The recent slowdown in the global economy has been a trigger for discontinuous change, prompting many organisations to re‐examine their collaborative strategies. This paper, focuses on the management of collaborative relationships in a period of discontinuity, presents, compares and contrasts...

Purpose: Doctoral education (DE) is central to the development and application of operations management (OM) thinking. The European Doctoral Educational Network (EDEN) seminar on research methodology in OM is a structured initiative developed in 1999 by European Operations Management...

A fundamental methodological question guides this paper: How can operations managers and researchers learn from the applied activity that characterises the practice of OM? To address this question, defines and explores the legitimacy of an action‐oriented research approach in OM, and the...

The application of action learning in inter-organizational settings is largely undeveloped. This article presents a description of and reflection on an action learning approach to enabling collaborative improvement in the extended manufacturing enterprise. The article focuses in particular on...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide a design and implementation framework for ALAR (action learning action research) programme which aims to address collaborative improvement in the extended manufacturing enterprise. Design/methodology/approach – This article demonstrates the...

Exploring and exploiting the richness and reach of large scale action research projects is a challenge. This challenge focuses inwards as it addresses critical issues of enacting, managing and coordinating the actions of the project and engaging in the reflective processes of learning-in-action...

While much of the literature on action learning focuses on managers developing their capacity to learn and transform their own organizations, this article explores how action learning has been used in inter-organisational settings. Two settings are presented: the first an EU-funded management...

The philosophical foundations of action learning research have not received a great deal of attention. In the context of action learning postgraduate and professional programmes in universities, articulation of a philosophy of action learning research seems timely and appropriate. This article...

This article brings together the fields of action learning and operations strategy. It presents a case of action learning focused on strategic operations improvement in the extended manufacturing enterprise. As the third article in the set of explorations in this journal within the fields of...