Development and the Learning Organisation: Essays from Development in Practice (Development in Practice Reader) - Softcover

Roper, Laura; Pettit, Jethro; Eade, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0855984708 ISBN 13: 9780855984700

Publisher: Oxfam, 2003

Synopsis

As development NGOs and official aid agencies embrace the idea of "becoming a learning organisation", they are increasingly concerned with some form of knowledge generation and organizational learning. To date, the literature on these issues tended to come out of the private sector and reflect a Western worldview. This book presents contributions from development scholars and practitioners from a range of institutional backgrounds around the world, some introducing new approaches and models, others offering critical case studies of individual and group learning practice across cultures, and organizational efforts to put theory into practice. Among the lessons to emerge from this work are that learning is hard to do, that we often learn the wrong things and that huge gaps often remain between our learning and our behaviour or practice. There are clearly no simple recipes for success, but when learning breakthroughs do occur, the organizational whole can truly become more than the sum of its parts.

About this title

About the Authors

Deborah Eade became editor of the international journal Development in Practice in 1991 and has published extensively on international development and humanitarian issues. She was an independent consultant based in Mexico before becoming Oxfam GB’s Deputy Regional Representative for Mexico and Central America (1984-1991).

Jethro Pettit is a Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, UK. He has worked with international NGOs, including World Neighbors and Oxfam America.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxfam
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0855984708
• ISBN 13: 9780855984700
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 452