Effecting Change and Learning in Networks Through Network Action Learning

Abstract

This article explores how action learning undertaken in a network in the transportation equipment industry enabled a supply chain network, established to deliver customer service and productivity, to generate shared operational and strategic insight into collaborative improvement, leading to systemic change and improved practice and performance in the network’s strategic operations. The process describes how the network began as a strategic network, grounded in economic transaction, transitioned to becoming a transformational network based on open collaborative relations. It highlights interorganizational or network learning, types of networks, the dynamics of collaborative improvement, and action learning as an experiential process for learning-in-action.