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Informal workplace trainers help employees learn what they need to know and do in order to get their job done. Little is known about the actionsOver the past decade, the workplace has been rediscovered as an important learning environment (Jacobs & Jones, 1995;Eraut, 2000;Streumer, 2006). As a result, studies examining employee training and learning have been broadened in at least two respects. First, attention has moved from formal training to informal training and learning in the workplace and to ways in

Tnis study demonstrates that employees, managers, and HRD staff use different strategies to organize work-related learning networks. Actor strategies in sixteen cases were studied, involving ninety-six participants in six organizations. Using ideal types for comparative purposes, actor strategies were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to establish in what confisurations they occurred. Three strategy configurations were found: Extended Training, Directed Reflection, and Reflective Innovation. For the most part, dqerent actors used diJerent strategies. Strategy configurations were partly related to work types. It is concluded that a network perspective on workrelated learning is useful to describe and explain important elements of HRD practice. Actors can use the strategy models developed toframe and negotiate their own learning policies and practices.Human resource development is a highly political field of practice. It has to serve two masters, one of which is work performance (Swanson and Arnold, 1996), the other of which is employee development (Bierema, 1996). The inherent tension, caused by the need to meet both demands at the same time, is increased by the fact that those involved in HRD practices express different interests. HRD professionals, line managers, and employees each use the organization of HRD arrangements to suit their own purposes.Let us suppose, for instance, that the management in organization X is convinced that shop floor teams should learn to work more autonomously. They are likely to find that the employees are not very enthusiastic about this idea and, moreover, that the current work climate prohibits any organizational change in the short run. The employees express different learning needs, which are more related to their own professional development. The HRD staff are willing to help the management acquire its goals, but only in compliance with the prevailing standards in HRD regarding the involvement of employees in organizational change processes. In short, although both demands are deemed important by all parties, the managers are letting work performance prevail over employee development, the employees are pursuing their professional

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This study presents a theoretical perspective on organizing learning networks in relation to work processes within organizations. Despite the potential wealth in combining various learning and work arrangements, the field seems to be characterized by a single-minded pursuit of highly uniform ways to organize learning and work. The learning-network perspective rejects both a functionalist tool of management approach and a context-independent organizational learning view. Instead, it demonstrates how learning networks are (re-)produced by interactions among employees, managers, training consultants, and other actors, who each have their own theories and strategies in organizing work-related learning. Learning networks can take various shapes depending both on actor dynamics and on work characteristics. The learning-network theory is a descriptive theory that allows employees, managers, training consultants, and other learning actors to understand and develop alternative ways of organizing employee learning in relation to work. An indicative rationale for the key differences between the learning-network perspective and some rival approaches is provided.