(Re) Interpreting Action, Learning, and Experience: Integrating Action Learning and Experiential Learning for HRD

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis and critique of action learning (AL) and experiential learning (EL), identifying emerging conceptual perspectives that contribute to human resource development (HRD). By integrating AL and EL, we gain a deeper understanding of action, learning, and experience, and how they are enacted based on the interplay of contextual, experiential, and action orientations. Through an integrative framework, we demonstrate that the interplay of cognition, behavior, and context offers insight into how and why learning occurs at multiple levels. The framework also recognizes the underlying dialectical forces that both reinforce and contradict schema selection and action framing. Tensions that facilitate and inhibit the grasping and transformation of experience create the context for actors to translate ‘knowing’ into ‘becoming’. Critical pathways that connect different phases of the learning cycle into coherent patterns of organizing offer some implications for HRD research and practice.

Team-Based Knowledge Sharing: Learning Through Complex Work Challenges

“…As such, the tension between problem complexity and ownership might offer new insights into the way teams learn (c.f. Yeo and Marquardt, 2015). Finally, researchers could explore if the role of facilitator is a critical agent of change in team learning contexts.…”

“…Based on theoretical and empirical research (Yeo, 2006;Yeo and Marquardt, 2015), the framework is a unique approach to learning in that it is both a structured and spontaneous knowledge sharing process. As a continuous process of learning and knowledge experimentation, the framework operates by means of a prior learning (input), during learning (process), and post learning (output) continuum driven by a work-related problem, referred to as a "challenge statement" (see Fig.…”

“…Yeo and Marquardt, 2015). Although the two learning processes appear similar, there are some fundamental differences.…”

“…It suggests that team-based knowledge sharing promotes an interplay of learning, experience, and action that ultimately transforms practice and sustains effective practice (c.f. Antonacopoulou, 2006;Yeo and Marquardt, 2015). The framework introduced in Saudi Aramco provides a more focused and holistic learning experience for individuals rather than operating through loosely-coupled or less controlled networks of learning seen in informal knowledge sharing (Marsick and Watkins, 1990).…”

Examining Experiential Learning and Implications for Organizations

“…Today, experiential learning practice is widespread and proponents continue to introduce its various forms to diverse professions. Different forms of learning with an embedded experiential component include action learning (Yeo & Marquardt, 2015;Yorks et al, 1999), action research (Maurer & Githens, 2010), and corporate adventure training (CAT) programmes (Gass et al, 1992). Although workplaces take advantage of experiential learning with the goal of increasing individual, group, and organizational performance, there remains a dearth of related evidence-based data reported in the literature to help inform practice and further research beyond that of theoretical papers and a few case examples (Matsuo 2015;Pless et al, 2011).…”