Purpose: Disparities in learning opportunities endure. This paper aims to investigate whether the learning representative schemes in the UK and New Zealand (NZ) may redress disparate opportunities for learning. Design/methodology/approach: An interview study of UK trade unions' educational officers and an interview study of representatives of…

Purpose: This study aims to examine the factors of growth-oriented atmosphere in a Finnish polytechnic institution of higher education with categorical exploratory factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and Bayesian unsupervised model-based visualization. Design/methodology/approach: This study was designed to examine employee perceptions of…

Purpose: During work as reviewers and editors of journals authors are often faced the same types of problems in many articles. The purpose of this piece is to give some guidelines on typical problems that lead to rejection, and how to avoid these. Design/methodology/approach: The paper discusses journal article design and offers some methodology…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate how workers' work-related identity is related to various forms of workplace learning. The study also aims to show how changes in the organization affect both learning and the work-related identity construction of employees. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews with four design engineers…

Purpose: Despite years of advice from researchers that trainee reactions provide training evaluation information that is of very limited use, trainee reactions remain the most commonly used measure of training effectiveness. Because the technology that supports online training facilitates the collection of trainee reaction information during and…

Purpose: Evaluation of the knowledge that is shared among team members has been found to be a prerequisite for successful collaborative teamwork. In previous research on collaborative learning and work, shared knowledge has mainly been evaluated by researchers, and an individual's own perspective has been omitted. In this study the aim was to…

Purpose: This study aims to examine the question of how long a behavioral skills training program should be in order to result in measurable behavioral change. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical field study was conducted to compare two different lengths of time for a managerial skills training program aimed at achieving behavioral change.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to open up discussion about the relationship between trade unions and workplace learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on an analysis of a series of case-studies of restructuring in the European steel industry, incorporating interviews, observation and documentary analysis. Findings: The…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on and inform about learning points from ECUANET, a two-year duration best practice action research and transnational networking project as it approaches its final stage. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explicates the key positive and obfuscating dynamics that the project team have had to,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to first elaborate on the notion of a learning environment based on an empirical study of care work. Second, to explore how aspects of a learning environment may differ between and within units in the same organization, and how to understand and explain such differences. Design/methodology/approach: The study…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a critical understanding of IT enhanced competence management and its promise to bridge operational and strategic functions with the aim of revealing potential hidden challenges. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data were gathered through interviews and observations during a longitudinal field…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to bridge the theoretical perspectives of workplace learning and teacher learning. Teacher learning takes place, for example, in the course of a teacher's work as well as in the institutional setting of a school. This article describes research conducted on such learning. Design/methodology/approach: The…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how a medium sized business has addressed what it has termed a "push-pull" method of management and organization development, based around an action learning approach. Design/methodology/approach: The paper sets out a methodology that other SMEs might look to replicate in their management and…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate factors that influence informal learning in the workplace and the types of informal learning activities people engage in at work. More specifically, the research examined: the relationship between informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics; and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse and describe the learning that takes place in the interaction between academics from different disciplines and perspectives in collaboration with practitioners. Design/methodology/approach: The research draws on theories of learning that view it in relation to context, where the most significant…