This edition of the Journal includes four book reviews exploring topics such as the learning organisation, radical organisation development and agile and lean concepts in teaching and learning. A common theme in most of the reviews relates to how we work and learn within organisations today. We begin with George Boak’s review of Anders Örtenblad’s The Oxford Handbook of the Learning Organization. A book which is described by Boak as a big book full of original writings on a range of ideas, old and new, which would be a valuable addition to any university library where the workings of organisations are researched and taught. However, he highlights the need for more content in relation to contextual issues and in particular culture and team learning. The next review is John Edmonstone’s review of Stefan Kuhl’s The Rainmaker Effect: Contradictions of the learning organisation. The rainmaker effect described by Edmonstone is that there is a belief in certain societies that rainmakers can bring rain, whilst being a superstition, serves to create greater cohesion among those people who do believe in the power of the rainmakers. As a result, such lived values and beliefs can bring about real organisational learning. Edmonstone explains how the author sets out to describe how the rainmaker effect acts in relation to the concept of the learning organisation. However, in doing so Edmonstone asserts that the book is admirably strong on analysis but unfortunately less so on any practical actions that might flow from such analysis. We continue with Craig Johnson’s review of Parsons and MacCallum’s Agile and Lean Concepts for Teaching and Learning. Johnson describes the book as being a compendium of how concepts of lean and agile have been transferred to the classroom. Although described as being comprehensive and well-written Johnson notes for a book published in 2019 the implications of digital and/or online learning are limited. A further commentary in relation to agility and action learning is included with the review by Bernhard Hauser.
The final review by John Edmonstone is of Mark Cole’s Radical Organisation Development (OD). Radical OD as described by Edmonstone addresses the issues of power and the social consequences of work through a collective appetite for enquiry which is focused on the lived experiences of the workforce, rather than on abstract representations. Edmonstone emphasises that the book encourages the reader to reflect on their own OD practice and poses important questions about how radical it really is or whether it simply serves to reinforce the way that things currently are. The book reviews in this edition of the journal highlight the need for a more radical and agile approach to work and learning within organisations. Surely this only strengthens the argument for a more action learning approach within today’s organisations. An approach such as action learning within an organisation relates to questioning taken for granted assumptions about management and its practices. In the context of current debates in the field of business such an approach is both timely and relevant for today’s managers and ultimately society.