University of the West of England

Managing Organizational Change – Tuesday class

Seminar 2 Date: 02.11.2021

Lecturer: Assoc. Prof. Mai Ngoc Khuong

Group 4
Vo Kim Nhat Huyen 21078568
Nguyen Gia Phu 21078562
Vo Thi Thanh Ngan 21078514
Huynh Van Cuong 21078517
Le Tran Thao Nhi 21078558
Nguyen Vuong Thien
Kim 21078508
Bui Thanh Truc 21078522
01 Behind and beyond KOLB’s learning cycle
Present by Vo Kim Nhat Huyen - 21078568

02 Inside action learning: an exploration of

the psychology and politics of
Present by Nguyen Gia Phu - 21078562

03 Using learning processes to promote change

for sustainable development
Present by Vo Thi Thanh Ngan - 21078514
01. Behind and
beyond
KOLB’s learning
cycle
Russ Vince
University of the West of England
 “learning”
the process of knowledge created through the transformation of experience

Concrete Experience
Testing implications of Observations and
concepts in new situations Reflections
Formation of abstract concepts
& generalizations
Kolb’s learning cycle
Learning to ride a bicycle:
- Concrete experience:
Learning to ride a bicycle
- Reflective observation
Talking about riding and watching
someone else ride a bike.
- Abstract conceptualization
Grasp the definition and have a good
understanding of the idea of biking.
- Active experimentation
Hop on a bicycle and have a ride.
 Main sections

01 02
Kolb’s learning cycle Behind the learning cycle
- Six propositions. - Five themes issues.
- The value.

03 04
beyond the learning cycle Implications
- More detail discuss and develop of - For the practice of management education.
theoretical underpinning.
Kolb’s learning cycle
The propositions – The value
 01 Kolb’s learning cycle

Six propositions which characterize the transformation of

experiences.
0 learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes.
1
0 Learning is a continuous process grounded in experience.
2
0 The process of learning requires the resolution of conflicts between
dialectically opposed models of adaption to the word.
3
 01 Kolb’s learning cycle

Six propositions which characterize the transformation of

experiences.
0 Learning is a holistic process of adaption to the world.
4
0 Learning involves transactions between the person and the environmen
5
0 Learning is the process of creating knowledge.
6
 01 Kolb’s learning cycle

The value of the model

In education management & management development
Deductive & Inductive

� Abstract concepts 🡪 Experiences

� Testing 🡪 Reflective practice

� Create a bridge between:

Objectivity & Subjectivity

Positivism & Phenomenology
 01 Kolb’s learning cycle

The value of the model

In organizations & within management courses
Managers understand learn from experiences & an individual's rationality or emotional reality.

1st – Creation of a direct experience of thoughts, feelings, or both.

2nd – A process of reflecting on thoughts & feelings.
3rd – illustration of rational conclusions or emotional insights about the experience.
4th – the implementation, testing, & initiation of action from experience.
 01 Kolb’s learning cycle

The value of the model

In management development contexts
Learning cycle populations arises in part from:
- Its accessibility to managers,
both as a way of comprehending the processes of individual and organizational learning & development
- In terms of perceiving aspects of the process that may currently be omitted.
 Main sections

01 02
Kolb’s learning cycle Behind the learning cycle
- Six propositions. - Five themes issues.
- The value.
Behind the learning
cycle
A variety of issues
 1ST ISSUE
Experience needs to be seen as constructed, shaped, and contained by
social power relations.
 02 Behind the learning cycle – 5 issues

KOLB’s model Vince’s assumption

Emphasize: individual experience and how this “Experience is not seen as being constructed,
affects & is affected by social reality. shaped, and contained by social power
relations.

🡪 The reality of people’s experiences can 🡪 Possible for people to speak about their
possibly be denied and called into question. experience in their own voice.
 2nd ISSUE
Complex and unequal relations around knowledge are constructed
between people as an integral part of the learning process.
 02 Behind the learning cycle – 5 issues

Needed of review for the concept of experiential learning.

- Kolb’s learning cycle – as a reaction against research, education, & development processes
in the past – fairly rigid & directive attempts to generate & impart knowledge.

- Not best to learn from direct experience 🡪 consequences: terminal illness, torture,
& extreme physical or psychological pain.
 3rd ISSUE
There is a need to focus on the here and now experience and the
mirroring process between the people within the education
environment and the organizations they represent.

KOLB’s model
Learning for something that has passed.
🡪 Process of generalization from memories that
prompt future action.
02 Behind the learning cycle – 5 issues
Vince’s assumption
The here and now 🡪 immediate and social context for
past experience,.
Managers
🡪 possibility of risking new ways of behaving
� Participating in a safe learning environment
� Transferring into action with the organization.
 4th ISSUE
Finding ways of working with underlying and unconscious processes,
particularly defense mechanisms, is necessary.
 02 Behind the learning cycle – 5 issues

KOLB’s model Vince’s assumption

People open to learning, not defend against it. It is defensiveness or denial of experience

� Appears both inside & outside organizations 🡪 often get ignored in the educative environment.

� With deeply held patterns & unconscious � Risks of missing potential for learning
processes 🡪 fears of conflict & anxiety
 5th ISSUE
Second-order or metaprocesses relating to each aspect of the cycle are
included.
 02 Behind the learning cycle – 5 issues

KOLB’s model Vince’s assumption

Portrayed experiential learning
Learning is a metalevel process 🡪
as “very first-order orientated”
requires “suspicious of our own suppositions”

Example
Experiences
↓
Needed: process into question
In educative environment
↓
Reflections experiences
 Main sections

01 02
Kolb’s learning cycle Behind the learning cycle
- Six propositions. - Five themes issues.
- The value.

03
beyond the learning cycle
- More detail discuss and develop of
theoretical underpinning.
 Beyond the learning
cycle
Psychological issues – The needed to extend the model
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Common emotional: Fears, anxieties, doubts.

The psychological issues 🡪 2 direction

Promote learning Discourage learning

 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Promote learning
Individual/Group capable to holding anxiety

Not necessary to understand because they can learning

happens later
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Discourage learning
Flying/Run away from difficult emotions
or
Fight toward to teacher/leader
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Discourage learning
Unconscious defense
Promotes avoidance of tricky situations
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Effective way: The here & now

The importance of immediate experience

&
Working with unconscious processes: in therapeutic groups

Schein (1993)

Reflective attention to past experience ≠ Proprioception

 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Discourage learning
A political dimension to experiential learning that
is not currently contained in the model

Reflecting the workings of power

↓
Internal × External
03 Beyond the learning cycle

1st: All levels of experience are constructed,

shaped, and contained by social power relations.

2nd: Complex and unequal relations around

knowledge are constructed between people as an
integral part of the learning process.
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Flax (1993)

Kolb’s model is on direct experience of individual, but to include power in the model
involves a shift of emphasis
whereby direct experience needs to be seen in relation to subjective, and not individuality.
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Flax (1993)

Power
Not determine directly but provide conditions for self-formation

Cannot avoid for:

effective organization, binding independent agents together, yoking to pursuit a common purpose
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Flax (1993)

Subjective
Achieved through:
- Interpersonal transaction of power (Martin, 1994)
- The mobilization of bias (Lukes, 1974)
- Key episodes representing contextually specific aspects of power within an organization (Vince, 1996)
 03 Beyond the learning cycle

Suggestion to extend the model in ways that

acknowledge meta levels of learning
Dialogue
Individual
experience
- Provides simultaneous access (Picture) :
- A sustained, collective inquiry transforms into compose everyday Translation
experiences.
E.g., processes, assumptions, & certainties
Through a
social context
:
 Main sections

01 02
Kolb’s learning cycle Behind the learning cycle
- Six propositions. - Five themes issues.
- The value.

03 04
beyond the learning cycle Implications
- More detail discuss and develop of - For the practice of management education.
theoretical underpinning.
Implications of these developments
For the practice of management education
 04 Implications of these developments

Based on
- The psychological & political complexity of learning environment.
- The awareness of metalevels of learning.
- Find ways of working with the effects of power as both discursive and a disciplinary phenomenon.
 04 Implications of these developments

• The capacity to accept & to engage with a range of emotions in self & others.

• The capacity to work with the complexities of power present

within context of experiential learning.

• A capacity to work with both individual experience & the translation of that experience
through a social context of collective thought & shared assumptions.
 Summaryy

01 02
Kolb’s learning cycle Behind the learning cycle
- Six propositions. - Five themes issues.
- The value in three areas.

03 04
beyond the learning cycle Implications
- More detail discuss and develop of - For the practice of management education.
theoretical underpinning. - Suggestions for skills to improve.
Reflection
 Reflection

Reflection
- Awareness in manager roles and in individual learning.
- Define learning style.
- Deep insight into the value of learning & the joy of learning will come naturally.
- Develops critical thinking through continuously applying the ability to think and observe in
education.
 Inside
action
learning
An exploration of the Psychology and Politics of
the Action Learning Model

● Russ Vince- University of the West of

England
● Linda Martin- Bristol University
 THE MAIN THEME OF THE
ARTICLE

ACTION LEARNING ( REG REVANS, 1983):

● For managers
● Work on real work tasks as learning experience

Vince R and Martin L :

● Development method
● Strategic task: integrating learning into working lives.
● This paper presents action learning process honours PSYCHOLOGY & POLITICS
 01. THE
03.
ACTION
THE POLITICS
LEARNING
OF ACTION
MODEL
LEARNING

TABLE OF
02. INSIDE
CONTENTS ACTION
LEARNING 04.THE
MODEL REFLECTIONS
 1. ACTION LEARNING
A process involves a group to working on REAL
problem, taking action and learning as individual, as a
team and as an organization.

Encourages organizations developing creative, flexible

and successful strategies to address problems.
The original features of action learning:

1.Managers and professional people learning:

Learning to take effective actions
2.Learning is actions on ACTUAL problems
(implementation, analysis and recommendation)
3.Learning = social process = learning with and
from each other.

—Mumford, 1992.
 Pedler & Boutall,
1992.
Action learning : Four interrelated
elements.
1. The person ⇆ 2. The problem
⇅ ⇅
3. The group ⇆ 4. The action on the
problem
❖ IF they can work with colleagues,
tackle problems, create options and
agree action in a group =>
BENEFICIAL
PROGRAMMED KNOWLEDGE (P): inputs of
knowledge or skills
QUESTIONING (Q): process of exploring
knowledge. REG REVANS:
L= P + Q “ACTION AND
Emphasize: Behavior change =Reflection on
experience ( questioning insight)
LEARNING
REQUIRE EACH
=> Management learning achieved = focusing on OTHER.”
real work problems + results of learning from and
with each other.
 The rational learning cycle /
Development loop (Revans)

1.Observation

2. Provisional
5. Review

➤
Hypothesis

3. Trial or
4. Audit
experiment

Figure 1: THE ACTION LEARNING

 FIGURE 1 evaluation :

MAIN PURPOSE DISADVANTAGE

● Focus on the rational ❌ Does not explore or offer model for the
aspects of learning understanding of:
● Provide a map of 1. the emotional resistance/
intellectual processes avoidance of learning:
involved fear,anxiety, ect
=> review experiences. 2. the political processes:
analysis of power,
oppression, bias.

Main challenge: Developing the action learning method that considers both
psychological and political processes on managerial problems
An action learning method = RATIONAL+ EMOTIONAL +
POLITICAL PROCESSES => Two 5 STAGE
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 2. Inside action
●
●
The cycle of emotion promoting learning
The cycle of emotion discouraging learning.
learning
Feature: model:
+ Start point: Anxiety
+ Psychological implications : overcome fear of “ getting
it wrong" or “ taking a lead".
+ Political implications : The impact of emotions on the
social system in learning set.
 1.Anxiety
1.Anxiety 1.Anxiety
1.Anxiety

5. Insight or 5. Willing 2. Fight or

5. Insight or 2.Uncertainty 5. Willing 2. Fight or
authority. 2.Uncertainty ignorance flight
authority. ignorance flight
Ex: be challenged,
Ex: be challenged,
questioned.
questioned.

3. Risk 4.Defensiveness 3. Denial or

4. Struggle 3. Risk 4.Defensiveness 3. Denial or
4. Struggle or resistance avoidance
or resistance avoidance

}
Ex: powerful feelings,
speak or not, lead or
stay out Scapegoat

Figure 2: CYCLE OF EMOTION PROMOTING Figure 3: CYCLE OF EMOTION

LEARNING DISCOURAGING LEARNING
 Evaluation of additional models:

Main Purpose: StrengthS:

IDENTIFY A POINT: participants/ a Most powerful:
group has the option to SELF- ● Clarity of roles
EMPOWERMENT or SELF- ● Structures: containment of
LIMITATION , CHANGE or NOT anxiety.
CHANGE. ● Timescale
=> make good sense of change => Create group familiarity & trust.
processes, personally and => Stay with uncertainty about taking
organizationally. risks, struggles.

Introduce
Introduce
action
action
learning
learning
model
model
covering
covering
rational
rational
+ emotional
+ emotional
+ political
+ political
aspects:
aspects:
1. 1.Understand
Understand
andand
improve
improve
the the
intellectual
intellectual
meaning
meaning
of work
of work
2. 2.Address
Address
psychological
psychological
& political
& political
forces
forces
 3. The politics of action
learning
THe impact of
the power and Power &
political process powerlessness Process

Contact between different: ● Integral aspects Set agendas & practice of

● emotional realities ● Be denied or avoided learning group.
● system of meaning ● Fixed or change &
● type of bias evolve. => Acknowledge power
relations.
=> Signify social power
relations at institutional and
interpersonal
 5.
5. Insight
Insight or
or 2.Uncertainty
2.Uncertainty
authority.
authority.

4.
4. Struggle
Struggle 3.
3. Risk
Risk

1.Anxiety
1.Anxiety

5.
5. Willing
Willing 2.
2. Fight
Fight or
or
ignorance
ignorance flight
flight

3.
3. Denial
Denial or
or
4.Defensiveness
4.Defensiveness avoidance
avoidance
or
or resistance
resistance

Figure 4: THE POLITICS OF ACTION

LEARNING
 REflections

a b c
The Rational Based Action The Emotion Promoting/ The Politics of Action
Learning Cycle Discouraging Cycle: learning cycle:

Concentrates on rational Presents aspects of Express political forces

aspects emotional experience impacting on action
Uses intellectual processes. + promote learning learning model.
Does not cover Psychology + Discourage learning
& Politics. Features.
Better reflection : individual & group experience of power, of
internal & external oppression

Great
Greatunderstanding
understandingofofthe
themanagement
management
ofofchange
change
 THANK
S
Does anyone have any questions?

Group 4 Teaching Session

Seminar Reading 2: INSIDE ACTION LEARNING

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 team 4 – members’
list
1 Võ Kim Nhật Huyền 21078568
2 Nguyễn Gia Phú 21078562
3 Huỳnh Văn Cường 21078517
4 Lê Trần Thảo Nhi 21078558
5 Nguyễn Vương Thiên Kim 21078508
6 Võ Thị Thanh Ngân 21078514
7 Bùi Thanh Trúc 21078522 1
Using learning processes
to
promote change for
sustainable development
David Ballard
Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice, University of Bath

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 Introduction
Sustainable development: an
02
urgent change challenge
An example: climate change
The inadequacy of current responses
Mapping the contextual
factors that limit change
A simple categorization
A new model of the change
process for sustainability

03 Case example: 04 Some

an inquiry CONCLUSIONS
project in the
3
corporate sector
 INTRODUCTIO
01
N development: an urgent change challenge
1.1 Sustainable

• sustainable development - meeting the needs

of the present without harming the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs

• overshoot & collapse - when a species

exceeds its ‘carrying capacity’ → eroding
resources → eventual collapse of the
population with long-time recovery 4
 in a sustainable society, nature would not increase…

Concentrations of
Concentrations of Degradation of
substances
substances extracted nature by physical
produced by
from the Earth’s crust means
society
e.g.: plastics - cannot be
e.g.: destruction of natural
e.g.: fossil fuels broken down by natural
forests like Amazon
processes 5
Biosphere’s carrying capacity
was exceeded during the 1980s…

1.2 planets
would be required to support 6
humanity today.
 “The polar ice caps are shrinking and the desert areas are increasing.
At night, the Earth is no longer dark, but large areas are lit up. All of this is evidence that
human exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical limit”.

—STEPHEN HAWKING

7
reduction to within carrying capacity
is still possible.
To delay by any longer would be
catastrophic.
8
 INTRODUCTI
0
N climate change
1
1.2 An example:

180 < CO2 < 280

ppmv
Industrial
ppmv
revolution 18 → 380
th

+2 ppmv/
year
550 ppmv
9
!!!
Current PPMV

Daily CO2
Oct. 27, 2021 = 413.79 pp
m
Oct. 27, 2020 = 411.22 pp
m

10
17°c
That’s how much higher Earth’s average temperature
was in 2020 compared to the late 1800s

11
 Global temperatures…
adaptation zone Disaster Zone
Increases of around 0.2ºC Increases approach 4ºC

damage & discomfort Catastrophic Zone

Increases 2º C (2050) Increases approach 6ºC

12
 02
Mapping the contextual
factors that limit change
13
2.1 A simple categorization

Individual Individual
subjective objective
factors factors

Collective Collective
subjective objective
factors factors

14
 1. Individual subjective factors

● Emotions;
● Perceptions of agency;
● Unexamined habits;
● Values, beliefs, worldviews etc.;
● Level of personal development.
15
 2. Individual objective factors

● Role;
● Skills & knowledge;
● Socio-demographics.

16
Ex: IU Students clean university village’ areas

17
 3. Collective subjective factors

● Cultural solidarities;
● Level of wider organizational & social development;
● Regimes of denial and of acknowledgement.

18
 4. Collective objective factors

● Economic;
● Technological & social lock-in;
● Legal;
● Environmental.

19
 2.2
A new model of the
change process for
sustainability
20
A new model of the change process for
sustainability

Condition 1: Awareness

Condition 2: Agency

Condition 3:
Association 21
 A new model of the change process for
sustainability Condition 3:
Condition 1: Condition 2:
awareness agency association
• Awareness of the • Develop roles • “Meaningful things need
agenda • Acquire new skills to do with others”
• Awareness of scale, • Government can • Strengthen wavering
urgency and relevance address the wider willpower, leading to
• Awareness of the contextual issues bigger impacts
structure of the issues by changing laws • At the heart of work for
• Awareness of the limits sustainable development
of human agency • System transformation
through network effects
22
A new model of the change process for
sustainability

Action and reflection:

Condition 1: Awareness
a necessary learning process
Condition 2: Agency

Condition 3: Association Collective level

Individual
level

23
 03
Case example
24
3. Case example:
an inquiry Preliminary work with the client

project in the Use of action research methodology

corporate sector The structure of the project

A sudden deepening of awareness
Outcomes

25
Preliminary work with the client

Excelsior Holdings Ltd – EHL

the UK’s leading providers of
public infrastructure

a seminar was held in 4/2002

26
 Use of action research methodology
‘How can we respond profitably and creatively
to the challenge of sustainable development?’

27
 The structure of the project

Debating between different approaches

Reviewing each action phase

Introducing theory concepts & tools

Displaying films how land devastated by mining

Focusing on climate change 28

a sudden deepening of awareness
The Antarctic Vostok ice record

29
 outcomes
huge Governmenta possible to
strategic l discuss with
importance improvement clients
s

ordinary Profitable + Enjoyable +

people eco-friendly informative
can help responses seminar
30
 4. Some
conclusions
31
 4. Some conclusions

1. How action & reflection processes interact, under

collaborative action research, can assist us improve our
practice on sustainable development;
2. Highlights how association, agency, awareness, action &
reflection processes interact;
3. Contextual concerns were found;
4. Shifted participants’ awareness of the sustainable
development to the second level;
5. Successfully learned how to bring this topic up in talks
with clients & others.
32
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
● About the author:
o David Ballard consults on change processes for sustainable development.

o He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Action Research in Professional

Practice (CARPP) at the University of Bath, where he teaches on the MSc in
Responsibility and Business Practice and is researching strategic responses to the
sustainability crisis, and an Associate of the New Academy of Business.

o He has extensive experience of work on these issues in organizations as manager

and consultant and has also spent some years as an organizational development
consultant.

o His earlier career was in corporate strategy, finance and marketing, which for a
while he tried to run alongside life as an environmental campaigner.

● Full acknowledgements, notes, & citations included in the authentic

33
paper
 Thank you for your
listening!
Should you have any concerns related to this
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