Exploring tensions in organisational learning : international and postcolonial perspectives

For the past decade I have been engaged as a management consultant in the area of organisational change and development. This has been primarily within international development environments, and all the professional opportunities, challenges and learning they offer. This thesis therefore employs reflexivity to explore professional practices within this context. These practices are primarily considered within the context of an emerging economy dealing with the challenges of globalisation, against a backdrop of tradition and the old vestiges of colonialism and socialism. Of particular interest have been the tensions between humanist and corporate values that emerge when dealing with the people and learning side of organisations, and within a context of what can be broadly defined as 'where west meets east'. These tensions are explored within a values framework and through consideration of some the themes that feature in the area of postcolonial studies. The intention of the study has been to explore some of the meanings and representations that emerge from professional experience, how they are explained and represented, and what the meanings and representations derived might imply in considering the requirements of 'principled' professional practice. The study is built around the work place and the researcher's role within it and therefore draws heavily on personal reflection and reflexivity. The qualitative methodologies employed draw heavily from the literature dealing with critical social science, and in particular that relating to 'narrative inquiry'. Particular consideration is given to the location of self in the research context and the way in which professional knowledge is constructed.