Special Issue "Organizational Learning: Developments in Theory and in Practice"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Russ Vince
School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Website: http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/faculty/russ_vince.html
E-Mail: r.vince@bath.ac.uk
Phone: +44 1225 384419
Interests: organizational learning; leadership and change; emotion in organizations; the organization of reflection

Dear Colleagues,

In a recent review of her ‘4I’s framework’, Professor Mary Crossan and her co-authors have suggested we are at a stage in our understanding of organizational learning where a unifying theory could be developed. Five ‘promising directions’ have been pinpointed that could be integrated to create an evolutionary and multi-level theory of organizational learning. This special issue offers authors the opportunity to engage with these ‘promising directions’—either separately or in combination—in order to contribute to our knowledge of organizational learning both in theory and in practice. These ‘promising directions’ are:

• Power, politics and emotion in organizational learning
• Leadership and organizational learning
• Organizational learning barriers, levels of learning, types of learning
• Organizational learning and knowledge management
• Social processes of organizational learning – practice and activity

The Guest Editor, Professor Russ Vince, invites the submission of theoretical and empirical papers that make a clear and explicit contribution to knowledge in one or more of these areas of organizational learning. In their papers, contributors should identify, develop and illustrate one well-focused idea or issue that will help readers of Administrative Sciences to improve their understanding of organizational learning.

Reference
Crossan, M. M., C. C. Maurer, et al. (2011). "Reflections on the 2009 AMR Decade Award: Do we have a Theory of Organizational Learning?" Academy of Management Review 36(3): 446-460.

Prof. Dr. Russ Vince
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Administrative Sciences is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Informed Learning in the Workplace: An Emergent Systems Approach
Authors: Mary M. Somerville; Anita Mirijamdotter; Christine S. Bruce
Affiliations: University Librarian and Professor, University of Colorado Denver, USA; Social Informatics, Linneaus University, Sweden; Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Abstract: Since 2003, organizational learning projects in three North American libraries sought to enable and sustain ‘using information to learn’ in the workplace, drawing from the work of Swedish, Australian, and American researchers in the fields of social informatics, systems thinking, and informed learning. In this paper, a unified theory for organizational learning derives from methodologies of Peter Checkland (Soft Systems Methodology) and conceptions of Christine Bruce (Informed Learning). Systems models support the cultivation of design thinking and information practices for organizational learning. Examples from a decade of collaborative design, intervention evaluation, and workplace learning suggest the efficacy of this transferable approach for re-inventing contemporary information and knowledge organizations through an Informed Systems Approach (ISA). With a foundation in theories adapted for practice, ISA advances iterative (co)design of communication, decision making, and planning systems that provide situated ‘information in context’ and thereby promote rich social information experiences. Systems design practices both enable information sharing and knowledge creation and also further collective organizational learning among communities of practice.
Keywords: learning organization; organizational learning; Informed Learning; social informatics; collaborative design; Soft Systems Methodology; information practices; knowledge creation