Organizational Learning

Study Center Learning

Responsibility at Work: How Leading Professionals Act (or Don't Act) Responsibly

Filled with original essays by Howard Gardner, William Damon, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Jeanne Nakamura and based on a large-scale research project, the GoodWork Project, Responsibility at Work reflects the information gleaned from in-depth interviews with more than 1,200 people from nine different professions: journalism, genetics, theatre, higher education, philanthropy, law, medicine, business, and pre-collegiate education. The book reveals how motivation, culture, and professional norms can intersect to produce work that is personally, socially, and economically beneficial. At the heart of the study is the revelation that the key to good work is responsibility—taking ownership for ones work and its wider impact. ISBN: 978-0787994754

Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work

After studying more than a hundred young people launching their careers, these longtime researchers of good work—work that is both skillful and honorable—find unsettling answers. Although young workers know what it takes to do good work, they don't always feel they can follow the ethical route. "Later, when I'm successful," is their implicit promise. Making Good explores the choices confronting young workers who join the ranks of three dynamic professions: journalism, science, and acting and looks at how the novices navigate moral dilemmas posed by a demanding, frequently lonely, professional life. The authors also uncover striking comparisons between these young professionals and the veterans in their fields—most notably, older workers recall inspiring models and mentors, while today's beginners see themselves as on their own. With extensive insights into how young workers view their respective domains, the nature of their ambitions, the sacrifices they are willing to make, and the lines they are prepared to cross, this study will prove instructive to young employees and employers alike, as well as to those who wish to understand the shifting moral and social character of the working world. ISBN: 9780674018303

Learning at Work: research lessons on leading learning in the workplace

From the introduction:

Learning at Work explores the complexities of how individuals and groups act with what they know. The contemporary popularity of topics such as "Knowledge management," "Learning Organizations," and "Intellectual capital" reflect the importance of knowledge and the difficulty of putting it to use. Based on a four-year investigation conducted by researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, this book shares frameworks and cases of how managers in an organization improved their learning at work in key areas such as leadership, communication, and creating a culture of inquiry. ISBN: 978-0972570510

Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet

What does it mean to carry out "good work"? This is just one of the probing questions posed in this new edition. The authors have added a new afterword, Good Work in 2002, in which they reflect on their work in the light of recent events and report on their continuing studies of strategies that allow people to maintain moral and ethical standards at a time when market forces have unprecedented power. ISBN: 978-0465026081