Anders Örtenblad

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at University of Agder

From "learning toy" and "learning society" to "learning city" and "learning organization", what is meant by "learning"? The main focus of this volume is to increase our understanding of the "learning turn" referring, in this book, to the frequent occurrence and usage of terms in the last few decades where the word "learning" is the premodifier. Th...

In this chapter, the relations between three multiword terms that all have “city” as the second term but are combined with different premodifiers: “learning city”, “knowledge city” and “smart city”, are explored. Örtenblad asks if the terms best can be made sense of through the analogy “old wine in new bottles”, thus containing the same meaning whi...

This chapter offers some evidence on the popularity of, mainly, the learning premodifier. The chapter is divided into two sections. In the first section, Örtenblad presents some quantitative Print Media Indicator studies, measuring the yearly frequency of a set of multiword terms all having learning as the premodifier. These studies show that the f...

This chapter introduces readers to the subject as well as to the book. The first section deals with the prevalence of the certain type of multiword terms that start off by the word “learning” (which, thus, is the “premodifier”), which in the chapter comes under the notion of Learning Terms. The term “learning turn” is used for the frequent use of L...

https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/55997/chapter/440973019

The aim of this chapter is to introduce the book, its main themes and chapters. The primary objective of the book is to examine and find a balance between the increased demands for the inclusion of practice-oriented elements in higher education over the past decade and the academic values that all higher education institutions must maintain. The in...

This chapter proposes a way of organizing teaching that imitates research: the TEKS approach (TEKS is a Norwegian acronym for theory, experience/experiences, criticism and independence). Students are guided in carrying out something that can be compared to research. There is no concrete, convincing model for such research-imitating teaching in exis...

Unlike many others who have shown interest in online education, in this chapter I focus on online education that is characterized by interactivity, authenticity, synchronicity and/or collaboration, that is, a “contextual format”. Based on my own experiences from online education and existing literature, I argue that online education in a contextual...

The significance of experiential learning as a pedagogical method to enhance educational quality and prepare students for the workforce is discussed in this chapter. Experiential learning involves transforming practical experiences into applicable knowledge. The authors have identified and analyzed what previous literature highlights as necessities...

Practice is becoming increasingly widespread as a learning activity at universities and university colleges, including academic education programs at the master’s level. Nevertheless, the purpose of practice is often unclear. This also makes it difficult to formulate learning objectives, define learning activities and develop suitable assessment cr...

“Reflection” is a widely used term, especially in higher education, where students are often asked to “reflect” on many different things. The main thesis of this chapter is that there is a need for more knowledge about how reflection can be carried out. Inspired by existing literature, the author presents a model of concrete steps in a reflection p...

In this chapter, the authors discuss insights from a survey of 248 students at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder that highlighted the students’ previous experiences with practice and their desires for future use of practice in university-level teaching. The survey reveals that students advocate for more practice-based teachi...

This chapter suggests that academics are as human—in terms of, mainly, striving to appear legitimate—as practitioners are. The author argues that not only practitioners are gaining legitimacy through fashion-followers, but that so are academics. Examples from the literature on, especially, management fashion and academic fashion are used as cases i...

This chapter presents a study of seven term couples, each containing two terms having learning as the premodifier and that from a first glance seem to have a similar or identical meaning, such as “learning company” and “learning organization”, or “learning country” and “learning nation”. Based on careful readings of a few texts on each term, and al...

This chapter presents a study of the values that could be said to lie behind ten multiword terms, all of which have learning as the premodifier. Örtenblad finds that the texts on three of the studied terms are dominated by the learning for all discourse; three terms are dominated by the effectiveness discourse; one term is dominated by the Bildung...

This book offers an up-to-date collection of works on metaphors in the area of organization studies. The mission of the book is to increase the interest for metaphor-based and metaphor-oriented research within the area of organization studies; further knowledge on “metaphor” can help to increase the potential of metaphor in organization studies. Th...

This chapter suggests a handful of types of studies within the area of organization studies in which metaphor and metaphors could play a central role: first, to construct a reflective overview of previously and presently used metaphors of organization; second, to construct sets of metaphors for organization for particular cultures, which would ther...

This chapter acknowledges color metaphors in organization studies, and focuses on one group of color metaphors that may be the most frequently used—the variety of color-coded versions of the collar metaphor, such as blue- and white-collar workers. The chapter is based on an unsystematic literature review, and identifies and discusses a set of fairl...

This book offers an up-to-date collection of works on metaphors in the area of organization studies. The mission of the book is to increase the interest for metaphor-based and metaphor-oriented research within the area of organization studies; further knowledge on “metaphor” can help to increase the potential of metaphor in organization studies. Th...

The topic of equal pay usually sparks debates with diverse opinions ranging from those supporting equal pay to those that oppose equal pay. This study attempted to gather empirical data on how individuals perceive equal pay. A questionnaire was designed that probed the respondents’ perceptions of equal pay along 13 dimensions. The respondents were...

This chapter serves as an introduction to the anthology on Debating the Legitimacy of the Business School. It starts with a very brief overview of business school history and then presents a multitude of controversial issues which the debate and criticism on business school legitimacy surrounds. It then outlines this book’s value for the reader and...

Purpose To convince readers that the time is ripe to start certifying the learning organization and to outline what would be needed to accomplish such a certification. Design/methodology/approach This is an argumentative piece based on the author’s almost 30 years of experience from researching and authoring the learning organization. Findings It...

"This stimulating collection tackles the question that is uppermost in most of humanity's minds and hearts right now. The novel debating approach that is taken generates a rich understanding of the range of ways in which bad leadership is created, manifested and most importantly, remedied." - Professor Brad Jackson, Waikato Management School, The U...

With an effort to justify the need to debate why there are so many bad leaders, this chapter introduces the anthology as well as the chapters and their different answers on the question at stake and standpoints in the debate. After a brief background to the subject debated in the book, the book, the premises that it rests upon, and its anatomy are...

With an effort to justify the need to debate whether all people—no matter of profession and position (and also whether one has a job or not)—should have the same pay, this chapter introduces the anthology as well as the chapters and their different standpoints in the debate, along with their various bases for arguing as they do. After a brief backg...

This anthology debates the idea of giving all people – no matter which profession or position they have (and whether they have a job or not) – the same pay. Some contributors argue against equal pay for all, some for increased pay equality but not for total pay equality, and some argue for equal pay for all. There is no common conclusion in the boo...

The (online) gambling industry is used as an illustration of when “entrepreneurship” is at its worst, something that probably anyone could agree that there is reason to be against. It is concluded, on basis of the contributions to the book, that there are good grounds for being against the predominating entrepreneurship discourse. There also seem t...

This book explores whether there is reason to be against entrepreneurship. Just like literature on the darker sides of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, the book is an answer to the one-sided, overly positive and uncritical image of entrepreneurship. The “twist” in this book, in comparison with literature on dark sides of entrepreneurship, is to...

This special issue assembles eight papers which provide insights into the working lives of early career to more senior academics, from several different countries. The first common theme which emerges is around the predominance of ‘targets’, enacting aspects of quantification and the ideal of perfect control and fabrication. The second theme is abo...

They’re not all selfish and corrupt Gordon Gekkos, say Riina Koris and Anders Örtenblad

This chapter offers a background to the two issues that are debated in the book: (1) whether leadership is, can and should be turned into a true profession; and (2) whether it is a good idea for higher education institutions to offer bachelor programs in leadership. Some literature about management as profession is reviewed, regarding the themes th...

Since many skeptics argue that leadership cannot be turned into a true profession, there is reason to outline measures on how it would be possible to accomplish such a transformation. In this chapter a few preparatory measures are suggested, which could assist in creating better conditions for the actual professionalization process. These measures...

It is argued that higher education institutions around the world should offer bachelor programs in leadership. Arguments for this which are put forward in the chapter include that practicing leadership is about dealing with and taking care of people, something that those taking on leading positions need to be well prepared for through higher educat...

This engaging book presents a lively debate surrounding the professionalization of leadership. With contributions from both sides of the argument, the book considers the historical overview of leadership and management as a profession, questions what constitutes a profession, and critically addresses the practicality of professionalizing leadership...

Purpose One purpose is to offer an overview definition of the concept of the learning organization to be used, related to and taken as a starting point for further conceptual developments by others writing about and using the learning organization concept. An additional purpose is to suggest how the concept of the learning organization could be de...

This chapter argues that there is a need to consider the context when advising on how organizational learning should be conducted in any particular organization. There is a need for more research on which types of organizational learning are needed in particular Asian contexts, taking various considerations, such as industry demands, national cultu...

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether student-teacher personality (mis)match has an impact on student's understanding of the subject matter and learning experience. We begin by hypothesizing that it does matter who teaches you and, based on our personal teaching experience to start with, assume that when students' and teachers' personali...

All across the contemporary world we are witnessing a widespread belief in higher education (“educationism” in Dale and Robertson 2009) as a key to transforming the future. Higher education is associated with traditional values, such as empowerment and personal development, but also with such societal values as paying service to the economy and the...

We are facing a world where business schools have made it their primary aim to enhance student career prospects and/or salaries by teaching business solely from a business perspective. The authors of this article explore international business students’ viewpoints on the purpose of business school teaching and business school graduates. Having oper...

Gender Equality in a Global Perspective looks to discuss whether Gender Equality can be adopted as it has been defined in international documents anywhere, or whether it needs to be adapted in a more local context; discuss which factors and perspectives need to be taken into account when adapting Gender Equality to specific contexts; suggest resear...

This book focuses on how the Northern futures are transformed through regional cooperation in the Barents eduscape: a study of the social, cultural and political aspects of higher education and the exchanges of learning and people in the Euro-Arctic Barents region, especially between Norway and Russia. Cultural exchange through higher education in...

Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) a universal idea? Is the same exact definition of CSR relevant for any organization, regardless of context? Or would such a definition need to be adapted to fit different types of organizations, in different cultures, industries and sectors? This book discusses how CSR preferably should be practiced in vario...

This introduction examines the contributions of articles in this special issue to organization theory, especially efforts to rethink or add to Morgan’s metaphors and to generate new organizational images. In general, the articles in this issue offer new metaphors and sub-metaphors and enrich specifications for two of Morgan’s images. Moreover, they...

This paper extends the horizons of scholarly work within the bounds of translation theory by moving away from the tradition of presenting descriptive and historical accounts of translation. It departs from this tradition by offering a guide for intentional or rationally calculated translation applied to cross-cultural management learning. It synthe...

Purpose – To suggest how the idea of the learning organization can be adapted to fit organizations in different contexts. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on many years of work on the idea of the learning organization and how it can be made to fit in different contexts. Findings – Any organization that has an interest in becomi...

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are to take a closer look at the relevance of the idea of the learning organization for organizations in different generalized organizational contexts; to open up for the existence of multiple, context-adapted models of the learning organization; and to suggest a number of such models. Design/methodology/approa...

This innovative Handbook aims to examine whether there is a need to adapt and widen our understanding of knowledge management. A common definition of knowledge management is taken as the starting point for discussions on its relevance in various contexts, such as Buddhist organizations, law firms, the army and indigenous organizations. Moreover, th...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine systematically and reflectively the relevance of four different aspects/types of the learning organization idea to higher educational institutions (HEIs), from three ideal-typical stakeholder perspectives: the managerial perspective, the employee perspective and the societal perspective. Design/met...

As export education is destined to be one of the new growth industries an Entre-preneurship course designed in the UK is exported to China. We reflect on the transplantation of entrepreneurship theory. Knowledge as it travels becomes de-contextualised but by relying on actor-network theory (ANT) we find that knowledge multiplies. Students in China...

This timely Handbook establishes the 'contextualization' of the learning organization idea as a research field. In contrast to much of the previous literature, which has approached the learning organization as a panacea that every organization could and should adopt, this major new Handbook puts the learning organization into context. It examines t...

Extant literature has illustrated that business schools are currently pre-occupied with promoting and teaching optimization, efficiency and effectiveness, maximization and profitability. Too little attention is afforded to promoting the skills of analysis and critical thinking or the mastery of theories, abstract conception or a wider appreciation...

During the past decade, Apple (Inc.) has achieved spectacular success in the consumer electronics industry and was awarded the ‘World’s Most Admired Company’ from 2008 to 2012 (Fortune 2012). However, this triumph was somewhat over-shadowed by a series of worker suicides that occurred in one of Apple’s main contract manufacturers, Foxconn Internati...

Besides commenting on the papers selected for this special issue, we include a brief reflexive account of our journey in compiling this special issue, and report how we were struck by the de-coupling between our own local practices, on the one hand, and the global concepts that are familiar in management learning, on the other. We pose some general...

The aim of this article is to explore the different directions that the development of the management knowledge field could take and to suggest a reasonable direction for its further development. In particular, management knowledge, packaged in the form of labels consisting of more than one word (e.g. knowledge management, learning organization, an...

This paper offers an alternative approach to the spread of management ideas. It is an approach that can explain, better than the fashion perspective, the differences between organisations adopting the same management idea and that can explain, better than the translation perspective, the similarities between the practices of organisations. Manageme...

Is it really possible to give online courses, with no physical meetings whatsoever, in leadership, where the students' learning to a large extent is based on experiences during the course in itself? Would it at the same time be possible to encourage critical thinking on a course like this, to create an online, experience-based, academic leadership...

The ambition of this chapter is to pay some attention to more obvious, as well as more subtle, methods for organizations to become independent of the individual's subjective knowledge, from the employees' point of view. Terms such as 'knowledge sharing', 'knowledge transfer', and 'learning for all' are almost always seen as being positive for both...

The ambition of this chapter is to pay some attention to more obvious, as well as more subtle, methods for organizations to become independent of the individual’s subjective knowledge, from the employees’ point of view. Terms such as ‘knowledge sharing’, ‘knowledge transfer’, and ‘learning for all’ are almost always seen as being positive for both...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss both possibilities and problems with Senge's (1990) many faces in The Fifth Discipline , i.e. the fact that different authors refer to different excerpts from his book as his version of the learning organization. Design/methodology/approach The paper shows that the authors' understandings of Senge, i...

This paper tells the stories of the emergence and evolution of four management ideas: organisational learning, the learning organisation, the learning company and knowledge management. It explores, evaluates and extends the 'old wine in new bottles' metaphor, and its relevance for the coining and naming of management fashions. The paper neither tot...