Citation
Dymock, D. (2007), "Editorial", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 19 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl.2007.08619gaa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
There is a theme in the first three papers in this issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning: workplaces as learning environments. While it could be argued that such a theme is inevitable in a journal of this name, the linking of the three papers in this way was not intentional, and it is quite remarkable, given the diversity of papers the journal has published over the years, that these three came together for this issue simply through the ebb and flow of papers crisscrossing the globe at various stages of review, revision and editing.
The papers also came from three quite separate parts of the world. From New Zealand, Alan Coetzer examines how diverse groups of employees in small businesses perceive their workplaces as learning environments. In a joint paper, Andrea Ellinger and Maria Cseh from the US explore facilitation of learning in a workplace setting, this time in a large manufacturing company. Finally in this trio of papers, Maria Gustavsson discusses the opportunities process operators have for learning in their daily work in a paper mill. So the workplace contexts are diverse; the concerns of the researchers are entwined, however they approached their topics.
The serendipity of the three papers coming together is enhanced by Daniel Belet’s paper, introduced by Richard Dealtry, which examines large French companies’ practices regarding “high potential” executives’ policies. His findings will give us all food for thought about the concept of the “learning organisation” and its future in our own countries.
At the time this issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning was being finalised, the organizers of the 5th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning were ploughing through a reported 300 abstracts submitted for consideration for presentation in South Africa in December 2007. This journal has been a partner in the last two conferences, in Tampere, Finland and Sydney, Australia respectively, and will again be represented at the forthcoming one in Cape Town. Previous conferences have been rich sources of some excellent papers for the journal, and the number of submissions to this year’s conference demonstrates once again the strength of research in the field of workplace learning.
As always, good reading!
Darryl Dymock