Educating Human Resource Development Leaders At The University Of Texas At Austin: The Use Of Action Learning To Facilitate University-Workplace Collaboration

Human resource development professionals are increasingly being called on to move beyond their technical roles and to bring their knowledge of the human dimension of organizations to leadership roles. Taking into account the challenges of a rapidly changing world, I redefine leadership and then describe how the university and program participants' workplaces collaborate to help learners develop the necessary leadership skills. The difficulties and rewards of implementing an action learning program as a part of a graduate degree are explored. Some of the difficulties addressed include differences between the cultures of universities and the workplace, an incompatibility between action learning and the kind of learning traditional to universities, and the challenges to the habitual behavioral, emotional, and thought processes of both faculty and students. Some of the rewards include the solution of difficult problems in work organizations, advancement of learners' careers, and the development of more effective learning strategies by both faculty and students.