Aileen Lawless

Becoming a Community of Critically Reflective HR Practitioners: Challenges and Opportunities within an MA Partnership Programme.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the central role of critical reflection for practitioners.Design/methodology/approach – This joint paper is informed by a practitioner and an academic perspective and is an output from ongoing research. An MA in Strategic HR provides the initial focus. This partnership programme is informed by action learning ethos and method and the emancipatory potential of critical reflection. The paper illustrates how students talk about becoming critically reflective, and in doing so it explores the opportunities and challenges involved.Findings – It is argued that in order for critical reflection to realise its potential of emancipatory change, pedagogy needs to be underpinned by critical process and critical content. However, it is unfortunate that a majority of critical literature appears to be addressed to an academic audience. The paper also highlights the need to support learning conversations beyond the original set.Originality/value – The paper hi...

Action Learning as Legitimate Peripheral Participation.

This paper explores how students made sense of the learning that occurred within a Masters educational programme (an MA in Human Resource Development), a programme informed by the ideals of critical action learning and critically reflective practice. Theoretically the paper develops links between communities of practice theory and critical action learning. I highlight how ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ can provide an analytical tool for understanding learning. This perspective shifts the analytical focus from the learner as an individual to learning as participation in the social world. Methodologically, a discourse perspective on learning and identity informs the research. A discourse perspective highlights the possibilities of researching practice through studying the talk in use. This focuses attention on how discourse is put together and what is gained by this construction. Material was generated from two cohorts of the programme and analysis reveals an emerging hegemonic struggle within this MA ‘community’. I illustrate how an emerging ‘critical’ repertoire was constrained by two unproblematic repertoires. I have called these the ‘organisation’ and the ‘individual’ repertoires. I also illustrate how two additional repertoires emerged during the action learning sets. I have called these the ‘challenging’ repertoire and the ‘politics’ repertoire. This paper contributes to an emerging discussion by exploring the relationship between individual and organisational and draws attention to ‘learning inaction’. In doing so I highlight how action learning sets are situated in broader social and discursive orders and reveal how consensus-bound discourses dominate and potentially limit action learning.

A discourse approach to theorising HRD: opening a discursive space

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how a discourse approach to theorising human resource development (HRD) can open a “discursive space” to challenge dominant discourses within the field; enabling a more critical discourse to emerge.Design/methodology/approach – Discusses two approaches to discourse analysis, a “practice” and a “critical” approach, and illuminates how both approaches can contribute to theorising HRD.Findings – The notion of what constitutes HRD is being constantly renegotiated both in theory and in practice. While contemporary HRD discourses are many and there is fluidity in the field a dominant discourse can be identified. The authors argue that a focus on the discourses which construct and constitute HRD need to consider both the “practice” and “the order of discourse” enabling the emergence of alternative discourses within the field.Research limitations/implications – Due to word restrictions an empirical example has not been included. However, future work will address t...

Professional Learning in Human Resource Management: Problematising the Teaching of Reflective Practice.

Reflection and reflective practice are much discussed aspects of professional education. This paper conveys our efforts to problematise teaching reflective practice in human resources (HR) education. The research, on which the paper is based, engages with stakeholders involved in the professional learning and education of reflective practice in three UK universities to provide a critical understanding of the complexities involved. Our research surfaces a level of conceptual ambiguity which creates an uneven landscape in terms of the teaching of reflective practice. Workplace cultures which do not support reflective practice, a focus on performance review and disparate stakeholder views, highlight competing discourses of performance-based reflection and critical management reflection and suggest a fundamental dissonance between a perspective that reflection in professional work warrants a critical character, and one which is based on a relatively simple ‘acquisition of knowledge’ model of continuous professional development. The analysis helps assess the teaching challenge within HR professional learning. Similar intricacies may affect teaching in other professions and consequently this article offers a contribution of relevance and interest to others involved in teaching reflective practice.

From reflective learning to reflective practice: assessing transfer

ABSTRACT A key attribute of reflective practice is its capacity for on-going purposeful learning in relation to changing and demanding professional work. The teaching of reflective learning techniques in management education is intended to promote deep-level learning and the application of critical thinking to oneself, personal experience and the work environment. However, we lack empirical evidence that the teaching of reflective learning leads to enhanced reflective practice in professional work. This study provides an examination of reflection in work post formal education. It reports on interviews with 18 Human Resource professionals. Reflection does not get ‘left behind’ on completion of formal teaching but there is not an even or simple process of transfer to a work context. Likewise, there was not a slavish adherence to reflective techniques but rather some evidence that students were able to translate their learning into something meaningful for their practice.

Insider research as part of a master's programme: opportunities lost and found within action learning sets

This account explores the role of action learning during and after an educational programme. We focus on the final stage of a masters programme and the insider research that is a key feature in many UK universities. Researching within ones own organization should lead to individual and organizational learning. However, there is relatively little published on how, indeed if, this learning occurs. Our account contributes to this gap and in doing so draws attention to the ethical and political challenges which can arise when undertaking research within ones own organization. We present the tale of two sets, one during and one after an educational programme. In doing so, we highlight the tensions involved in integrating learning with problem-solving. We illustrate how learning which seemed initially to be lost was later found through action learning.

Nurturing the seeds of action learning: protecting the wild garden

As I write this editorial the sun is streaming through my office window, warming the room and making it easier to smile and feel optimistic. It feels as if spring has sprung, and while it is still very cold outside, I can see some delicate flowers popping their heads up to see what is going on. There is promise in the air and the seeds which were planted are beginning to burst into glorious colour. The soil, the sun, the rain, and the gardener, all played their part. However, the growth I see around me is visible not only in the formally planted flowers beds, where the gardeners have carefully planted their seeds. The beauty is also visible in the woods, where nature has played her part in dispersing the seeds. So what are the seeds of action learning, and once planted, how and where will they grow? Revans never defined action learning but the premise that action and learning are inextricably entwined has sway within the action learning community. This relationship has been represented by the well-known learning equation: L (learning) = P (programmed knowledge) + Q (questioning insight). The search for fresh questions and questioning insight (Q) takes primacy over access to expert knowledge (P). Extending the gardening metaphor, if we visualise questioning insight (Q) as the seeds and programmed knowledge (P) as the soil which enables growth; then the set facilitator could be viewed as the expert gardener, utilising their skills to maximise growth. However, what type of learning / garden is ‘valued’? Perhaps some flowers are more valued than others; we know that some flowers, if not contained, can dominate the garden and can kill more tender buds. This editorial provides an opportunity to look behind some ‘unquestioned truisms’ Rigg (2015) within our community. The truism being explored is that the relationship between P and Q will result in ‘valued’ learning. For some, ‘valued’ learning is the formal garden which can be planned with appropriate blooms in all the right places. The emerging literature on critical action learning (CAL) problematises this notion and provides an additional component to the learning equation, organising insight (O). Organising insight provides a link between action learning and organisational learning (Vince 2004) and becomes possible when: ‘there is an examination of the politics that surround and inform organising. In addition, to comprehend these politics it is often necessary to question these political choices and decisions, both consciously and unconsciously’ (Vince 2004, 74). CAL scholars (e.g. Anderson and Thorpe 2004; Trehan and Rigg 2015; Vince 2011) draw attention to the complex and evolving, emotional and political dynamics within action learning sets. They advocate a more active role for the facilitator in illuminating and engaging with these dynamics. Extending the gardening metaphor, organising insight can be viewed as the sun and the rain. The gardener cannot control these elements, but can, to some extent, control the plants exposure; ensuring sufficient sun and rain is available to enable growth. CAL reminds us that ‘valued’ learning is a complex notion, more akin to the wild garden where flowers grow/learning emerges in unpredictable ways. Adding some CAL light to the relationship between P and Q provides a space to challenge the dominant performative discourse of learning (the formal planned garden). In doing so we

North West Employers' Conference

Liverpool Business School’s (LBS) Centre for Public Service Management recently organised an Action Learning Conference in partnership with North West Employers (NWE). The conference was held in association with the international journal Action Learning: Research and Practice. Supported by Neighbourhoods NW and the North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, the conference attracted over 100 participants who came together to explore the promising potential of action learning from a variety of perspectives. The theme of the conference centred on releasing the potential of action learning to enable sustainable change. Individuals and groups who have experienced action learning shared their stories of establishing, managing and sustaining action learning networks to support individual, business, organisational and community development. On the day, there were representatives from academic institutions, local government, the NHS and other local partners. Dr Aileen Lawless (LBS) and Kelli Pickford (NWE) were the conference organisers and they explained: ‘Our aim was to create a conversation between diverse contributors and participants via presentations, guided discussion and open spaces’. The conference opened with keynote presentations from Professor Mike Pedler (Henley Management School), Professor Kiran Trehan (Lancaster University) and Liz McQue (Chief Executive Officer, NWE). They certainly did not disappoint and gave food for thought with their inspiring theories and stories, which elicited much discussion amongst delegates at facilitated table discussions. Professor Pedler’s presentation entitled ‘What has action learning learned to become?’ explored the history of the action learning concept, questioning whether its practice builds on its original ethos or method. Suggesting that most participants expect its use to grow, Professor Pedler acknowledged three types of problems, with ‘wicked problems’ identified as those particularly suited to action learning. Given their high uncertainty and high need for collaboration, these ‘wicked problems’ can only be effectively challenged through learning and distributed leadership. The identification of these problems is perhaps timely given the current economic climate and organisational contexts and highlights the importance of action learning for sustainable change. The first table discussion session explored the issues raised by Professor Pedler. Each of the conference tables had a mix of academics and practitioners allowing diverse communities to share thoughts and practice around action learning. Delegates raised a number of interesting points specifically around the possibilities and pitfalls for releasing the potential of action