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Since the late 1980s, the concepts of organizational learning (OL) and learning organization (LO) has prospered and been advocated as an effective strategy for organizational excellence. However, there was a lack of systematic documentation or cases reported proving the sustaining effect of OL. The purpose of this paper is to present a successful 15-year OL case in China, with which to prove PAL is a sustainable vehicle for OL.

This study documents a 15-year successful journey of a project-based action learning (PAL) driven OL setting in a multinational high-tech manufacturing company in China. The case study has been focusing on the progress of the four pillars in the PAL framework (i.e. policy and strategy; learning facilitation; resources and technology; and performance management) throughout the 15-year journey. Besides secondary data collection, on-site interviews with participants and the management of the company were carried out.

From this longitudinal case study, it can be seen that the four pillars form a very robust infrastructure supporting PAL for driving OL within the company. Each pillar is indispensable and evolves according to the needs of the others. Both management and learning team members perceived that PAL is an effective tool to drive OL within the case company.

This paper presents a unique15-year longitudinal examination of a successful OL story in a high-tech company in China, through the adoption of the PAL driven framework and the evolutionary road of the associated parts. While successful, this paper is considered as a “stage” summary of the long range road of OL adoption, with PAL proven to be a sustainable OL vehicle.

The paper aims to describe the development and introduction of the project action learning (PAL) framework as the OL vehicle in a company's move towards a learning organization.

This is a longitudinal case study of this company‐based LO and OL project. The paper describes the development and implementation experiences of PAL within the company, located in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China.

This paper describes the first four rounds of the PAL implementation within the case company. This is a work in progress. To date a very successful start to PAL implementation has been reported.

After a successful start of the PAL implementation, the authors and the sponsoring company anticipate a continued propagation of PAL activities as the main OL vechicles of the company.

This is a useful case reference for LO and OL development and implementation in industrial organization particularly for manufacturing enterprises in Southern China.

This paper aims to present the result of the pilot run of a research project which aims at evaluating the applicability of project-based action learning (PAL) to shop floor organizational learning (OL) component in a manufacturing company in Dongguan, China. How the PAL framework was introduced and implemented is described. The factors that influence PAL implementation are examined in this pilot implementation. The implications and effectiveness are discussed. The findings shed light on the modifications needed in the PAL framework for shop floor implementation.

This is a longitudinal case research which is conducted in a case company (APT) located in Dongguan, China. PAL framework was introduced and implemented in APT. A wave-like approach was used to repeat launching PAL projects in cycles. Data of learning and work performances were collected for review during each phase and each cycle of the project. The result presented here is from the early round of the pilot PAL implementation.

Result indicated that the PAL framework is applicable in the shop floor level OL. Learning and performance have been found to have improved in all the PAL groups participating in the pilot run. Result also shows that the PAL implementation framework needs some fine tuning to meet the needs of the unique shop floor environment particularly with regard to performance measure and evaluation.

No such case study has been conducted in shop floor level before. The research study will be valuable experience and example for other organizations to implement OL in shop floor level.

The lack of a clear conceptualization and operationalization of the construct of interpersonal conflict makes it difficult to compare the results of different studies and hinders the accumulation of knowledge in the conflict domain. Defining interpersonal conflict as a dynamic process that occurs between interdependent parties as they experience negative emotional reactions to perceived disagreements and interference with the attainment of their goals, the present paper presents a two‐dimensional framework and a typology of interpersonal conflict that incorporates previous conceptualizations of the construct. The first dimension of the framework identifies three properties generally associated with conflict situations: disagreement, negative emotion, and interference. The framework's second dimension identifies two targets of interpersonal conflict encountered in organizational settings: task and interpersonal relationship. Based on this framework, the paper highlights several shortcomings of current conceptualizations and operationalizations of interpersonal conflict in the organizational literature, and provides suggestions for their remedy.

Concept of “organisational learning” has been widely advocated as one of the solutions for organisational development, especially for those companies requiring high level of technology and knowledge. While being applied to the entire organisation, the concept of organisational learning can also be applied to specific function or project teams, which can be named as “project” based organisations. This paper presents a new approach of learning for the project‐based teams, which integrates learning and project in one, towards organisational learning ideals. Performance evaluation mechanism is also developed. With the developed evaluation, three dimensions of team performance, within the scope of project action‐learning framework would be measured. It would tell the team where it stands at a particular point of time. In order to track the critical variables required to reach the goals, the developed measurement system framework will be adopted in the implementation phase.

This paper addresses the importance of a more proactive role of organizational learning (OL) facilitators, learning motivation reinforcer, through a two‐part longitudinal study in a case company. The first part of this study aims to investigate and analyze some unexpected challenges in the project action learning‐driven (PAL) OL implementation in the case company, and the second part seeks to discuss an enhanced role of OL facilitators to cope with the new challenges.

A longitudinal case study supplemented with a series of carefully choreographed field research activities, e.g. interviews, on‐site observations, survey tests, was conducted to achieve the research purpose. In the first part of this study, the feedbacks regarding PAL implementation were collected from different PAL stakeholders to identify the problems and barriers that undermined the effectiveness of PAL implementation. In its second part, the proposed facilitator's interventions were introduced in the case company. The results were examined through a controlled group experiment conducted with an on‐going round of PAL implementation.

The study found that adverse changes in business circumstances and organizational restructurings could dampen staff's motivation toward organization's OL initiatives which would further reduce the OL effectiveness. To redress the situation, a set of facilitator's interventions was developed to reinforce OL members' learning motivation. Study results indicate that the proposed interventions can positively influence the learning motivation of the PAL members in the case company.

This paper describes the difficulties encountered in a real life OL journey and the role OL facilitators could take on to help overcome them. It provides empirical evidence of how the learning motivation and commitment of OL members can be positively influenced by OL facilitation.

The authors believe such longitudinal case based OL research is rare and valuable to OL theorists and practitioners.

This paper deals with the modelling of an information system for Chinese herbal medicine manufacturing enterprises, describes its structures and functions, and discusses its implementation issues.

A case experience is presented.

Enterprises within this industry have big differences in production and management process and practice. The implementing plan must consider these differences and have adaptable solutions to fit the firm's conditions. It has been found that the information system model proposed here is feasible and can be used not only in other Chinese herbal medicine manufacturing enterprises, but also in other flow‐process industries.

The issues discussed in this paper are common to many Chinese enterprises today, particularly the small and medium‐sized enterprises. The experience described here provides a useful reference for such enterprises’ venture into technological and management process innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the drawbacks of analytic hierarchy process in solving complex decision-making problems, especially for the evaluation of enterprise technology innovation ability (ETIA). Because interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2 FSs) can handle uncertainty linguistic variables in a more flexible and precise way than type-1 fuzzy sets with their second fuzzy membership functions, a fuzzy ANP method with IT2 FSs is proposed to evaluate the ETIA.

The criteria of evaluation on ETIA are identified and an evaluation model for ETIA is constructed on the basis of the application analysis of ETIA and theoretical design of ANP. In addition, two different ranking methods of IT2 FSs are applied in processing the relationships between influence factors of ETIA.

By using the proposed interval type-2 fuzzy ANP (IT2 FANP) method, the efficiencies of the whole evaluation of ETIA can be measured and the important factors in the ETIA can also be determined. Compared with the type-1 FANP through the ranking results, the proposed IT2 FANP is more reasonable and robust for the evaluation of ETIA.

The proposed IT2 FANP method is applied on the evaluation of ETIA. With respect to the application, the proposed method can be used to evaluate many more complex problems that contain feedback and circular relationships.

The proposed IT2 FANP approach can solve the complexities and uncertainties at the same time. Considering the subjective initiative of decision-makers and the feedback between influence factors, the proposed method is more efficient than the existing type-1 approaches in the literature.

The study of intelligent manufacturing systems (IMS) has attracted increasing interest in recent years. Examines “human intelligence” as the key factor in IMS in the context of our present research into manufacturing automation and computerisation in PRC/HK industrial enterprises. Provides the definition of human intelligence according to relevant literature and in the context of our study, then briefly introduces the outline of IMS study in the West. Presents an analysis of the circumstances of a number of PRC/HK enterprises which the authors have studied in a recent series of industrial survey visits in mainland China and Hong Kong. Reports progress made in the study of human intelligence in manufacturing automation and computerisation. Puts forward a framework on how a manufacturing enterprise can emphasise the use of human intelligence and human resources to the full in the process of adopting advanced manufacturing and computer technologies.