Productive Reflection at Work

David Boud is Professor of Adult Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney. He is widely published in the areas of adult, higher and professional education.

Peter Cressey is a Reader in Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy science at the University of Bath. He has researched and published widely in the field of industrial relations, work organisation, workplace learning and European social dialogue.

Peter Docherty is Visiting Professor in Services Operations Management at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. His research is mainly in the fields of learning at the individual, group, organization and network levels and the organization and management of sustainable organizations.

This book is an accessible entry point into the theory and practice of work reflection for students and practitioners. Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, it covers management, education, organizational psychology and sociology, drawing on examples from Europe, the Middle East, North America and Australia.

It traces reflection at work from an emphasis on training, through a focus on how organizations learn, to a concern with the necessary learning groups to operate effectively. It emphasizes productivity combined with satisfying lived experience of work life and points the way to a new collective focus on learning at work.

Part 1: Introduction 1. Overview of the Book 2. The Emergence of Productive Reflection Part 2: Underpining Themes and Ideas 3. Reflection - How to Take it Beyond the Individual 4. The Meaning and Role of Reflection in Informal Learning at Work 5. The Evolution of Collective Reflection: From Indirect to Direct Part 3: Product Reflection - Differing Contexts and Practices 6. Disciplined Reflection or Communities of Practice 7. Productive Reflection and Learning During the Redesign of a Secrecy-Based Organization 8. Collective Reflection Under Ambiguity 9. Reflection During a Crisis Turnaround: Management Use of Learning Mechanisms 10. Interactive Critical Reflection as Intercultural Competence Part 4: Challenges and Complexities 11. An Ethical 'Community of Practice' Perspective on Reflection 12. Reflecting on Workplace Change - A Trade Union Perspective 13. Informal Learning: Creating the Space for Reflection at Work 14. Discursive Practices at Work: Constituting the Reflective Learner 15. Feminist Challenges to Mainstream Leadership Through Collective Reflection and Narrative 16. Lessons and Issues for Practice and Development