HRD professionals can be considered to be knowledgeable about knowledge management practices in their own offices. Effectiveness of knowledge management practices of three HRD offices were studied, using a combination of structured questionnaires plus interviews with four HRD professionals per office. Three categories of knowledge management activities were considered, by the members of these organisations, to be effective: activities that expand the individual or collective experiential horizon; activities that are meant to consolidate knowledge; informal and formal communication about work issues. Conditions that facilitate or inhibit these activities are identified. Organisations wishing to improve their knowledge productivity are confronted with some fundamental choices: innovation versus routine, office versus officer, and knowledge sharing versus knowledge shielding.

First-level managers are increasingly held accountable for the training and development of their team members. In order to explore how this HRD responsibility is executed, HRD officers of 23 innovative companies were interviewed. Delegation of HRD responsibility to first-level managers turns out to be a feasible option, providing certain conditions are met. Three distinct HRD roles of first-level managers can be observed: an analytic role, a supportive role and a trainer role.

Seven cases, all Dutch organisations, are analysed on the relation between organisation characteristics and types of training on the job on the basis of contingency theory. Effectiveness and efficiency, dictated by a competitive environment, influence decisions regarding internal structure, including the form of the HRD function. Contingency theory predicts that the internal structure, resulting from differentiation of components, mediates between such pressures of the environment and the pressure of the operating core, which tries to perform productively according to norms of rationality. The actions of differentiated components of the internal structure must be coordinated. The tendency to differentiate a separate training function off the job can be at odds with the tendency to bind training activities on the job strictly to the priorities of productive work. However, in this article we propose that this opposition can be overcome when the chosen type of on-thejob training 'matches' the type of organisation and that matching types as a rule are more effective.

It is concluded that learning approaches are relatively context specific, which implies that neither theoretical tradition can claim general applicability.

It is estimated that more than half of corporate training programs take place in the workplace. Important differences exist among these on‐site training programs; this article distinguishes and describes three main forms of on‐site corporate training: on‐site practice, on‐site instruction, and on‐site study. A recent trend to develop on‐site study programs as a means of individualizing job instruction in a controlled way is identified in Dutch firms. Three such programs are described in detail.