Title: A logic of partnerships: working and learning across boundaries – organisational conformity or valuing diversity?

Authors: Jan Myers

Addresses: Nottingham Business School Research Department, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK; Dalhousie University, Faculty of Management, School of Business Administration, Kenneth C Rowe Building, 6100 University Avenue, Halifax, NS B3H 3J5, Canada

Abstract: This paper considers the complexity of managerial work in the UK non-profit sector that can be particularly observed at the interface between for-profit and public sector organisations. This nexus of working and learning, which requires knowledge of and an ability to act and interact on a number of levels, comes together in a variety of partnership arrangements with public sector, non-profit and private sector agencies. Key questions are raised: how can this individual and collective learning outside the organisation both contribute to the success of partnership working and be transferred back into the |internal| dimension of building the capacity of one|s own organisation? Can active alliances of different organisations value the diversity of sector differences? How might the learning brought about by these arrangements be captured and harnessed and where does the ownership of learning processes and knowledge creation lie?

Keywords: non-profit sector; partnerships; sensemaking; individual learning; collective learning; management; public sector; private sector; alliances; learning processes; knowledge creation; human resource development; HRD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2006.009208

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2006 Vol.3 No.1, pp.29 - 41

Published online: 09 Mar 2006 *

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