THE UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

School of Education and Professional Development

MA in Professional Development Education Management

Methods of Enquiry DMX0230

An analysis and comparison of two pieces of research in relation to Organisational Learning

Noel Johnson

2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Glossary………………………………………………………………….. 3

Introduction ...................................................................................... 3

Background to the study ................................................................... 4

Motivation ......................................................................................... 4

Conduct …. ................................................................................... 13

Personnel ........................................................................................ 15

Outcomes ....................................................................................... 16

Conclusion ...................................................................................... 18

References ……………………………………………………………...19

Appendices……………………………………………………………….

Learning Organisations Empirically Investigating Metaphors Lennon A &

Wollin A (Appended Separately in titled document file)

Organisational Learning in small organisations An empirical overview

Matlay H (Appended Separately in titled document file)

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Glossary

SME – Small & Medium Sized Enterprises

WBL – Work Based Learning

HCCT – Hull City Council Training

LSC – Learning & Skills Council

GTA – Group Training Association

NVQ – National Vocational Qualification

VRQ – Vocationally Related Qualification

TEC - Training and Enterprise Council

ATA – Apprenticeship Training Association

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Introduction

I have chosen to write this assignment by critically evaluating of a piece of

published research on the subject of learning organisations, my particular

interest being Work-Based Learning (WBL) providers and their relationship

with Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME).

I am the Head of Hull City Council Training (HCCT), a Learning and Skills

Council (LSC) funded learning provider contracted to deliver Entry to

Employment, Apprenticeship and Foundation Degree, Management and

Teacher Training within the Humber Sub-Region. Our work includes working

with local companies to promote a culture of learning and staff development

within their own organisations following a Group Training Association (GTA)

and Apprenticeship Training Association (ATA) hybrid model.

The work we do within the Humber Region is important for several reasons.

A report entitled “Labour Market and Skills Trends” 1994/95 (Employment

Department Group 1993) says that “ Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

(SME) are the key to employment growth”, the summary suggests that

although SME,s have accounted for the majority of growth in private sector

employment in recent years “they have tended to train their employees less”.

It is very likely that that the report authors have based this judgement on the

amount of formal learning (apprenticeship frameworks, NVQ,s/VRQ,s etc)

undertaken by employees in SME,s as quantitive data on which to base this

judgement however this is not made clear. There is also the problem of low

attainment within the City of Hull with less than 40% of the working age

population holding a qualification at level two or equivalent.

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Background to the study

I have been interested in the concept of learning organisations ever since I

entered post 16 education and training IN 1992 working with young people

to develop their skills and abilities and working with employers to meet their

companies skills and training needs.

My experiences gained from working within the Work-Based Learning sector

as a vocational teacher and later as a manager throughout the 1990,s and

into the new millennium coincided with the developmental thinking around

the concept of learning organisations explored and researched by Senge

(1990) and his work helped to clarify and further fuel my interest in the

development of the learning organisation within industry.

During my time studying on this MA programme I was introduced to these

articles that forms the basis of my critical evaluation.

These articles are:

Article one:

Matlay, H (2000) “Organisational Learning in small Learning Organisations:

an empirical overview” from “Education and Training” vol 42 number 4/5

pp202 – 210 MCB University Press (Appendix 1 attached)

Article two:

Lennon, A and Wollin, A (2001) “Learning Organisations: empirically

Investigating metaphors” in “Journal of Intellectual Capital” Vol 2 Number

4 pp 410 – 422 MCB University Press. (Appendix 2 attached)

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In article one Matlay shares a summary of definitions of the term learning

organisation and points out:

“Most of the learning organisation definitions available in a

wide range of relevant publications appear to be complimentary

rather than fundamentally original or conceptually different”. (p203)

He argues that much of the thinking emerged from the study of

organisational development in the 1970s and really gained a foothold in the

UK with the work of Peter Senge. (Senge 1990). Senge defined a learning

organisation as the following:

“…organizations where people continually expand their capacity to

create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns

of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and

where people are continually learning to see the whole together.” (p3)

This was further summarised by Scarborough et al, (1998) who stated that

“…the primary focus of a learning organisation should be the way in

which it values, manages and enhances the individual development of

its employees in order to ensure its continuous transformation.” (p2)

However, there are significant studies that look specifically at self

direction in learning. Brockett and Hiemstra suggest that

“Self direction is fraught with confusion due to the many related

concepts that are often used interchangeably or in a similar way.

Examples of this include self directed learning, self planned learning,

self teaching, autonomous learning, independent study and distance

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learning. Yet the terms used offer varied and subtly different emphasis”

(Brockett and Hiemstra 1991 pp18)

I would argue that few companies would set out to be a learning

organisation for the sake of it and very few small or medium size enterprises

(SME) have an embedded learning culture. Companies need to stay in

business, producing a product or providing a service, in short making

money. Treacey and Weismann (1996) examined this and came to the

conclusion that those who lead their markets do so by practising two of three

disciplines, namely:

Operational Excellence

Product Innovation

Customer Intimacy.

It was these three areas that they concluded were:

“The discipline of market leaders” (1996 p5)

But is being a forward thinking Small or Medium Enterprise (SME) solely

about achieving a competitive edge? Garratt (2000) takes a rather wider

stance on this question. He states that Revans (1998) and his work with

Action Learning at the National Coal Board was the precursor of learning

Organisational thinking. In fact he clearly promotes the use of action learning

in his three-cycle model for learning organisations:

Operational Learning (internal efficiency

Strategic Learning (integration)

Policy Learning (external effectiveness) Garratt (2000 p5)

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Houle (1984) merges the concept of learning and education, linking them to

the related concept of lifelong learning.

He states that “prior to the middle of the 19th Century learning was accepted

without question as a lifelong activity and that even in developed societies,

only a small number of people received a basic education and they did so in

an unsystematic fashion that depended largely on individual opportunity and

initiative, but it was understood that those who mastered the rudiments of

scholarship would, if they wished, use their competence to enhance their

further learning alone, or in groups, guiding their own study or accepting

tutelage and using whatever resources were available” (Houle 1984).

Brocket and Hiemstra (1991) however suggest that it is important to think of

self-direction in learning from a life-long learning perspective.

This is also supported by Kidd (1973) who states “that the purpose of adult

education or any kind of education is to make the subject a continuing,

inner-directed self operating learner”

The Garratt model captures the competitive edge idea whilst recognising the

role of the individual within an organisation and the impact of the customer

upon the organisation. He states that:

“Learning is the most powerful, engaging, rewarding and enjoyable

aspect of our own personal and collective experience. The ability to

learn about learning and develop the learning process is the critical

issue of the twenty-first century. Learning has a moral dimension.

The capacity to learn is an asset which never becomes obsolete.

Individual and collective learning reinforces the informed, conscious

and discriminating choices that underpin democracy”. (2000 p ix)

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Squires (1994) notes that “Europe has not one but two great traditions

of teaching and learning. The first is a didactic tradition which comes

down to us through the monasteries, universities and schools. It

involves institutionalised teaching, planned curricula and formal

methods such as lectures and seminars. It relies heavily on written text

and is assessed through set tests and examinations”

The second tradition, is by contrast carried out outside educational

establishments, it involves work-based learning and gaining skills and

knowledge under the supervision of experienced occupational

practitioners. It is quite often self-directed and relies in the main on

verbal communication, often between peers. It is assessed based on

the individuals competence rather that formal examinations.

Squire’s adds that:

“The best known example of this second tradition is the apprenticeship

system of the medieval trade and craft guilds, but in fact it goes far

beyond these, not only embracing many other occupations but

continuing well beyond the apprenticeship stage. Indeed it is difficult to

define its limits because whereas the first tradition is formalised and

institutionalised the second one by its very nature tends to be informal,

individual and often hidden. (1997 p7)

However, as an apprenticeship training provider although I would

agree with Squires that “apprenticeship training is individual” I would

argue that it is far from being informal and hidden.

Although work-based and reliant on real work and experience the

apprenticeship framework is a formalised partnership between the

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apprentice, post 16 learning providers and the employer, offering a

skills based applied route to gain further and higher education

attainment.

Article One

Motivation

Harry Matlay works within the business school at the University Of Central

England. The article uses the phrase “Organisational learning” within the title but

he then changes between the terms organisational learning and learning

organisations throughout the article. The concern in his article is the use of

learning organisation strategy within small and medium sized enterprises (SME).

He argues that at the time of writing, (2000) a great deal had been written about

learning organisation theory in large campanies but:

“…issues relating to organisational learning in small businesses were

mostly ignored or marginalized.” (p202)

This period of research undertaken by Matlay, 1996 – 1998, is significant. In

1996 the government, via the Training and Enterprise Council (TEC)

launched a project aimed at making sure that small and medium sized

enterprises developed business and organisational training plans in

conjunction with their preferred learning provider based on a training needs

analysis of their business aims and the needs of their workforce. This was

undoubtedly a pre-cursor to the Employer led funding package spear-

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headed by the Train to Gain initiative. It could be argued that one does not

necessarily follow the other and perhaps owed more to the concept of:

“What gets measured gets done” (Taylor, p56)

The project was also linked to the use of the Training and Development

NVQs with SME owners or managers being invited to achieve the relevant

units for this work.

A great deal has been written about the relationship between the Learning

and Skills Council (LSC) formally the Training and Enterprise Council (TEC)

and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) in relation to training and

business support.

Woodcock suggests that “TEC’s fail to meet the needs of their local small

firms” (1993 p12).

Reporting the findings of a survey conducted by the Forum of Private

Business he states that although during the 12 months preceding July 1993

small companies created 50,000 jobs, there is relatively little contact

between these companies and their local TEC.

He goes on to cite Professor James Currans report; “TEC’s and small firms

(1993) which suggests that small business owners cannot spare the time to

involve themselves with TEC’s are suspicious of bodies that they associate

with central Government and are resistant to any scheme that hints at telling

them how to run their own business.

He goes on to state that TEC’s also come up against resistance of small

company owners to training. The report says that research undertaken

showed that small company owners saw little need for any large increase in

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training, and three out of four employees agreed (Curran in Woodcock 1993

p12).

Matlay highlights in his article the political imperative behind the idea of

organisational learning, being to provide:

“…sustainable competitive advantage” p 202

Arguably, here is the political message emanating from the article however,

Matlay does question the political drive for learning organisations and

discusses the wider issues of organisational development. He examines the

history of the discipline and quotes the Scarborough (1998) definition, qv, as

his working definition. Here then, perhaps is the root of the motivation

behind the article. Yes, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) need to

be competitive to survive, need to use knowledge to give them an edge, but

nowhere does Matlay define the nature of the learning and focuses

throughout the article on the learning of technical knowledge alone.

Harrison (1988) however suggests that Human Resource Developers can

greatly assist not only individual employees but whole organisation

development if they are able to combine a variety of daily work situations

with timetabled training activities in ways that will foster the required skills

involved in the learning cycle.

Harrison goes on to suggest that those required skills can be transferred to

“an ever widening range of organisational problems and situations”.

Perspectives on the learning process that emphasise experience as the

foundation of learning lead to a focus on four important practical issues:

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The organisation as a learning system

The integration of learning with work

Continuous development in the workplace

Development as a fundamental management responsibility

(Harrison 1988 p59).

It has been argued (Treacey and Weismann, 1996) that this is a vital key to

business success. What Matlay describes with the help of the acknowledged

educational experts goes beyond the political imperative, but it takes more to

make it a lasting success. It may well require the culture change of an

organisation to recognise that not only is success about learning and training

but about learning to learn (Garratt, 2000) and the spare capacity that

requires before the skills are acquired and become habitual.

Harrison sees development as a fundamental management responsibility in

that whilst Human Resource specialists should adopt the role of resource

and facilitator, they must not and cannot take over the essential managerial

function (Harrison 1988 p60)

Harrison goes on o mention Gagne’s (1966) stimulus-response theory that

views the learning process in relation to four key factors namely:

Drive

Stimulus

Response

Reinforcement

Starting with the concept that “for learning to occur there must first of all be a

basic need that makes someone want to learn and which acts as the spur to

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that activity; in other words, there must be a drive or motivation to learn

(Harrison 1988 p61).

Secondly “for learning to occur people must be stimulated by the learning

situation and methods of learning must be used which make a level of impact

sufficient to enable and encourage the person to learn in that situation”

(Harrison 1988 p 62).

It’s also important to note that “in every learning situation the learner must

acquire appropriate responses, i.e. skills, knowledge and attitudes which will

lead to improved performance and / or development of potential.

These responses must be reinforced by practice and feedback of various kinds

until they are fully learnt, whilst unproductive responses must be identified

before they become habitual” (Harrison 1988 p62).

When Malay concludes:

“…that learning, both incidental and intentional, was taking place in most

of the small businesses in the sample…but only a minority of small

business owner/managers managed learning and the resulting knowledge

in a proactive and strategic way to sustain and advance their competitive

advantage” (p209) his desire for learning organisation theory and practice

to be embedded at strategic level is most apparent.

Marsick and Watkins (1990) distinguish between informal and incidental

learning. They state that informal and incidental learning “both speak to

learning outside formally structured, institutionally sponsored classroom

based activities.

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As a result, both informal and incidental learning take place under non-

routine conditions, that is, when the procedures and responses that

people normally use fail (Marsick and Watkins 1990 p6).

Conduct

As part of his research Matlay first conducted a telephone survey of 6,000

SMEs, “randomly selected” (p 206) from the Yellow Pages Business

Database. A response rate of 89% was forthcoming and:

“..collected a variety of quantative and qualitative data” (p 206)

He does not expand on the type of company chosen, however this

information would arguably help determine the imperitive for organisational

learning. Does the company need a skilled, trained workforce to compete in

their particular field?

Equally he does not however explain what the responses were that make up

this 89% but interestingly enough, does comment that:

“…the respondents were offered a working definition of learning

organisations, using terms familiar to owner/managers. When asked

whether they belonged to a learning organisation, all claimed to do so”

(p206)

Based on my experience within the work-based learning sector over

the past 20 years I would expect that the majority of the companies

surveyed worked in partnership with private learning providers holding

a Learning and Skills Council (LSC) contract to deliver apprenticeship

training.

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Following the telephone survey a sub-sample of 600 owner/managers were

interviewed face to face. Matlay does not explain how he chose this sample,

but moves on to explain that from this sample 60 matched (against what?)

case studies were conducted in order to:

“…compare and contrast learning-related processes and their

outcomes in closely matched growing, stagnating and declining

organisations.” (P 206)

The definitions and categories of what comprised small and Medium sized

Enterprises were taken from government statistics drawn from European

Commission’s (1996) size definitions, the same categorisation as used by

the TEC project. Again this link appears but nowhere is it stated.

Three tables are presented, showing quantative data of size, numbers of

employees and then reporting on:

The nature of the business

The types of learning undertaken

The types of employee

What purpose these serve after naming these categories is unclear. Matlay

shares his quantative figures but from a qualitative stance no deductions

may be formed, for nowhere in the article is there discussion on what form

the “informal” and “formal” and “mixed learning” (p 207) took. It is therefore

difficult to comment upon the evidence in terms of relevance. The article

claims to be an empirical study and quotes:

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“…sustainable competitive advantage” Matlay (2000 p202)

Within the study Matlay looks at the technical knowledge but neglects to

examine the cooperative skills

I would argue that this last skill set is key in enabling Small and Medium

sizes Enterprises (SME) to advance. Garratt (2000) certainly picks up this

argument with his model and targets owner operators for:

“over managing and neglecting to direct” (p85)

Personnel

Little is said on the subject of personnel and their contribution to Matlay’s

research. He establishes the following categories:

Owner/manager

Line Manager

Skilled employee

Unskilled

Matlay p 207

He makes no comment as to how these categorisations were formed and it

could be argued that such categorisations are not wholly reliable. Le Mage

argues that an organisational culture can work on two levels, the espoused

culture and the actual culture, which could be described as “the way we do

things around here”. If that latter culture does not wish to “unlearn” Connelly

(2003 p 5) and resists change, new staff may well be restrained from sharing

their insights and learning.

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Outcomes

Matlay does make a useful distinction between the types of literature and

models advanced about learning organisations. When offering and reviewing

diverse definitions he comments that they fall in to two camps:

“Normative and descriptive” (p 204)

In the normative steps and actions are suggested, such as Garratt’s “6 Pre –

Conditions (pp12 –33) and there are the descriptive exemplars that

acknowledge that there has to be some leaning in all organisations. Matlay

goes on to say:

“Conceptually, it appears that two important aspects distinguish

learning organisations from one another: first, the relationship between

individual and collective learning and second, the distinction between

single and double loop learning.” (p 204)

It might be argued that these two models, not attributed by Matlay, are in

opposition to one another and that the concept of double loop learning

(Agyris and Schon,1978 and Garratt, 2000) is not fundamentally about

competitive advantage.

But as Revans argued, action and activity is not the same thing as thinking

and learning. This energetic problem solving was the view Revans (1998)

sought to change in the National Coal Board with his Action Learning model

as previously discussed in this review, acknowledging that the learning in

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experiential learning, (Kolb 1984) comes without the experience. So as

Matlay (p 209) found, it was only the larger organisations who made time for

formal learning, who moved anywhere near to having a strategy for

individual learning to be absorbed at company level.

Matlay indicates that increasing levels of business demonstrated

increasingly steep learning curves in the SMEs. He does not state in what

type of business, but argues that the most common response was by;

“..working longer hours to “mop up” the extra demand for their products

or services.” (p 208)

In the short-term “incidental” or “informal learning” (p 208) worked here, but

Matlay found that this was unsustainable. In the long term:

“…intentional learning processes proved more successful in sustaining

competitiveness and organisational growth. (p 208)

In Matlay’s article I was left wondering about the types of learning (p206). If

this is the interpretation of “empirical” then the most recent work of Senge,

(1995) Garratt, (2000) and Maswick (2003) is of far greater practical use to

anyone either directing an organisation or acting as a consultant to a

company wishing to change its focus and become a learning organisation.

Article Two

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Motivation

Like Matlay, Lennon and Wollin too, take an empirical approach to their

article and again like Matlay, you could be left reflecting on the

introductory claims of both articles that:

“…the theory and practice of learning organisations remains confused, fuzzy and difficult to penetrate or implement” Matlay (p203) and: “…provide much inspiration but little guide as to what may be effective in different organisations” Lennon and Wollin (p411)

So the stated aim of Lennon and Wollin is to report on four organisations

in Australia, each seeking to become learning organisations. Here though

perhaps lies the real motivation, as they continue to explain:

“…the use of the learning organisation metaphor has been coupled with another local and emergent metaphor, that of the organisation as family.”(p 411)

They assert that the family metaphor emerged from their research within

the four organisations, but it has to be considered as to how successful it

would be with individuals whose experience of family might be less than

positive and joyous? (James 2002) certainly paints a picture of the pain

and angst that accompany the consanguinial ties of family.

Lennon and Wollin also state that they:

“describe a novel method of developing generalisable theory from metaphor.” and “show how theory might be developed from metaphor” (p 411)

This raises two questions. The first is that is the use of metaphor to

demonstrate a theory a new concept? Parkin (2003) in “Tales for

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Coaching” demonstrates that this methodology has been used for

centuries and there is strong evidence of this that can be seen in the

workplace. The second question is one of accessibility of language. Matlay

employs Standard English with little or no jargon and this makes for a very

readable and comprehensible article, Lennon and Wollin’s language is

both full of jargon and prolix in the extreme. A typical example of this is:

“A further distinction at this level is between similarity of functional relations, that is true analogies, and that of structure and form, termed homologies. In homology, the basic processes are the same, but take different forms in different arenas. In an analogy there are only superficial similarities and not necessarily similar causes or underlying mechanisms.” (p 415)

Perhaps another underlying motive in this article is for the authors to

parade their knowledge and the use of terminology of a discipline that is

not named. In labouring very hard to read and understand this article I

recognised some terms from the school of Neuro-Linguistic Programming,

(NLP) namely the 4 level model of

“meta, macro, meso and micro” (p 411)

used by the authors and also the concept of metaphor in learning. With

reference to the on-line encyclopaedia of NLP

www.nlpuniversitypress.com (date visited 05.10.09) I found that many of

the terms used were from this discipline. If this is so, then why, one

wonders, do the authors not declare this?

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Conduct

As mentioned earlier, Lennon and Wollin examine the practice of four

Australian organisations. Like Matlay in Article 1, this article begins by

taking the stance that learning organisations are a positive approach to

organisational development. Lennon and Wollin make the

acknowledgment immediately that:

“organisational learning and the special case of the “learning organisation”…themselves both metaphors”. (p411)

They too highlight the arguments for competitive advantage as they begin

on the “meta” level (p411) by examining how the research previously

carried out sets the scene for their work. From this they framed their

research questions for the four organisations and then claim:

“However, the method was sensitive enough to recognise an emergent method of “family” (p411)

The next level examines how the studies were related and employs an

iterative and seemingly inductive cycle of research namely:

“test – adjust theory – test” (p412)

and from this the case studies are written up.

Here also emerges a third element in the research, that of superstition:

“Superstition is used in two senses. The first is in the technical sense where superstitious learning is learning that occurs in circumstances where the connection between knowledge of cause and effect is ambiguous…(p 412)

The second sense of superstition is the popular meaning of the word and

they go on to quote Webster:

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“a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation”.(p 413)

The two are arguably connected and both can be overcome by use of

review with factual, specific recall, (Taylor 1992 p58) in which superstition

can be replaced with observation based on did/said effect feedback.

Personnel

Having discussed the nature of the 4 organisations, namely:

one large not-for-profit

one small not-for profit

one large profit-oriented

one small profit-oriented (p416)

Lennon and Wollin explain that each organisation declared themselves to

be a learning organisation, an interesting and perhaps more inductive

contrast to Matlay’s approach . All four organisations were given

pseudonyms to preserve their anonymity. Two of the four heard about the

intended research and approached the authors and the others were

approached via mutual contacts which in itself is not a scientific approach

to research., However after this very promising, inductive beginning,

nothing more is said about the personnel in the organisations. Two tables

are shared with the reader, the first to demonstrate the mapping technique

used in the research and the second giving specific examples of how the

“family” metaphor emerged. A third table generates information that all

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four organisations were making plans using Senge’s model for a learning

organisation, thus:

Systems thinking

Personal mastery

Mental models

Building shared vision

Team learning

Senge, (1990 pp7 –12)

Here then, perhaps both articles flatter to deceive in terms of sharing their

research with the reader. With Matlay I was left wondering about the types

of learning (p206) and with Lennon and Wollin I could sees a plan that

most people with a practical understanding of Senge’s ideas could draw

up. If this is the interpretation of “empirical” then the most recent work of

Senge, (1995) Garratt, (2000) and Maswick (2003) is of far greater

practical use to anyone either directing an organisation or acting as a

consultant to an aspiring learning organisation.

Outcomes

Lennon and Wollin claim as their outcome:

“What is clear from the research so far is the greater power of the emergent, local metaphor of “family” in comparison to the imported, and to a large extent, imposed metaphor of “learning organisation”. It may be that organisations are attempting to keep learning “all in the family” in some, as yet unspecified, ways.” (p421) Arguably, their stance about the imposition of the term “learning

organisation” is open to question. These organisations, they said earlier in

the article:

“…self-identified as learning organisations” (p416)

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so the imposition might be seen as being as self imposed as the metaphor

of family. This family metaphor would appear to be the learning outcome

most highlighted by the authors, because earlier discussions concerning

superstition disappear after page 413, where they claim:

“Put simply, are consultants and managers implementing the learning organisation following procedures that have developed over time, to the point of losing cause and effect, in the same way that superstitious people do not walk under ladders, but have forgotten why?” (p413)

However, other than this “emergent metaphor” of “family” they offer no

new learning to gain say their criticism of superstition. In fairness they do

claim that their work is research in progress and:

“…the metaphor that emerged …may represent a new way of making meaning of learning organisation style change”

Conclusions

In my examination and critical review of this article I have looked to

effectively evaluate it against the criteria of motivation, conduct, personnel

and outcomes. I have also tried to compare and contrast the article with

other works on the subject of learning organisations.

Although Matlay’s article is accessible and readable and his belief in the

notion that Small and Medium sized Enterprises could benefit from learning

organisation practice, it is clear to me that it would have been yet clearer

had he shared more of his research and ultimate findings and further

explored the types of learning undertaken by the organisations within his

sample study.

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Professional/personal development Through my studies on the Methods of Enquiry module and writing this assignment I

have been able to meet the module objectives in the following ways:

Displaying a critical understanding of various approaches to research

Showing an understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of

selected research methods

Having an understanding the different motivations for research in terms of

policy and practice

Evaluating selected case studies with regard to research design

Appraising the difference between valid and invalid research and reliable

and unreliable research

Identifying the research findings that are significant and which contribute to

development of professional practice.

On a professional basis I have developed a much greater understanding of the

purpose of research and a better insight into research design, research strategies

and methods, research analysis and the associated areas of validity, reliability, ethics

and dissemination.

I also feel more confident in how to complete my own research project and apply

some of the learning outcomes of this module to my own dissertation before

progressing to higher learning and ultimately, publishing work.

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Perspective, Addison- Wesley, Reading, MA

Brockett R and Heimstra R (1991) Self-Direction in Adult Learning, Perspectives on

theory research and practice. London: Routledge,

Curran J (1993), Tec’s fail to meet the needs of their local small firms, 19.07.93 in

Woodcock (1993) Guardian London p.12

Harrison R (1988) Training and Development, London: Institute of Personnel

Management

Houle C O (1984) Patterns of Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Kolb D A (1984) Experiential Learning: experience as the source of learning

development, Englewood Cliffes: Prentice Hall

Matlay H (2000) Organisational Learning in Small Learning Organisations: An

Empirical overview: Education and Training vol 42 Number 4/5 MCB University Press

Marsick V and Watkins K (1990), Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace,

London: Routledge

Scarbrough H, Swan J and Preston J (1998), Knowledge Management: A Literature

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Senge P (1990), The Fifth Discipline- the Art and Practice of the Learning

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