European goals related to ‘lifelong learning’ and the development of a ‘knowledge-based society’ can only be attained if the organisations in which people work are also organisations in which they learn. This means that work organisations must also become learning organisations. Thus, people are learning from their work - they are learning as they work.
The aim is to build organisations that are continuously learning how to be more productive, while at the same time, individual members of these organisations are developing themselves through their work.
The first book of the two-volume publication provides an overview of the main points emerging from a number of recent European research and development projects related to the topic of the learning organisation. It discusses the issues, dilemmas and challenges arising from these research projects and identifies new policies and practices to promote learning at work.
The second book is a reader comprising 15 papers, written by different experts, that present the work of a number of individual European projects. As well as exploring the meaning of the learning organisation, these papers present case studies and examine the role of human resource development and education and training actors in supporting learning organisations.