The change laboratory : : a tool for collaborative development of work and education / / Jaakko Virkkunen and Denise Shelley Newnham.

• Author: Virkkunen, Jaakko.
• TeilnehmendeR: Newnham, Denise Shelley.
• Place / Publishing House: Rotterdam, The Netherlands : : Sense Publishers,, [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: 1st ed. 2013.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (285 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

A new challenge of learning in work organizations—both in business and public administration—is to master entire life cycles of product, production and business concepts. Meeting this challenge calls—at all levels of the organization—for learning that expand the learners’ horizon and practical mastery from individual tasks up to the level of the whole system of the collective activity and its transformation. The Change Laboratory is a method for formative intervention in work communities that supports this kind of organizational learning. It is a path breaker in the area of work place learning due to its strong theoretical and research basis and the way that it integrates the change of organizational practices and individuals’ learning. It provides a way to develop practitioners’ transformative agency and capacity for creating and implementing new conceptual and practical tools for mastering their joint activity. This first comprehensive presentation of the already widely used method is written for researchers, consultants, agricultural extension and HRD professionals, as well as practitioners involved in developing activities in their professional field. It explains this novel method as well as its theoretical basis on the Cultural Historical Activity Theory providing also practical examples and tools for carrying out a Change Laboratory intervention. A review is also provided of studies concerning various aspects of expansive learning processes in Change Laboratory interventions.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Meeting the New Challenges of Learning at Work -- The Change Laboratory–an Instrument for Agency Building and expansive Learning -- The Theoretical Basis of the Change Laboratory Method -- Preparing a Change Laboratory Intervention -- Preparing and Carrying Out Change Laboratory Sessions -- A Change Laboratory in a School in Botswana -- A Change Laboratory in the Central Surgical Unit of Oulu University Hospital -- A Boundary Crossing Change Laboratory INAN Automation Systems Firm -- Comparison of the Three Case Examples -- The Future of the Change Laboratory Method -- Appendix 1: Session Planning Sheet -- Appendix 2: Disturbance Diary -- Appendix 3: Cultures of Dealing with Disturbances and Problems in Organizations -- Appendix 4: Methods for Collecting Historical Mirror Data -- Appendix 5: Change Matrix -- References -- Index.