Employees’ individual learning paths during organisational change: A comparison of professional development strategies

Managers often rely on the professional development of their employees to implement organisational change. However, existing research shows that on their individual learning paths, employees do not always follow the plans designed by managers and educators. This chapter investigates how and to what extent managers and employees deploy their own strategies in organising professional development activities, using learning-network theory in a comparative case study of 68 teachers and 15 school leaders in three secondary schools. Both managers and employees were found to have poorly developed ideas about organising PD, the future directions for PD in their organisation, and what factors are relevant. Moreover, managers and employees differed substantially in their views and actions around PD: employees placed their own emphases on their own learning paths even when participating in the learning programmes commissioned by managers.