Managing Learning

In the last decade there has been a discernible shift away from a preoccupation with the methods and technologies for delivering training in organizations, to an emphasis on those approaches and attitudes that encourage learning. An emphasis on acquiring skills and knowledge on training courses has been superseded by the need to be applying them in the workplace. Earlier concerns with measuring and assessing have moved the transfer and reinforcement of learning. The focus is now on learning through reframing problems, self-determined development, unfreezing barriers to learning, and understanding what it means to be a learning organization. It is not that `learning' has been without its advocates, rather that the notion seems finally to have come of age. This collection of readings captures the depth and diversity of the learning literature over the past 10 years. Some authors look back for their inspiration to seminal work on personal and corporate learning; all look forward with their own compelling mix of role-models, recipes and recommendations to guide organizational learning in the future.