Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning solely via an assistance system influences work performance compared with learning with a combination of an assistance system and additional training. While the training literature has widely emphasised the positive role of on-the-job training, particularly for groups that are often…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the application of action research in the design of a degree-level leadership skills programme in the English social care sector. Design/methodology/approach: The action research study involved four formal semi-structured interviews with strategic leaders in the social care sector…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges and benefits that arose from the implementation of an innovative example of employer responsive provision, i.e. of a postgraduate programme that is work-based and designed specifically to meet the needs of the organisation. Design/methodology/approach: The approach is to outline the…

Purpose: The overall aim of the present study was to investigate the learning climate and work group skills perceived by managers and their subordinates in the municipal elderly care, prior to a development project. The specific research questions were: Are managers' and their subordinates' perceptions of the learning climate related? and Does the…

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on examples of the perceived tensions of the healthcare work-based learners as they experienced paradigm shifts in both practice and education. Design/methodology/approach: Examples are drawn from a qualitative study to examine work-based learning (WBL) workshops in a Dutch healthcare setting, and a developmental…

Purpose: Seeks to explore the notion of organisational intelligence as a simple extension of the notion of the idea of collective intelligence. Design/methodology/approach: Discusses organisational intelligence using previous research, which includes the Purpose, Properties and Practice model of Dealtry, and the Viable Systems model. Findings: The…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the value and learning potential of work-based projects to both worker-researchers and their organisations. Design/methodology/approach: Within the School of Health, Community and Education Studies at Northumbria University, work-based learning (WBL) programmes are becoming increasingly important as…

Purpose: This study aims to explore the lived experience of learning for a group of staff nurses in the Middle East, who undertook a post-registration nursing education programme in the speciality of nephrology nursing (the NNP) between 2001 and 2002. The broad-based curriculum seeks to develop the staff nurses into active learners, able to…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to illustrate how marketing intelligence might be improved when an organisation's learning capacity is integrated and incorporated in well-defined organisational subsystems in a not-for-profit context. Design/methodology/approach: First, given that market orientation is primarily concerned with gathering and…

Purpose: This paper examines the ways social networks, socialization, self-organizing systems, and systems thinking have influenced the gradual evolution of communities of practice into Communities of Competence. Design/methodology/approach: Proposes a Community of Competence as a new framework and a methodology to describe, assess, and combine…

Purpose: This paper aims to generate both a theoretical and an empirical basis for a research model that serves in further research as an analytical tool for understanding the complex phenomenon of learning at different levels in a work organisation. The key concept in this model is the routine concept of Nelson and Winter.…