ABSTRACT

This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an ‘adapted’ action learning intervention (a change laboratory) introduced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, enabled learning and action to emerge within an educational programme. We utilise the theoretical lens of activity theory to illustrate the challenges and tensions of promoting and sustaining an employee wellbeing agenda. Follow-up questioning (Q) of key informants, using the insights (P – programmed knowledge) generated during the change laboratory provide evidence of learning (L). This provides insight into the learning and action that occured after the initial intervention. We explore employee wellbeing from a socio-cultural perspective and illustrate how action and learning are intertwined to produce goal-oriented outcomes. This socio-cultural perspective contributes to the theory of action learning by illuminating how activity is mediated by cultural means, the rules and tools operating in an activity system. This perspective provides a focus upon learning and agency in the workplace and supports a more complicated understanding of ‘wicked problems’, viewed as the challenges and tensions which emerge in practice as break-downs, clashes or problems. We argue that these spaces must be protected if employee wellbeing is to become, and remain, integrated within an organisation activity system.

摘要

这篇文章阐明了员工的福祉。我们揭示了在英国 Covid-19 大流行之前引入的“适应性”行动学习干预（变革实验室）如何使学习和行动能够在教育计划中出现。我们利用活动理论的理论视角来说明促进和维持员工福利议程的挑战和紧张局势。使用变革实验室期间产生的洞察力（P – 程序化知识）对关键信息提供者进行后续提问 (Q) 提供学习证据 (L)。这提供了对初始干预后发生的学习和行动的深入了解。我们从社会文化的角度探索员工福祉，并说明行动和学习如何相互交织以产生以目标为导向的成果。这种社会文化视角阐明了活动是如何通过文化手段、活动系统中运行的规则和工具来调节的，从而为行动学习理论做出了贡献。这种观点侧重于工作场所的学习和能动性，并支持对“邪恶问题”的更复杂的理解，将其视为在实践中以故障、冲突或问题形式出现的挑战和紧张局势。我们认为，如果员工的福利要成为并保持在组织活动系统中，就必须保护这些空间。这种观点侧重于工作场所的学习和能动性，并支持对“邪恶问题”的更复杂的理解，将其视为在实践中以故障、冲突或问题形式出现的挑战和紧张局势。我们认为，如果员工的福利要成为并保持在组织活动系统中，就必须保护这些空间。这种观点侧重于工作场所的学习和能动性，并支持对“邪恶问题”的更复杂的理解，将其视为在实践中以故障、冲突或问题形式出现的挑战和紧张局势。我们认为，如果员工的福利要成为并保持在组织活动系统中，就必须保护这些空间。