The systemic nature of action learning programmes

A lot of attention has been paid to action learning in the last three decad es or so and the success of such programmes has also been widely publicized . But why have these programmes been so effective in helping organizations cope with change? Many writers state that the success of such programmes is due to the fact that they link learning to actions. Yet others claim that action learning programmes succeed because they involve employee empowermen t and provide a much greater learning curve. In this paper the authors hold that action learning programmes succeed because they are partly systemic a nd can be made even more effective if they are fully designed and implement ed systemically. The essential features of a systemic method include the ab ility to help organizations deal with organic, cultural and power complexit y. The conclusion that action learning programmes can succeed if they are f ully designed and implemented systemically is reached by comparing the esse ntial features of a systemic method with that of an action learning program me. The authors make use of a case study to support their conclusion. Copyr ight (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.