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The paper aims to describe the use of the World Institute for Action Learning method to develop leadership skills of managers and future managers.

Brief description of the methodology of this version of action learning (AL) based on field experiences.

AL is an effective tool for the development of leadership skills. It proposes a new learning model, and it opens up new opportunities for future leadership development programs and management education curriculum.

This paper will be of value to organizations considering various approaches to develop the competencies of their managers, leaders and to management institutions looking for ways to improve their leadership education offerings.

The author's interest in learning organisation development leads him to examine large French companies' practices regarding “high potential” executives policies and to question their selection and development processes and their capabilities to develop learning oriented organisations.The author also tries to explain why most large French companies are not yet familiar with this concept.

An analysis of the managerial and leadership characteristics of the French élite, as well as of the way they are trained in French grandes écoles and universities, can help to understand the kind of dominant style of leadership that features in the so called “high potential” executives in most large French companies.

The criteria against which these French “high potential” executives are discriminated explains largely their still very traditional hierarchical and centralised leadership styles, that are not favourable to build the more learning oriented organisations of the future. In addition most of the management development programmes for these executives stem from the traditional hierarchical leadership models that do not foster the necessary changes.

This article is based on the results of several studies performed in France by organisational sociologists about the corporate élite and the “high potential” executives of large companies and their development policies. The author relies on his participation in field researches but also draws from his extensive professional experience and in‐depth knowledge of these large organisations as consultant, trainer and speaker.

This article provides a critical approach of the mainstream “high potential” model based on the learning organisation philosophy. It proposes another vision of the “high potential” executive concept that the author believes to be more adequate in facing up to the challenge of the HR management and leadership changes that most large French organisations will likely have to face in the future. It also raises the issue of the adequacy of the present leadership development offer of the higher management education system. Although slightly political it aims at generating a debate about the very concept of the “high potential” executive, which is a major key to the necessary changes in the people management and leadership practices for the organisations of the future.

The article provides an overview of current issues in mentoring. After drawing on suggestions from participants at a mentoring conference, the article moves on to examine some key emerging questions concerning the value of formal mentoring, the role of training and the experience of mentroing in different countries. The article concludes with a consideration of methodology and how we can come to know what people’s experience is of mentoring.

Over the past years, the educational environment has undergone a revolution, caused mainly by the wide diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the multiscalar implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. This chapter taps into educators’ first-hand experience relating to the adoption of online technologies in an action learning process during the pandemic. Action learning is one of the experiential training methodologies aimed at individual, group, and organizational growth and development through practical, hands-on experience. It is an educational process that facilitates and improves the mechanism and functioning of groups of people who come together to support real challenges or activities, also by learning from direct experience. To this end, the case study of a University Master Course in leadership and change management is examined, based on unstructured interviews and analysis of written documents. The case study represents an emblematic case of adaptation and response to the change imposed by Covid-19 through the promotion of an innovative teaching and learning method. Results show how the adjustments devised to cope with the consequence of teamwork virtualization proved to be synergistic, delivering positive outcomes in terms of participants satisfaction, learning and impact, and producing deeply innovative change management projects. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to perform integrative literature review of the learning organisation (LO) concept, on the basis of the results of the literature review to assess the concept on the principles of “good” theory, and provide future avenues for LO concept clarification and development.

The “good” theory properties approach is used to present, synthesise and discuss studies that focus on the LO. The paper reviews in more detail the definitions (Who? and What?), the domain (When? and Where?), the relationships (How? and Why?) and the predictions by the LO theory (Would? Should? and Could?).

The review revealed that the LO violates the properties of the “good” theory, especially the definitions’ and relationships’ properties. As a result, it is suggested for the research in the future to be focused on creation of formal conceptual definitions, development of ontology as a base for clarification of the relationship property and improve the instruments for measurement of the LO.

Previously published literature reviews have advanced the clarification of the LO concept. However, there remains a need for evaluation of the concept in light of approach to concept formation. By using the “good” theory approach, this paper identified the shortcomings and laid down the ground for future research that will improve the LO concept.

The aim of this study is to systematise the entrepreneurial coaching (EC) literature by understanding how the phenomenon has been investigated along four dimensions inspired by Gartner’s (1985) conceptualisation of entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial process, context, target and outcomes. In so doing, this study will provide a frame of its multifunctional role and identify relevant gaps and suggestions for future research.

We conducted a systematic literature review to collect existing works on EC. We analysed 85 selected papers with a qualitative content analysis that allowed us to highlight relevant research themes for the entrepreneurial process, context, outcomes and target.

Our results demonstrate that EC has a multifunctional role in entrepreneurship that can be summarised in five different typologies, depending on the stage of the entrepreneurial process in which it is applied, the context, the target and the outcomes.

As one of the first attempts to systematise studies on EC, this work extends previous conceptualisation of EC by detailing different typologies of this intervention, thereby contributing to reduced fragmentation and conceptual ambiguity.