Essential Readings in Management Learning

This volume brings together some of the best writing published in the journal Management Learning since its re-launch under this title in 1994. The selection very much reflects the mission of the journal to act as a showcase for innovative, international and interdisciplinary work which covers a wide gamut of issues connected to management, organizations, learning and knowledge. The field of management learning, widely drawn in this way, brings together some of the key preoccupations within several areas of management, organization studies and social science more generally. Learning and knowledge have become central themes within thee areas for several reasons, both practical and theoretical. These include the way that organizational learning is seen as a key source of competitive advantage, and the wider analysis that individuals and organizations now inhabit a 'knowledge economy'. Theoretically, recent years have seen emerging understandings of the social significance of 'communities of practice', whilst learning in its many manifestations is increasingly seen as being imbricated in issues of power. This latter points to one of the particular areas which has been a focus for the journal, namely more critically orientated approaches to management learning.

This collection provides readings grouped under six key headings which reflect where some of the most influential and provocative work in the field has been done over recent years, namely:

- Organizational Learning and Learning Organizations

- Individual Learning

- Critical Approaches to Management Education and Learning

- Pedagogical Practice

- Globalization and Management Learning

- Beyond Management Learning

Along with an editorial introduction, this volume will provide a unique and invaluable resource for anyone studying or researching management learning and cognate areas, by bringing together some of the best peer-reviewed work in the field.

This collection reprints articles from the journal Management Learning from its founding in 1994 to the present. Grey (organizational theory, Cambridge) and Antonacopoulou (organizational behavior, U. of Liverpool) have arranged the papers around the themes of organizational learning and learning organizations; individual learning; critical approaches to management education and learning; pedagogical practices; globalization; and beyond management learning. Specific topics include mechanisms, culture and feasibility in organizational learning; the transfer of Western management to China; and the aesthetics of management storytelling. The contributions are varied in focus and orientation, but all probe and question the status quo. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Elena Antonacopoulou is a Professor of Organizational Behaviour at University of Liverpool Management School. She previously held faculty positions at Warwick Business School, Manchester Business School and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). She earned her Ph D (1996) from the University of Warwick and she holds a Masters Degree in Management from the University of Kent. She also holds professional qualifications such the Diploma of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (1989) and the Diploma of the Association of Computer Professionals in Computer Systems Analysis and Design (1988)