The paper identifies what is meant by culture and examines approaches to mapping it, while suggesting alternatives. It notes the global spread of action learning, expressed through the prism of Western values, although practice is not necessarily reflective of the original ethos. It offers some rules of thumb on the use of action learning in…

This paper aims to make known the materials on action learning that are held in the universities of Salford and Manchester, with the aim of bringing these unique resources to the attention of researchers and other interested parties. It is a joint effort between the Editorial Board members of the Journal, Action Learning: Research & Practice…

The paper is an essay, rather than a researched academic work and explores the difference between two different ethe, neoliberalism and action learning. It considers two historical modernities and the emergence of a third, situating action learning and neoliberalism within this framework. It asserts that action learning and neoliberalism are…

The paper notes that action learning has spread globally and is used in a variety of local cultures. It considers Revans' involvement in this international aspect and explores the author's own experience of action learning in cross-cultural contexts. It addresses the issue of 'acculturation' and draws evidence from a number of examples of action…

The paper examines whether, if leadership is defined by the willingness to tackle wicked issues, and if action learning is employed for leadership development purposes, do the action learning participants on leadership development programmes address such wicked issues? It adopts a version of dialogical sense-making to consider this and describes…

Action learning has evolved over a period of time when managerialism and performativity, which are aspects of neoliberalism, have become stronger and this explains, in part, the emergence of Critical Action Learning (CAL). Performativity, in particular, has increasingly become internalised by people at work. CAL seems to be limited to power…

The paper examines the concept of negative capability as a human capacity for containment and contrasts it with well-valued positive capability as expressed through performativity in organisations and society. It identifies the problem of dispersal--the complex ways we behave in order to avoid the emotional challenges of living with uncertainty.…

The paper examines the benefits claimed for action learning at individual, organisational and inter-organisational levels. It goes on to identify both generic difficulties in evaluating development programmes and action learning specifically. The distinction between formative and summative evaluation is considered and a summative evaluation…

This account of practice describes the introduction of an accredited postgraduate management qualification which used action learning as a major contribution to a blended learning approach in a fragile cross-border setting on the edge of Europe. Conventional management education has frequently been challenged on the grounds of relevance, efficacy…

The article aims to explore the nature of problems in action learning. Beginning with Revans' distinction between problems and puzzles, it draws parallels with the notion of wicked and tame problems. It offers four means of considering problems in action learning--in terms of the locus of a set's work; from the viewpoint of an…

This paper explores the relationship between action learning and Organisation Development (OD). It proposes that they are overlapping fields of practice, with interesting similarities and differences. Both fields of practice are experienced as challenging to conventional ways of viewing organisations and people but are also subject to increasing…

This article describes the use of "business-driven" action learning in a healthcare setting. It reviews and reflects on an example where action learning does not "take", identifying the likely causes of this. It also poses four questions--whether action learning is counter-cultural in some organisations; whether the…

The current profile of action learning in the UK has recently become clearer (Pedler et al., 2005). Using the template of what have been described as "Revans's Classical Principles", fundamental divergences have begun to emerge. Pedler et al. (2005) identified a number of variances from this template--specifically the use of permanent…