Building strategic organisational learning implementation for the Australian Public Service (APS)

The main aim of this research project "Building strategic organisational learning implementation for the Australian Public Service (APS)" was to add to a better conceptual and pragmatic understanding of strategic organisational learning implementation in an Australian context, with particular reference to the APS during a period of change. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research methodology utilising focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews with learning and development practitioners was employed, and interpretive content analyses were used to analyse the data collected. The results showed what actively engaged practitioners believed to be important considerations in regards to the three conceptual elements and their component parts in terms of contributing to the success of a change initiative. Additionally, the results showed the crucial interrelationships occurring between the three conceptual elements and their component parts. In particular, the results highlighted that, in keeping with structuration theory, the organisational learning element is seen as a recursive rather than a linear process, in that it is purposefully engaged by virtue of the inputs to, and the outcomes of, both the strategy and implementation elements to which it is dynamically linked. The research has also highlighted the importance of leadership to the three conceptual elements, both singularly and collectively, and has suggested that this is an area that warrants further investigation as matter of priority within management research. Additional areas for future research were also identified. A set of graphical-type schemata was developed depicting both the dynamic interdependent relationship between each of the three conceptual elements and at the same time interposing the ongoing, cyclic interplay that organisational learning presents between its other partner elements. Additionally, these schema represent specific relationships between the different components that make up each of the three conceptual elements.