The research question underpinning this study is ‘How is learning organised within the context of social work practice in the third sector?’ The research objective is to establish conceptual frameworks that theorise the organisation of learning in this context. Drawing upon literatures from Organisational Behaviour, Management, Social Work, Sociology and Psychology (e.g., Ballew and Mink 1996; Foucault 1995; Mayer and Salovey 1997; Ouchi 1979; Weihrich 1982) and undertaking an ethnographic inquiry in the Old-Five-Old Foundation in Taiwan, which collects documents as secondary data and gathers primary data through participant observations and interviews, this study establishes interdisciplinary frameworks to answer this research question. It argues that practitioners’ learning is organised by five kinds of structuring forces. At the macro level, practitioners’ direction of learning is organised by service purchasers’ demanding (an inter-organisational level structuring force) and the service provider’s planning (an organisational level structuring force). The evaluation of practitioners’ learning is organised by the service provider’s monitoring (an organisational level structuring force). At the micro level, practitioners’ methods of learning are organised by practitioners’ puzzle solving and instructors’ instructing (individual level structuring forces). By looking at the macro and micro structuring forces (cross level analysis) that organise practitioners’ learning, including their direction and methods of learning and the evaluation of their learning (process analysis), this study systematically analyses the organising of learning through both a cross-level analysis and a process analysis, deepening an understanding of the organising of learning and thus making an original contribution to previous studies of learning in the organisational setting (e.g., Argyris and ch n 1978; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995; Senge 1990; Wenger 1998, 2000).

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University of Techology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / The concern of this thesis is the way workplace learning is able to be known and spoken about and the effects of the contemporary privileging of an experiential learning discourse in the workplace. Following an analytic method outlined by Foucault, I explore a field of multiple and mobile force relations between professional developers, trade teachers, workplace learning academics, senior managers, organisational consultants and organisational learning theorists, and the purposes to which discourses of workplace learning might be put. The research site for the study was a recent industry-university collaboration that explored workplace learning in a large public sector organisation. Using various organisational texts including: interview transcripts from workers participating in the industry-university research project, documents produced during the project, documents produced by a Professional Development Unit (the industry partners on the project), and academic texts on organisational learning, I examine the circulation and intersection of different workplace learning discourses. I also examine the positioning, position taking and resistances around the subject position of ‘the workplace learner’ in a workplace. A number of Foucauldian themes guide the analyses in this thesis including: power as multiformed, power as relational, the distribution of power, multiple subjectivities, and subjectivity as a site of resistance. This enables an examination of workplace learning discourses as instruments of power, but also as providing points of resistance. This thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the fields of organisational learning and workplace learning by foregrounding complex mechanisms whereby technologies of power interplay with technologies of the self. These citings/sitings/sightings of power and subjectivity have implications for professional development practices and the ‘management’ of workplace learning, as well as the practices of workplace and organisational learning researchers.

This dissertation explores the concept of the Learning Organisation and its relevance to the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA). In evaluating the relevance of the Learning Organisation concept, the AGSA?s problems will be highlighted and how the concept may possibly assist the AGSA in dealing with its problems. For example, one of the major problems facing the AGSA is the attraction and retention of appropriately qualified and experienced personnel. There is a scarcity of auditing personnel in South Africa. The adoption of the Learning Organisation concept may enable the AGSA to attract and retain the desired personnel, as inherent in the concept are characteristics such as employees being encouraged to learn, that appeal to progressive personnel. The dissertation will also explore the concept of the Learning Organisation as an enabler that may assist the AGSA to cope with change that pervades the AGSA's internal and external environment, which include the high incidence of fraud and corruption that is often found in public sector organisations in South Africa. The dissertation also seeks to explore whether the Learning Organisation concept will enable the AGSA to deal with complexity, which is created by an ever changing, dynamic world and stay relevant and cost efficient. All of these objectives can be collectively termed possible benefits that may flow to the AGSA should the AGSA adopt the Learning Organisation concept at a mature level. The purpose of this dissertation is not to develop a model of the Learning Organisation for the AGSA, but rather to obtain a sense of how the concept could possibly assist the AGSA in overcoming the challenges it faces. The dissertation will give an initial perspective of the theory (and some theoretical developments), introduce the reader to the AGSA, identify the major problems that the AGSA is facing, estimate the level of maturity that the AGSA is as a Learning Organisation and understand how the Learning Organisation concept may assist the AGSA in overcoming its problems if adopted at a mature level. The dissertation will be conducted based on research of academic literature, research of AGSA literature, observations, semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires. Key disciplines that may enable the AGSA to grow into a mature Learning Organisation will be highlighted. Some possible disciplines that may be relevant are as follows: Systems thinking, Groups and teams, Shared vision, Leadership style, Communication. The dissertation will highlight some practical difficulties and obstacles that may impact on the Learning Organisation concept being adopted by the AGSA and areas for further research. Initial research has highlighted two important fundamental principles, which will be referred to later, as follows: 1. It is very difficult to change people?s minds, and therefore adoption and implementation of the Learning Organisation concept will be challenging 2. Organisational Learning is never a finite process; it is on-going and never completed. Bearing these two fundamental principles in mind, the dissertation will be approached with the intention that it will add value to the AGSA and other organisations. / Thesis (MA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

University of Techology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / The concern of this thesis is the way workplace learning is able to be known and spoken about and the effects of the contemporary privileging of an experiential learning discourse in the workplace. Following an analytic method outlined by Foucault, I explore a field of multiple and mobile force relations between professional developers, trade teachers, workplace learning academics, senior managers, organisational consultants and organisational learning theorists, and the purposes to which discourses of workplace learning might be put. The research site for the study was a recent industry-university collaboration that explored workplace learning in a large public sector organisation. Using various organisational texts including: interview transcripts from workers participating in the industry-university research project, documents produced during the project, documents produced by a Professional Development Unit (the industry partners on the project), and academic texts on organisational learning, I examine the circulation and intersection of different workplace learning discourses. I also examine the positioning, position taking and resistances around the subject position of ‘the workplace learner’ in a workplace. A number of Foucauldian themes guide the analyses in this thesis including: power as multiformed, power as relational, the distribution of power, multiple subjectivities, and subjectivity as a site of resistance. This enables an examination of workplace learning discourses as instruments of power, but also as providing points of resistance. This thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the fields of organisational learning and workplace learning by foregrounding complex mechanisms whereby technologies of power interplay with technologies of the self. These citings/sitings/sightings of power and subjectivity have implications for professional development practices and the ‘management’ of workplace learning, as well as the practices of workplace and organisational learning researchers.

A growing literature has emerged which calls for organisations to become more adaptive in the face of complex and uncertain operating environments. This thesis reviews literature dealing with organisational learning and argues that individual attributes are undervalued. There . has been an emphasis on the mechanistic features of the individual within the organisation to the detriment of other attributes such as personal skills and knowledge. A case is made for a more human-centred approach to managing change which focuses upon the exploitation of these particular human factors as one of the central sources of adaptive potential. While some of these factors are formally recognised in the workplace it is argued that many others are acquired outside and therefore do not always appear to have immediate relevance or value. Evidence for this is drawn from a case study in the Commission for Local Administration. This employed a multi-method investigative approach to identify the variety of individual attributes and results are presented in the form of personal process maps which represent individual perceptions of the process of change. These support a broad classification of individual variety to be described. Findings are exploited to both identify the role of individual attributes in managing change and to construct a typology of individual attributes as a basis for adaptive capability. A number of concluding inferences are made regarding implications for management and future work.

The past twenty years has seen radical changes in the ethos of public service provision in the UK in which the FE sector has been required to respond to new demands. Many of these changes have been grounded in an ideological framework with a supporting language using ideas which emerged from the drive to establish an Enterprise Culture. This ideological imperative has also included the prioritizing of the market place and a concomitant growth in managerialism. These ideas are explored in this study in the context of FE in general and a case-study college in particular, as it moves from LEA control and local accountability into an autonomous setting where free-market principles are allowed to operate through a process of Incorporation. The case-study college of FE (W estshire) serves a large market town on the edge of a major English conurbation and provides empirical evidence drawn from a variety of sources - observation of meetings; semi-structured interviews, pre-dominantly with managers; college documentation and archives; responses to two whole-college questionnaires. Meeting the requirements of Incorporation has been transformational and the resultant changes have made a significant impact upon the organisational culture of the case-study college and the way that it has been managed. These cultural changes are generally examined and are shown to have created problems of dissonance and anomie for many of the staff as they tried to come to terms with the new order. There has also been a particular and critical examination of the Senior Management Team (SMT) and its application of the Strategic Management Process (SMP) as a key managerialist technique adopted from the business sector. What is revealed is the part that the SMP potentially could have played as a social process in assisting movement into the new 'business' culture and the facilitating of organisational learning. The findings challenge the current, limited orthodoxy of the SMP as a 'hard' planning device and suggest a wider, 'softer' role more contiguous with an educational ethos

The objective of this research project was to determine the key variables that impede organisational learning in a high growth start-up business unit environment. The value of high growth business units or firms lies in their immediate contribution to wealth creation and employment, although the success rate of firms and business units are low due to the inherent managerial complexities in the high growth environment. This research project contributes to the body of knowledge on high growth start-up firms by identifying, testing and rating variables that impede organisational learning, as well as providing a new construct. A survey was done to identify variables that may impede organisational learning and a sub-set of variables were identified in the categories of orientation factors, human resources practises, systems and structures, knowledge management practises and communication. Twenty propositions were formulated. A qualitative research methodology, using case research and in-depth interviews, was used to rate the relative impeding effect of the twenty variables on organisational learning in an actual high start-up business unit environment. The results indicated that 6 key variables had the highest impact on organisational learning. These variables were: a lack of common and shared logic, selection of inappropriate managers, a lack of teamwork, inappropriate systems (processes and software), a lack of networks and a lack of communication. Although the results may not be generalised due to a lack of a statistical base, management may already be alerted to consider these variables when starting up a new high growth venture. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The objective of this research project was to determine the key variables that impede organisational learning in a high growth start-up business unit environment. The value of high growth business units or firms lies in their immediate contribution to wealth creation and employment, although the success rate of firms and business units are low due to the inherent managerial complexities in the high growth environment. This research project contributes to the body of knowledge on high growth start-up firms by identifying, testing and rating variables that impede organisational learning, as well as providing a new construct. A survey was done to identify variables that may impede organisational learning and a sub-set of variables were identified in the categories of orientation factors, human resources practises, systems and structures, knowledge management practises and communication. Twenty propositions were formulated. A qualitative research methodology, using case research and in-depth interviews, was used to rate the relative impeding effect of the twenty variables on organisational learning in an actual high start-up business unit environment. The results indicated that 6 key variables had the highest impact on organisational learning. These variables were: a lack of common and shared logic, selection of inappropriate managers, a lack of teamwork, inappropriate systems (processes and software), a lack of networks and a lack of communication. Although the results may not be generalised due to a lack of a statistical base, management may already be alerted to consider these variables when starting up a new high growth venture. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

La présente thèse étudie l'apprentissage organisationnel dans les acquisitions d'entreprises. Nous avons cherché à mesurer l'impact de l'accumulation d'expérience des acquisitions d'entreprises et la probabilité de désinvestissement future des dites acquisitions au cours du temps. Notre questionnement repose sur l'idée que 4 dimensions vont influencer cette probabilité de désinvestissement : le temps, le nombre d'acquisitions, leur caractère international et le type d'industrie des cibles. Pour construire et valider nos hypothèses de recherches, nous avons structuré notre thèse autour de cinq chapitres : une analyse de la littérature centrée sur l'apprentissage organisationnel dans les acquisitions et les théories sur les désinvestissements d'entreprises; une méthodologie de recherche fondée sur une approche post positiviste (qualitative et quantitative); une étude de cas (l'acquisition par le cimentier Lafarge du groupe anglais Blue Circle); une étude quantitative fondée sur l'analyse longitudinale entre 1994 et 2004 de 140 acquisitions réalisées aux États-Unis, et une discussion sur l'analyse de nos résultats. Sur un plan qualitatif, nos résultats montrent que quatre types de compétence en acquisitions peuvent être envisagés en fonction de l'accumulation d'expérience des acquisitions et du degré de reconnaissance institutionnelle de cette expérience. Nous avons pu observer les nombreux impacts organisationnels d'une acquisition, notamment au cours du processus d'intégration. Notre étude de cas est "exemplaire", car Lafarge possède une expertise dans le champ des acquisitions et des intégrations d'entreprises. Sur un plan quantitatif, nous avons étudié l'expérience pré et post acquisition à trois niveaux (international, métier et expérience totale). Nos résultats montrent que les relations validées entre l'accumulation d'expérience et la probabilité de désinvestir sont de nature quadratique. Trois de nos hypothèses de recherche sont totalement validées : l'expérience totale accumulée post acquisition, l'expérience métier pré acquisition et l'expérience accumulée post acquisition ont une influence significative sur la probabilité de désinvestir une entreprise. / The current thesis concerns the relationship that exists between the experience in acquisitions that a company accumulates and the probability of devestiture of the acquired companies. In order to analyse and validate our research hypotheses, we have constructed our study in five chapters : an analysis of the literature on the approach through resources, the field of organisational learning and divestiture; the presentation of our research methodology; a case study with qualitative interviews regarding the takeover of an english group, Blue Circle by the french cement manufacturer, Lafarge; quantitative study of disinvestments following 140 acquisitions made in the United States in 1994 and finally, a discussion on the results obtained. The results reveal, from a qualitative viewpoint, that an accumulation of experience and an evolution in its organisation and strategy have led the Lafarge groupto modify its integration process. The case studies also revealed the organisational impacts of the integration process and the way in which Lafarge managed its human resource difficulties. For a quantitative viewpoint, we analysed 140 acquisitions made in the United States in 1994 using a longitudinal design. We formulated twelve hypothesis, aiming to determine the relationship between the accumulation of experience (industry, country and total) and the probability of divestiture of the acquired companies. Using a panel logistic regression model, we validate four out twelve hypothesis. We demonstrated a quadratic relationship between post acquisitions experience and the probability of divestiture (U shaped); a quadratic relationship between pre and post industry acquisitions experience and the probability of divestiture (U shaped). Discussion supports the idea that only strong acquierers experience a low probability of divesting previous acquisitions and makes the difference between long term and short terme divestitures.