ABSTRACT
In the human resource development fi eld, learning has long been recognized to be embedded in everyday work practice. Theorists such as Watkins and Marsick (1993) have helped push HRD to consider the entire organization, its objects, people and structures, in terms of continuous collective learning activity. Much subsequent HRD research has employed theories of systemic informal and incidental learning, action learning, and conceptions of the “learning organization” as a site of continuous collective knowledge production. However, this important work seems to have been overwritten somewhat by theories returning to focus on the individual. In a recent review of work-learning literature published 1999-2004 in 10 journals (organization/ management studies and adult education as well as HRD), the only area that continued to feature a strong emphasis on learning as individual acquisition and development was HRD (in Human Resource Development International and Human Resource Development Quarterly) (Fenwick in press).
