjected by institutional affiliation that challenge the integrity of the CI process: financial support, power inequities, and reporting requirements. These factors are examined in three different contexts: inquiries used for dissertation research, inquiries in the workplace conducted for professional development, and multiple inquiry projects sponsored by an institution to serve its mission. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)

The authors describe research aimed at developing a more comprehensive framework for project-based learning in work contexts. This grows out of a cross-cultural reanalysis of data from two previous studies using two different frameworks: actor-centered learning network theory and a critical pragmatist lens on action reflection learning. Findings are based on a cross analysis of a subset of one another's data sets using the authors' respective original frameworks, thus intending to build reflexivity into the latter. The study identifies strengths and weaknesses of each framework and discusses a more comprehensive framework that takes into account both individual and organizational learning at a time when learning in work contexts is increasingly driven by the learner and integrated with work.

This chapter brings together themes from the various practices presented by the educators who contributed to this volume for purposes of reflecting on the implications of the arts for the practice and theory of adult education.

This chapter offers a conceptual map for describing different means by which expressive ways of knowing support a holistic approach to transformative learning.

Practitioner research is a topic of growing interest and scholarly writing in the field of education in general and adult education in particular. This article describes a particular form of practitioner research that rests on a participatory worldview and draws heavily from theory and practice in adult learning and action research. Practitioner-based collaborative action inquiry strives to create social space in organizations and other social institutions for generative learning. It is argued that this form of adult education practice is critical in the implementation of emergent forms of knowledge creation and meaning making that have been described as Mode 2 knowledge creation. A robust example of this form of inquiry and the role of adult-learning theory and practice in facilitating it is described in detail as a practice-based example.

Purpose: This paper argues that failing to grasp thoroughly the influence of power on the strategy-making process can severely inhibit the potential of strategy making as a vehicle of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: First the organizational learning perspective on strategic management is sketched and an attempt is made to show how it takes the social aspects of organizing more seriously than earlier perspectives on strategy. It is also noted how this iteration responds or at least has the potential to respond to some of the critiques directed at earlier thinking on strategy from critical management studies (CMS). Then CMS's critique of organizational learning theories is noted and the critiques to re-conceptualize blockages to learning and knowledge creation are built on. Findings: An attempt has been made to show that, as in earlier perspectives on strategy, there is still insufficient attention being paid to the role of power in strategic change. This places severe limitations on strategic learning that is possible.

Insights from the articles in this issue highlight (1) the pivotal role of presentational knowing in collaborative inquiry; (2) personal development and action; (3) roles for adult educators in inquiry groups (full participant, external facilitator, multigroup coordinator); and (4) creation of supportive structures for collaborative inquiry. (Contains 15 references.) (SK)

Collaborative inquiry is an effective strategy for facilitating experiential learning through the use of peer participation, multiple ways of knowing, and systematic validity processes for meaning making. (Contains 21 references.) (SK)

A pragmatic perspective favors reflective discourse over affect. Heron's theory of personhood takes a phenomenological approach to affective learning. Strategies from this approach can be applied to the phenomenon of learning-within-relationship, in which individuals engage their own whole-person learning and that of others. (Contains 36 references.) (SK)

The purpose of this paper is to initiate a conversation exploring the epistemological implications of the many forms that learning may take while attending to the demands generated by complexity. [...]

Most of us have come to equate the term 're-structuring' with layoffs. The reason is simple: during restructurings, management's focus is typically on developing severance and incentive packages to reduce [...]