Action Learning in Different National and Organizational Contexts and Cultures

In June 2008, the authors began a discussion of how well action learning “travels” across national and organizational cultures. Given the rapid growth of action learning internationally, this seemed a good question to be asking. One point of view suggests that action learning is cross-culturally compatible and can be used easily in a variety of contexts. The authors believe that action learning can, in fact, be used in a variety of venues, and action learning’s history provides convincing evidence of this. But the issue of cross-cultural compatibility is another matter. For example, setting up action learning teams in Asia with team members of unequal status is usually not going to work. Mixing men and women in a team does not work in most Arab countries, and it also can encounter keen resistance in Asia. And, in organizational cultures that are rather authoritarian or top-down, action learning tends to be more like “project-based” work rather than being more integrative of individual and societal contexts. There is clearly a need to adapt the way action learning is applied based on the national and organizational culture involved.