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This study explores the kind of learning processes that contribute to the improvement and innovation of an organisation's procedures, products and services. It aims to find the variables that promote or inhibit these learning processes. For this purpose a conceptual framework was developed. We present the results of 16 reconstruction studies deployed in various organisations in the Netherlands, China and Indonesia. The results confirm that the elements in our framework play an important role in developing and using new knowledge that is needed for improvement and innovation.

In this study the Job Demand-Control model was used to study the quality of working life of Dutch secondary teachers. The Job Demand-Control model of Karasek is a theoretical model in which stress and learning are both considered as dependent variables which are influenced by three different task characteristics: job demands, job control, and social support. This model was tested for Dutch secondary teachers (n = 542). Results shed light on the relationships between task characteristics, work stress, and work based learning. However, it is concluded that the Karasek model is better suited for explaining stress than for explaining learning. To explain work based learning more factors have to be taken into account in order to built an adequate theoretical model.

Purpose -In this paper the concept of knowledge production is used as a framework to study Dutch corporate universities. Knowledge production serves not simply as a desirable aim of corporate universities, as the concept also offers guidelines for the design of corporate universities. The purpose is to clarify the extent to which corporate universities fulfil this aim of knowledge production and the way they produce new knowledge. Design/methodology/approach -From different theoretical perspectives 11 design characteristics have been extracted that help corporate universities to be knowledge-productive. Two empirical studies were carried out to find out to what extent corporate universities meet those features required for knowledge production. The first study implies an exploration of opinions of key actors within 12 Dutch corporate universities, in which data were gathered through interviews and analysis of documents. The second study can be characterised as a case study of a concrete training practice within one corporate university. Data were gathered by interviews, evaluative questionnaires, and observation. Findings -Results reveal that knowledge production is viewed as important, but that concrete measures to stimulate it are often absent. Moreover, corporate universities need to pay more attention to the working environment of their employees in order to achieve their own goals. Originality/value -Analysing the corporate university from the perspective of knowledge production may stimulate corporate universities to rethink their own goals as well as their position within the organisation.

In this study professional learning on the job is conceived of as executing activities in the course of daily work which may lead to improvement of practice. As it was assumed that executing professional activities is related to individual and job variables, a questionnaire was constructed to measure activities as well as professional attitudes, job stress, and job characteristics. This questionnaire was administered to 558 teachers in 15 schools providing secondary education in the Netherlands. Data were collected in the Spring of 1997. Analysis will aim at answering two questions: (1) To what extent do teachers perform professional activities and (2) Which variables are related to this performance?