Given the need to unlock the capacity of everyone in the organization, interest in collaborative leadership is growing. But how is such a practice developed? The author proposes the use of action learning-in its original formulation, namely, through reflection on real-time work experience...

It is axiomatic that people who have a say in the vision underlying any endeavor will be more committed to carrying out that vision than those who are simply given the vision. Indeed, if the vision is handed down, no matter how empowered an employee may be in carrying it out, it may be...

In this account of practice, the authors introduce a variant of classic action learning, called developmental action learning or DAL. The DAL model, derived from cognitive development theory, introduces conventional learning modules prior to the more intensive set experience. It also calls for...

Most leadership training that is being conducted in corporate offsites is ill-advised. I make this bold statement because the intent of most of this training is to put leadership into people such that they can transform themselves and then their organizations upon their return. In this article,...

This paper attempts to remedy the inattention heretofore paid to the action project in the work-based learning literature. It begins with the assertion that there can be no substitute for real-time experience in human resource planning and development programs. Action projects afford real-time...

This special issue has been constituted to distinguish the burgeoning action strategies which are now being practiced by organization and management development practitioners around the globe. Its aim is also to look for common ground across these popular action strategies.

A study was performed to determine whether an "organic" set of competencies might be beneficially derived for a specific managerial population based upon the use of a prior "generic" competency instrument. The organic set differed substantially but was found to be useful as an indicator of...

Kurt Lewin's referral to action research as a way to conduct systematic inquiry into group phenomena gave rise to the so-called 'action technologies.' Two of the most popular action technologies that emerged from action research are action learning and action science, both of which seek to help...

In this essay the author through a curation of articles drawn largely from the archives of the Academy of Management guides readers through the early foundations, principles, and theory of the new field of leadership-as-practice or L-A-P. The field is shown to have evolved through a history of...