Researchers from a government agency and a university collaboratively studying workplace learning examined their own interactions in planning. A surprising finding was their difficulty legitimizing a focus on their own workplace learning. The two groups had different assumptions about acceptable public disclosure. Keys to workplace learning were…

Models of experiential learning, organizational learning, and knowledge creation can assist in analyzing learning at work. Workplace learning can be conceptualized as intertwined processes of individual, group, and organizational learning. (Contains 21 references.) (SK)

The relationship of the individual to work, learning, and continuing education is interwoven with life history and the dynamics of identity formation. A life-history approach to professional learning provides one way to examine the historical and subjective processes of the development of a profession. (SK)

A study of eight Swedish companies that reverted to previous forms of work organization shows how gender influences organizational change. The learning organization concept challenges gender order, but gender segregation and stereotypic gender-coding of work are strong mechanisms for reversing change and obstructing individual and organizational…

In a Canadian survey of informal learning (n=1,562) and a follow-up (n=328), unpaid work, informal learning, and job-related learning were extensive. Despite considerable underemployment, respondents still pursued learning that prepared them for work. (Contains 29 references.) (SK)

British trade unions' engagement in workplace learning is currently shaped by discourses of globalization and the learning society. Unions' workplace learning representatives appear more focused on uncritical acceptance of learning for employability and less on learning for active citizenship and workplace democracy. (Contains 21 references.) (SK)

A case study of a work team in a company using quality management strategies found that training to improve customer service actually served to shape workers' attitudes and control their behavior. The focus of this organizational learning was instrumental and served the interests of the organization, not the workers. (Contains 26 references.) (SK)

In the Canadian pulp/paper industry, management is focused on worker flexibility for productivity. Unions view workplace learning as a threat to job control and security. Although learning new skills enhances individual workers' flexibility and employability, collectively it weakens the union through job losses. (Contains 56 references.) (SK)

A case study of Canada's telecommunications industry found the union engaged in education and research that helped build the potential for workplace democracy. However, scarce resources for these activities and management concerns about worker empowerment constrained progressive change. (SK)

The standard paradigm of learning--isolated in individual minds, expressed verbally, propositional--distorts the role of judgment. An emerging paradigm based on Dewey and Wittgenstein recognizes the role of action and exercise of judgment; positions knowledge in individuals, teams, and organizations; and includes propositional, cognitive,…