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Kris M. Y. Law · Kong Bieng Chuah Editors

Project Action
Learning (PAL)
Guidebook:
Practical Learning
in Organizations
Project Action Learning (PAL) Guidebook:
Practical Learning in Organizations
Kris M. Y. Law Kong Bieng Chuah
•

Editors

Project Action Learning

(PAL) Guidebook: Practical
Learning in Organizations

123
Editors
Kris M. Y. Law Kong Bieng Chuah
School of Engineering Department of Systems Engineering
Deakin University City University of Hong Kong
Geelong, Australia Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

ISBN 978-3-030-23996-1 ISBN 978-3-030-23997-8 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23997-8
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

This book is about a tried and tested way of organizational learning which we called
Project Action Learning or PAL since its inception in the early 2000s. It is the
culmination of the learning the authors have collectively achieved through years of
case-based action research of PAL implementation in real industrial environments.
The authors are most thankful to the collaborations and cooperations of the
industrial enterprises and people who participated in this long-running longitudinal
research that spanned over 16 years. This book may not be quite the “step-by-step
how to do it” guidebook, but we hope it serves a useful reference for practitioners of
organizational learning and development.
A well-run modern organization has in place operating systems that include staff
training and development. This may fulfil the needs of single-loop learning that will
help to maintain its existing operations. But it is often inadequate to help an
organization today to remain competitive let alone to raise its capability to cope
with changes in technology and environment. Hence, we have seen the birth of the
concepts of organizational learning and learning organization over three decades
ago. Much has since been written but proven cases of real implementation are still
few and less than enlightening.
For a rational person, it is commonly known that improvement starts with the
acknowledgement of a problem. Knowledge is gained, and learning is achieved
through the process of analysing and solving it. The same could apply to an
organization.
However, an organization is only superficially an organism by analogy. It is
invariably made up of individuals with different aspirations and expectations driven
by personal goals which may not be always aligned with the organizational goals.
Moreover, we also know that effective learning does not happen all the time, be
it in an individual or an organization, especially the latter. The intrinsic or extrinsic
motivations needed to overcome and sustain individual learning inertia are rela-
tively easier to come by. There are many individual lifelong learners in any era and
in every society. The same cannot be said of organizational learning and learning
organizations.

v
vi Preface

To affect an organization’s learning capability, particularly with regard to

double-loop learning, we must re-mould an organization’s long-standing, tradi-
tional, run-of-the-mill staff training and development practices.
We must find a way to instil action learning. Small groups of staff working on
self-initiated meaningful projects are the basis of this action learning. This is the
PAL way described in this book.
We must have a visible organizational learning strategy that will overcome
organizational defensive mechanism of individual staff and who will, in turn, be
persuaded to embrace the PAL way. Our experience suggests the PAL-driven
organizational learning can be introduced and propagated in a wave-like manner.
To complement this PAL-driven organizational learning strategy, we must put in
place performance measures and incentives that will motivate individuals to initiate
and take up such action learning that would be aligned with organizational needs
and goals.
We must have an overarching mechanism and resources in place that will pro-
vide facilitation and support to sustain the wave-like implementation of PAL-driven
organizational learning.
Just as importantly, we must have an organizational management and infor-
mation system that will support organizational learning knowledge accumulation,
dissemination and re-use.
These are what we call the four pillars of PAL. The PAL story is essentially
about the building up of these four PAL pillars.
We believe PAL is a proven vehicle that will take an organization down the path
of organizational learning. The wave-like implementation over time will pave the
way towards the ideals of a learning organization.

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong Kong Bieng Chuah

Contents

Part I Fundamentals of Organizational Learning and Learning

Organizations
1 What Is Organizational Learning? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Kong Bieng Chuah and Kris M. Y. Law
2 Organizational Learning for Value Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Kris M. Y. Law and Shuang Geng
3 Factors in Organizational Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Kris M. Y. Law and Chris R. Cao
4 Organizational Learning Process as DELO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Kris M. Y. Law and Kong Bieng Chuah

Part II Building a Learning Organization

5 Project Based Action Learning as the Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Kris M. Y. Law and Kong Bieng Chuah
6 Setting for a PAL Driven OL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Kris M. Y. Law, Kong Bieng Chuah and Chris R. Cao
7 Knowledge in PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Kris M. Y. Law and Shuang Geng

Part III Setting the PAL Driven LO

8 Stage 0—Preparing a PAL Driven OL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
K. F. Kwong and Y. C. Chau
9 Stage 1—Starting the PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
C. K. Cheung

vii
viii Contents

10 Stage 2—Facilitating and Evaluating PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Chris R. Cao and Kris M. Y. Law
11 Stage 3—Closing PAL and PAL Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Kris M. Y. Law and Shuang Geng
12 Postscripts: 16-Years Journey of PAL, What Is Next? . . . . . . . . . . 129
Kris M. Y. Law
Appendix A: Forms of PAL Evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Appendix B: Project Stakeholder-Task-File Triads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Appendix C: Role Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Appendix D: Readiness Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Appendix E: OLSS Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Appendix F: PAL Application Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Appendix G: F/W/C PAL Evaluation Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Dr. Kris M. Y. Law is currently the associate professor

in engineering management and education, in the School
of Engineering, Deakin University, Australia. She also
holds a Docentship (adjunct professorship) in the
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management,
Oulu University, Finland.
She obtained her Ph.D. in organizational learning and
M.Phil. in machining processes as well a first degree in
industrial engineering, at the City University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong. She undertook a postdoctoral research
scholarship in the National Taiwan University on a
regional high-tech industry study and took up a visiting
researcher position at the Graduate Institute of Industrial
Engineering, National Taiwan University (2009–2011).
Her expertise lies in organizational learning and
development (OLD), technological innovation and
entrepreneurship (TIE), engineering education and smart
industrial initiatives (SII). She has been invited as a vis-
iting scholar in different countries, such as Taiwan,
Thailand and Europe (Finland and Slovenia), and has been
active as a professional OL consultant promoting Project
Action Learning (PAL) in high-tech organizations.
Her publications include books, chapters and journal
articles (SCI and SSCI indexed).

ix
x Editors and Contributors

Dr. Kong Bieng Chuah is Associate Professor of

Systems Engineering and Engineering Department,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He is a
core faculty member of the engineering doctorate,
M.Sc. engineering management and B.Eng. industrial
engineering and engineering management programmes.
His current teaching and research focus on project
management and project-based organizational learning.
He is a consultant in project management and organi-
zational learning and conducts project management
courses and workshops for industries. In his earlier
years, he was a mechanical engineer with expertise in
engineering metrology and surface roughness charac-
terization. He advised on engineering measurement
problems and calibration set-ups.

Contributors

Chris R. Cao Crest View Technology Investment Ltd, Hong Kong SAR, China
Y. C. Chau City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
C. K. Cheung Acrathon Precision Technologies, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Kong Bieng Chuah Department of System Engineering and Engineering
Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Shuang Geng College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
K. F. Kwong PuraPharm International (H.K.) Ltd., Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Kris M. Y. Law School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 The body of knowledge in OL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Fig. 1.2 Deutero learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Fig. 2.1 The SECI knowledge creation process by Nonaka . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Fig. 2.2 Knowledge creation system architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Fig. 2.3 Knowledge recommender system architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Fig. 3.1 The DELO organizational learning process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Fig. 3.2 Levels of learning and influencing factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Fig. 3.3 The synergy of collective learning in organization . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Fig. 4.1 The process of organizational learning and corresponding
“influencers” (Law and Chuah 2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Fig. 4.2 Theoretical model for the study of organizational learning . . . . 37
Fig. 4.3 The seven forces of learning model (Jashapara 2003) . . . . . . . . 40
Fig. 5.1 Project-team action learning framework (PAL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Fig. 5.2 Setting PAL goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Fig. 5.3 Learning within PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Fig. 5.4 Intra- and inter-learning in PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Fig. 6.1 PAL and supporting environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Fig. 6.2 LOFT facilitation in PAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Fig. 6.3 A problem driven OL facilitation approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Fig. 6.4 A PAL facilitation model for PAL driven OL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Fig. 7.1 Knowledge development in the intra-project
learning process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Fig. 7.2 Knowledge development at Inter-project learning . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Fig. 7.3 Project task flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Fig. 7.4 KM activities and project triad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Fig. 7.5 KM and “project evaluation and selection” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Fig. 7.6 PAL integrated with knowledge-based decision making . . . . . . 83
Fig. 8.1 Steps for realizing the PAL supporting pillars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Fig. 8.2 Multi-level system modelling of the OLSS
(Kwong et al. 2011) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 94
Fig. 8.3 Conceptual process model for OLSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96

xi
xii List of Figures

Fig. 8.4 Schematic diagram of the initiation phase (1–2 weeks) . . . . . . . 96

Fig. 8.5 Schematic diagram of the facilitation phase (12–14 weeks) . . . . 98
Fig. 8.6 Schematic diagram of the evaluation phase (*10 weeks) . . . . . 98
Fig. 9.1 Project initiation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Fig. 9.2 The PAL project life cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Fig. 9.3 Wave-like approach of PAL implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Fig. 9.4 Supporting resources at various project phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Fig. 10.1 Enabling in-depth dialogue in PAL teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Fig. 10.2 PAL reflection flow chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Fig. 10.3 The process of using the F/W/C based OL evaluation
instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 118
Fig. 11.1 OLSS functional modules and PAL stages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 123
Fig. 12.1 The early stage of PAL development and implementation
(i.e. 2002–2005) (from Law and Chuah 2019) . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 130
Fig. 12.2 PAL-driven OL journey in the case company
from 2000 to 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 131
Fig. 12.3 PAL-driven OL journey in the case company between 2011
and 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 131
Fig. 12.4 Overview of the four pillars progress in the PAL journey
(2000–2017). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 132
List of Tables

Table 4.1 Fields in the F/W/C driven PAL performance model . . . . . .. 45

Table 6.1 Comparisons and contrasts between three types
of facilitators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 65
Table 6.2 Evaluations of PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 68
Table 7.1 Project evaluation perspectives, criteria and sub-criteria . . . .. 84
Table 8.1 Roles of management and facilitation team
in readiness check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Table 8.2 Sub-modules involved in different PAL phases . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Table 10.1 Ground rules for PAL meetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Table 10.2 PAL reflection framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Table 11.1 Post PAL review tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Table 11.2 New knowledge created in PAL process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Table 11.3 New knowledge storage in PAL process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

xiii
 Part I
Fundamentals of Organizational Learning
and Learning Organizations
Chapter 1
What Is Organizational Learning?

Kong Bieng Chuah and Kris M. Y. Law

Abstract Organizational learning (OL) is an expansive and diverse field with influ-
ences that involves sociology, psychology, philosophy, business management, and
many others disciplines. While there is no one definition to this concept, the concept
of organizational learning is commonly described a process of developing, retain-
ing, and transferring knowledge within an organization. This chapter provides an
overview on the various notions of organizational learning, from the different the-
oretical perspectives. The association of OL and knowledge management (KM) is
also discussed.

1.1 Organizational Learning as a Developmental Strategy

Business conditions of the nowadays market, are demanding due to the ever-
challenging market competition and fast pace of technological advancement. The
concept of OL and LO has been accepted by organizations keen on developing and
creating an environment to support learning, especially the knowledge-oriented orga-
nizations (Lynn et al. 2000). Be it an individual or an organization, the ability to make
good use of knowledge comes with sufficient level of understanding and experience.
Such understanding and experience can only be brought about by a conscious process
of learning and application. It is not surprising that many managers, entrepreneurs as
well as researchers in the West have been paying increasing attention to the concept
and importance of Organizational Learning (OL) and Learning Organization (LO).
Since the late 1980s, the concepts of organizational learning (OL) and learning
organization (LO) has prospered and have been defined as the process of acquir-
ing, distributing, integrating, and creating information and knowledge within an

K. B. Chuah
Department of System Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong,
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
e-mail: mebchuah@cityu.edu.hk
K. M. Y. Law (B)
School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
e-mail: kris.law@deakin.edu.au

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 3

K. M. Y. Law and K. B. Chuah (eds.), Project Action Learning (PAL) Guidebook: Practical
Learning in Organizations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23997-8_1
4 K. B. Chuah and K. M. Y. Law

organization. Organizational development involves attitudes and mindset changes

and the purpose of organizational learning is to adapt to changing environments,
adjusting due to uncertain conditions, and improving efficiency.
Organization is a place where individuals gather, where a project team or hybrid
project-team structure is usually adopted in an LO. The project-based structure is
adopted by the whole company or specifically applied to certain units or groups within
the organization, where team concept and team performance are highly valued and
relied upon.
Team learning has been gaining importance as an OL approach, it has been well
documented and extensively studied (Flood et al. 2001; Katzenbach and Smith 1993;
Meyer 1994; Senge 1990; Teare et al. 2002; Poell and Van der Krogt 2003). Senge
(1990) explained that organization or team performance improvement is a result
of collective intelligence of an organization or a team, which exceeds the sum of
intelligence of individuals.

1.2 Notions of Organizational Learning and Learning

Organization

The origin of the concentrated study of organizational learning can be back to the late
1970s, when researchers studied OL from a psychological perspective. Key advances
in this field include:
• Cyert and March (1963) described the adaptation and routines of organizational
learning;
• Argyris (1978) developed the concepts of single-loop and double-loop learning;
• Dutton and Thomas (1984) defined learning curves in organizations.
The study of OL, thereafter, has focused on different fields, including: collec-
tivity of individual learning; processes or systems; culture or metaphor; knowledge
management; continuous improvement. Since the late 80s in the 20th century, the
concept of OL and LO has prospered and has been used in various fields, such as:
• Organizational learning involves the process of acquiring, distributing, integrating,
and creating information and knowledge within an organization (Dixon 1992).
• Organizational learning involves attitudes and mindset changes (Smith 1999).
• Organizational learning is to adapt to changing environments, adjusting under
uncertain conditions, and improving efficiency successfully (Dodgson 1993).
Current literature on OL have different focuses, namely, learning motivation,
collective or team learning; learning process or system; learning culture; knowledge
management, organizational development and continuous improvement (Wang and
Ahmed 2003). Besides the different focus areas, OL is also described as “process-
focusing” where learning is an “innate, ongoing process” in organizations (Pedler
and Aspinwall 1998; Law and Chuah 2015).
1 What Is Organizational Learning? 5

The bodies of knowledge involved in the scope of OL are of various perspectives

(Fig. 1.1). These areas are raised from a series of ‘central’ What and How questions:
1. WHAT is OL?
2. WHAT is OL process?
3. WHAT are the factors influencing?
4. HOW can OL be adopted or implemented?
To respond to the above central questions, various focuses in OL study are iden-
tified:
• the cores constituting the definition of OL:
a. the levels of learning
b. levels of knowledge and the knowledge process
• the processes of OL
• the influencing factors
• the learning approaches and facilitations.

Process of OL
Levels of
learning

Influencing
factors

What is OL?
Definition of OL What is OL process?
What are the influencing
factors?
How OL can be
adopted/implemented?

Knowledge Learning
Aspect approach and
facilitation

Fig. 1.1 The body of knowledge in OL

6 K. B. Chuah and K. M. Y. Law

1.2.1 Perspectives of Organizational Learning

Much about OL has been studied and written, during the last three decades, on specific
subjects such as system dynamics (Senge 1990), action-based learning (Argyris and
Schon 1978, 1996; Smith and O’Neil 2003) group process, personal creative process,
and collective decision and action (Issacs 1993).
Some researchers believed that OL is a natural tendency of an organization fighting
to survive (Kim 1993). Other thought that it is not only a form of learning or just a
prescribed set of processes in the theory of levels of learning in organizations, but
rather a philosophy of organizational development (Argyris and Schon 1996).
Over the years, some theories of OL became conceptually more complex and
others more specialized. Like,
• Senge (1990), who considers OL from a system perspective,
• Nonaka (1994) focuses on the interchange of knowledge in organizations.
On the other hand, some authors prescribe OL as existing processes involving
activities and means that organizations use to organize knowledge with the expecta-
tion of a higher level of its usage that lead to greater competitiveness (Fulmer et al.
1998; Pemberton et al. 2001).
For these authors, OL is a process by which individuals accumulate and extend
knowledge based on their past experiences and their perceptions, share, and propagate
it in ways that help an organization to develop (Roth and Kleiner 1998; Lynn et al.
2000; Garratt 1999; Atul and Glen 2001; Örtenblad 2004).

1.2.2 Multi-disciplinary Approach of Organizational

Learning

There is a wide range of beliefs of thinking about what OL is, how it occurs, and how
it is applied and how it influences organization development. Organizational learning
is an expansive and diverse field with influences on sociology, psychology, philos-
ophy, business management, and many others disciplines. There is no overarching
framework, which cohesively pulls together all theoretical advances into a unified
theory. A multi-disciplinary approach is therefore an appropriate way to study the
complexity of OL.
Organizational learning (OL) is described as a conscious organizational goal
driven process, with individuals as the learning agents for the organization. A pre-
dominant view of OL is the ‘double loop’ learning concept, which has been shaped
by several advances in social sciences and system theories (Argyris and Schon 1978).
The essential feature of this primary learning approach was the notion of envision-
ing. Great emphasis was put on describing the human process of “action learning”
through experience via various feedback mechanisms interacting with everyone’s
sets of beliefs.
1 What Is Organizational Learning? 7

The organizational learning theory is commonly described a process of devel-

oping, retaining, and transferring knowledge within an organization. One the most
influential concepts in the organizational learning theory is the notion that we learn
from our mistakes. This idea was developed by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, who
suggested that learning takes place through the process of detecting and correcting
errors. From this perspective, organizational learning occurs as a result of experience
and an organization is said to have learned from an experience when there is a change
in the organization’s behaviour or performance.
The robust use of ideas emanated from system thinking, was clearly expounded
in Senge’s five disciplines (Senge 1990). Senge proposed five core disciplines for
LO, for which he claimed the five disciplines represents a lifelong body of study and
practice for individuals and teams in organizations (Senge 1992).
1. Personal Mastery
This discipline of aspiration involves formulating a coherent picture of the results
people most desire to gain as individuals (their personal vision), alongside a realistic
assessment of the current state of their lives today (their current reality). Learning
to cultivate the tension between vision and reality (represented in this icon by the
rubber band) can expand people’s capacity to make better choices, and to achieve
more of the results that they have chosen.
2. Mental Models
This discipline of reflection and inquiry skills is focused around developing aware-
ness of the attitudes and perceptions that influence thought and interaction. By con-
tinually reflecting upon, talking about, and reconsidering these internal pictures of
the world, people can gain more capability in governing their actions and decisions.
3. Shared Vision
This collective discipline establishes a focus on mutual purpose. People learn to
nourish a sense of commitment in a group or organization by developing shared
images of the future they seek to create (symbolized by the eye), and the principles
and guiding practices by which they hope to get there.
4. Team Learning
This is a discipline of group interaction. Through techniques like dialogue and skil-
ful discussion, teams transform their collective thinking, learning to mobilize their
energies and ability greater than the sum of individual members’ talents.
5. Systems Thinking
In this discipline, people learn to better understand interdependency and change,
and thereby to deal more effectively with the forces that shape the consequences
of our actions. Systems thinking is based upon a growing body of theory about the
behaviour of feedback and complexity-the innate tendencies of a system that lead to
growth or stability over time.
8 K. B. Chuah and K. M. Y. Law

1.3 Organizational Learning and Knowledge

Much of an organization’s knowledge resides in its people, and much of the learning is
socially constructed and specific in context. OL has the features of creating, retaining,
and transferring knowledge.
Learning organizations aim to transform old behaviours and patterns of thinking
as well as to improve skill and know-how to adapt to the challenging dynamic envi-
ronment. Thus, learning involves the linking up of knowledge, know-how systems,
structures, and processes (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, 2006). Ideally, employees
are willing to learn systematically and intensively. OL occurs as a result of experi-
ence and an organization is said to have learned from an experience when there is
a change in the organization’s behaviour or performance. The acquired and shared
knowledge becomes embedded in the routines and practices through the repeated
rounds of experiences by individual members. Organizational knowledge is inter-
preted, aggregated, and shared at the organizational level in the organization. This is
coherent with the concept advocated by action learning, contributing to the central
concept of this book, project-based action learning (PAL).

1.4 Individuals in LO

Learning does not take place solely within groups in an organization. With empha-
sis on empowering of individuals to act, action learning therefore fosters OL by
allowing effective learning to take place within organizations at both individual and
organizational levels (Revans 1982, 1983; Garvin 1994).
To facilitate the learning between individuals, team learning is the central issue
of concern. The range of OL literature covers development of OL tools to improve
team communication such as dialogue, the effect of learning histories, leadership
styles and management techniques, the role of organizational goal and strategy and
the process of knowledge management etc.
OL is a process that needs all the usual functions of management i.e. planning,
resourcing, directing, monitoring, evaluation and controlling. For OL to be useful and
effective there must be leadership and commitment from the management together
with motivation and effort from the individual staff. Most of all, the goal of OL
must be clear to everyone. The goal of OL must be seen not only to add value to the
development and improvement of the organization but also to benefit every individual
staff in some perceivable way.
1 What Is Organizational Learning? 9

1.5 Levels of Learning Within LO

Some OL theories treat OL as a conscious organizational goal-driven process, with

individuals as the learning agents for the organization (Argyris and Schon 1996;
Örtenblad 2004). These emphases of learning at different levels within an organi-
zation however, contribute to the elusiveness of the definition of OL (Weick 1991,
1996).
The paradox of OL is that it is not merely the sum of individual learning
(Argyris and Schon 1978), but the learning at different levels within an organi-
zation directed towards some pre-set organizational goal. Distinct approaches to OL,
include behavioural learning and cognitive learning (Foil and Lyles 1985; Yeo 2002,
2003, 2006):
• Cognitive development is the organizational change that affects the interpretation
of events and the shared understanding among organizational members (Daft et al.
1988; Daft and Weick 1984).
• Conversely, behavioural development is the new response or action based on the
existing interpretations. Argyris and Schon embraced these into their learning the-
ories (1978, 1996) as single-loop learning and the higher level cognitive ‘double-
loop’ learning.

1.5.1 From Single to Double Loop Learning

Early research demonstrated a strong emphasis on the role of individual learning in

OL. The ‘double-loop’ learning concept, by Argyris and Schon (1978), focuses on
the learning-action role of individuals who are interpreting their experiences without
addressing the group or cultural dimensions. This ‘double-loop’ learning extends
single-loop learning by questioning and modifying underlying concepts. Besides,
emphasis was also placed on the human process of “action learning”, i.e. through
experience via various feedback mechanisms interacting with everyone’s sets of
beliefs. Such learning, then, requires action and feedback, as well as a mindset to
change existing beliefs, to apply new insights to improve the organization.
Argyris once stated that “Organizational learning is a process of detecting and
correcting error. Error is for our purposes any feature of knowledge or knowing that
inhibits learning. When the process enables the organization to carry on its present
policies or achieve its objectives, the process may be called single loop learning.
Single loop learning can be compared with a thermostat that learns when it is too
hot or too cold and then turns the heat on or off. The thermostat is able to perform this
task because it can receive information (the temperature of the room) and therefore
take corrective action.”
Deutero-learning is an even higher level of learning, which involves both the
single-loop and double-loop learning (Argyris and Schon 1978). Organizations are
10 K. B. Chuah and K. M. Y. Law

Fig. 1.2 Deutero learning

then more than ad hoc collections of individuals with structured relationships; indi-
vidual learning and learning in groups become institutionalized as organization arte-
facts (Hedberg 1981; Shrivastava 1983). Therefore, OL needs to consider the indi-
vidual, team, and learning at different organizational levels (Crossan et al. 1995)
(Fig. 1.2).
• Single loop learning: Consists of one feedback loop when strategy is modified in
response to an unexpected result (error correction).
• Double loop learning: Learning that results in a change in theory-in-use. The
values, strategies, and assumptions that govern action are changed to create a
more efficient environment.
• Deutero-learning: Learning about improving the learning system itself. This is
composed of structural and behavioural components which determine how learning
takes place.

1.5.2 Generative Learning

Senge (1990) termed the higher levels of learning as generative learning. He stated
the five disciplines as the core principles for individuals involved in OL:
(individual learning) should prepare the individuals for being part of the group (personal
mastery) …and to prepare receptivity to others’ learning, experience, questions, and manner
of thought (mental models). A viewpoint that is enough for understanding business cycles
and system relationships is required … (systems thinking). …guiding purpose and shared
values (shared vision).

Individuals are the learning agents of collective learning for learning to occur
at organizational level (Mumford 1992; Easterby-Smith 1997). Team learning is
the central issue of concern in OL. The insights and innovative ideas occur to
1 What Is Organizational Learning? 11

individuals. However, knowledge generated by the individual does not come to bear
on the organization independently.

1.5.3 Multi-level Learning

Effective OL requires that ideas are shared, actions taken, with common meanings
developed within the organization (Argyris and Schon 1978, 1996; Daft and Weick
1984). Since OL is multi-levelled, that means organizations should pay great attention
to the ‘synergy’ of team performance.
Beside the types of learning proposed by Argyris and Schon (from single-loop,
double-loop to deutero-learning), learning within OL can be simply divided into
three levels:
• Individual Level Learning: Individual competence, capability, and motivation to
undertake the required tasks.
• Group Level Learning: Group dynamics and the development of shared under-
standing.
• Organization Level Learning: Alignment between the non-human storehouses of
learning including systems, structure, strategy, procedures, and culture, given the
competitive environment.
The concurrent activities of feed-forward and feed-back are the key elements of
strategic renewal within an LO:
Feed-forward Learning: Whether and how individual learning feeds forward into
group learning and learning at the organizational level (e.g. changes to structure,
systems, products, strategy, procedures, culture).
Feed-back Learning: Whether and how the learning that is embedded in the organi-
zation (e.g. systems, structure, strategy) affects individual and group learning.
Learning can take place at different levels, of different forms, within an organi-
zation, contributing to the creation of central value—the knowledge in OL.

1.6 Highlights

• the concepts of organizational learning (OL) and learning organization (LO) has
prospered and have been defined as the process of acquiring, distributing, integrat-
ing, and creating information and knowledge within an organization.
• Current literature on OL have different focuses, namely, learning motivation, col-
lective or team learning; learning process or system; learning culture; knowledge
management, organizational development and continuous improvement. Besides
the different focus areas, OL is also described as “process-focusing” where learn-
ing is an “innate, ongoing process” in organizations.
12 K. B. Chuah and K. M. Y. Law

• Organizational learning is an expansive and diverse field with influences on sociol-

ogy, psychology, philosophy, business management, and many others disciplines.
There is no overarching framework, which cohesively pulls together all theoreti-
cal advances into a unified theory. A multi-disciplinary approach is therefore an
appropriate way to study the complexity of OL.
• With emphasis on empowering of individuals to act, action learning therefore
fosters OL by allowing effective learning to take place within organizations at
both individual and organizational levels.
• The paradox of OL is that it is not merely the sum of individual learning, but the
learning at different levels within an organization, of various forms are directing
OL towards the pre-set objectives.

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14 K. B. Chuah and K. M. Y. Law

Dr. Kong Bieng Chuah is Associate Professor of Systems

Engineering and Engineering Department, City University of
Hong Kong. He is a core faculty member of the Engineering
Doctorate, M.Sc. Engineering Management and B.Eng. Indus-
trial Engineering and Engineering Management programmes.
His current teaching and research focus on project management
and project based organizational learning. He is a consultant in
project management and organizational learning and conducts
project management courses and workshops for industries. In his
earlier years, Dr. Chuah was a mechanical engineer with exper-
tise in engineering metrology and surface roughness character-
isation. He advised on engineering measurement problems and
calibration set-ups.

Dr. Kris M. Y. Law is currently the Associate Professor

in Engineering Management and Education, in the School of
Engineering, Deakin University, Australia. She also holds a
Docentship (adjunct professorship) in the Department of Indus-
trial Engineering and Management, Oulu University in Finland.
Dr. Law obtained her Ph.D. in Organization Learning and
MPhil in Machining Processes as well a first degree in Industrial
Engineering, at the City University of Hong Kong. She under-
took a post-doctoral research scholarship in the National Taiwan
University on a regional high-tech industry study and took up a
visiting researcher position at the Graduate Institute of Industrial
Engineering, National Taiwan University (2009–2011).
Her expertise lies in Organizational Learning and Devel-
opment (OLD), Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship
(TIE), Engineering Education, and Smart Industrial Initiatives
(SII). She has been invited as a visiting scholar in different
countries, such as Taiwan, Thailand and Europe (Finland and
Slovenia), and has been active as a professional OL consul-
tant promoting project-based action learning (PAL) in high-tech
organizations.
Her publications including books, book chapters and journal
articles (SCI and SSCI indexed).
Chapter 2
Organizational Learning for Value
Creation

Kris M. Y. Law and Shuang Geng

Abstract Technology and industry growth urge organizations to enhance their

knowledge level and creation of new knowledge is highly valued in learning organi-
zations (LO). It is inevitable that knowledge is a critical part in the OL context. This
chapter discusses the importance of knowledge creation in an LO and the relevant
issues of organizational knowledge, such as knowledge process, learning policy and
learning technologies.

2.1 Values and Visions

Vision, mission, and values play key parts in the organizational strategy process.
Visioning starts the strategy process (Finkelstein et al. 2008), and strategy describes
the future picture of the organization and mission with respect to their sets of values
and cultures (Shrivastava 1985; Wilson 1992). Organizational values provide norms
that specify how members should behave, and how resources should be allocated
(Balthazard et al. 2006; Cameron and Quinn 1999; Kleijnen et al. 2009; Bourne and
Jenkins 2013). The set of values form the organizational culture which thus also
influences strategy formulation (Wilson 1992; Costanza et al. 2015).
With strong and clearly defined values, a mission is thus formulated. A mission
is generally seen as a tool for disseminating management beliefs and approaches to
stakeholders to drive the strategic plans (Toftoy and Chatterjee 2004; Hirota et al.
2010; Salem Khalifa 2012), and can be either strategic or cultural. The strategic type
relates to the organizational objectives and provides the vision for strategic planning.
The cultural type describes the organizational values and identity regarding to the
organizational goals, norms, and behaviour (Campbell 2011; Babnik et al. 2014).

K. M. Y. Law
School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
e-mail: kris.law@deakin.edu.au
S. Geng (B)
College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
e-mail: gracegeng0303@163.com

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 15

K. M. Y. Law and K. B. Chuah (eds.), Project Action Learning (PAL) Guidebook: Practical
Learning in Organizations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23997-8_2
16 K. M. Y. Law and S. Geng

Specific organizational values and outcomes vary across national cultures (Hofst-
ede 1983, 1994), while the national culture is manifested through a common notion
of a shared mentality (Laurent 1986; Rhody and Tang 1995). The impact of national
culture pertains to the phenomenon of organizational acculturation which alludes to
cultural changes (Selmer and De Leon 1996, 2002).

2.2 Creation of New Knowledge as Values

As the environment becomes more and more information-intensive, an organization

may become relatively dysfunctional to its business objectives. The traditional meth-
ods that were used to solve the “knowledge problem” have reached their limits of
effectiveness.
Technology and industry growth urge organizations to enhance their knowledge
level and creation of new knowledge is highly valued in learning organizations (LO).
It is inevitable that knowledge is a critical part in the OL context; attention should
be paid to who learns what and where the knowledge is rooted (Leymann 1989;
Burgoyne 1999; Bollinger and Smith 2001). The values that characterize culture
of firms vary across industries. Firms in the same industry tend to share similar
technology and be with less variation in their cultures.
There have been debates about the entities of learning, and location of knowledge
(Argyris and Schön 1978; Cook and Yanow 1993). According to Dodgson (1993),
these knowledge-related issues involve the means the organization uses to dissemi-
nate information throughout its ranks, and the ways that the information is processed
and stored. This is what recent researchers have stressed: knowledge management.
Sets of processes for knowledge creation and models for establishing processes
to spur new knowledge were introduced (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). Different
approaches of knowledge management (from mechanistic, systematic to behaviouris-
tic) are plentiful in the OL literature:
• The mechanistic approach concerns the technical and technological issues of
knowledge accumulation, storage.
• The systematic approach focuses on the rational analytical problem-solving pro-
cesses, while the behaviouristic approach emphasizes on the change of mindset,
the improvement of innovation and creativity (Argyris and Schön 1978).
• The behaviouristic approach in knowledge management is often said to have its
roots in process re-engineering and change management. It tends to view “knowl-
edge management” as a management issue rather than as a technology issue.
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1996) proposed a spiral of knowledge creation (Fig. 2.1)
that covers the four modes of knowledge conversion (socialization, externalization,
internalization, and combination) and knowledge sharing among the three levels
(individual, team and organization). Furthermore, exploration and exploitation of
knowledge have also been studied. Exploration is about the use of experimentation
and innovation to seek new ideas for application, whereas exploitation is the effective
2 Organizational Learning for Value Creation 17

Fig. 2.1 The SECI knowledge creation process by Nonaka

use of current knowhow and new idea of incorporating efficient improvement and
refinement into a business (March 1991; Roth and Kleiner 1998, Lynn et al. 1998).
The above knowledge-related studies are not explicitly related to the concept of
OL, but they shed lights on how the knowledge-related learning process is contribut-
ing to OL.

2.3 Knowledge Creation in the Digital Age

Apart from business performance, the influence of OL on knowledge management

has also been addressed. It has been proven that OL promotes knowledge manage-
ment and the quality of knowledge (Gagnon et al. 2015; Thepthepa and Mitsufuji
2016). While the technology development fosters growth (Thomson 1967; Zammuto
and O’Connor 1992), firms characterized by intensive technologies are found to have
high levels of innovation (Pennings and Harianto 1992), emphasis on team oriented
(Saxenian 1990) and a high level of job structure (Hofstede et al. 1990).
Organizational learning and knowledge management always come in twin, they
are heavily dependent on organizational memory. Organizational memory is at the
centre of all knowledge activities. While organizational memory depends on the indi-
vidual memories of organization members, the rules, procedures, beliefs, and cultures
are preserved over time through socialization and control (Levitt and March, 1988).
Short term knowledge efforts should concentrate on short term knowledge preserva-
tion, which is based mostly on tacit knowledge. This can be facilitated through best
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bones and I
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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Title: Bones and I

or, the skeleton at home

Author: G. J. Whyte-Melville

Illustrator: A. Forestier

Release date: October 3, 2023 [eBook #71789]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Ward, Lock & Co, 1901

Credits: Bob Taylor, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BONES AND

I ***
Bones and I
 “Contemplating my companion.” Page 65.)
Bones and I.] [Frontispiece
 Bones and I
or
The Skeleton at Home

By
G. J. Whyte-Melville
Author of “Market Harborough,” “Katerfelto,” “Cerise,”
“Satanella,” etc.

Illustrated by A. Forestier

London
Ward, Lock & Co., Limited
New York and Melbourne
 CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

Introduction 7
i. “On Waste” 15
ii. Through the Mill 32
iii. Gourds 48
iv. A Vampire 65
v. Gold for Silver 102
vi. A Day that is Dead 122
vii. The Four-leaved Shamrock 140
viii. Rus in Urbe 162
ix. Haunted 184
x. Weight Carriers 201
xi. Shadows 220
xii. Guinevere 237
 ‘BONES AND I’
OR, THE SKELETON AT HOME

INTRODUCTION

Long ago, visiting the monastery of La Trappe, I was struck with the
very discontented appearance of its inmates. In some of their faces,
indeed, I detected no expression whatever, but on none could I
perceive the slightest gleam of satisfaction with their lot. No wonder:
few men are of the stuff that makes a good recluse. The human
animal is naturally gregarious, like the solan goose, the buffalo, the
monkey, or the mackerel. Put him by himself, he pines for lack of
mental aliment, just as a flower fades for want of daylight in the dark.
A multitude of fools forms an inspiriting spectacle, a solitary
specimen becomes a sad and solemn warning. If the Trappists, who
are not entirely isolated from their kind, thus wither under the rigour
of those repressive rules enjoined by the Order, what must have
been the condition of such hermits and anchorites as passed whole
months, and even years together, in the wilderness, unvisited by
anything more human than the distempered phantoms of their
dreams? No shave, no wash, no morning greeting, and no evening
wine. How many, I wonder, preserved their sanity in the ordeal? How
many, returning dazed and bewildered to the haunts of men, tottered
about in helpless, wandering, maundering imbecility? Were there not
some hard, boisterous natures who plunged wildly into the excesses
of a world so long forsworn, with all the appetite of abstinence, all the
reckless self-abandonment of the paid-off man-of-war’s man on a
spree? No; few people are qualified for recluses. I am proud to be
amongst the number.
I live in a desert, but my desert is in the very heart of London. The
waste is all round me though; I have taken good care of that. Once,
indeed, it blossomed like the rose, for a thousand fertilising streams
trickled through its bright expanse. Do not you as I did. I turned all
the streams into one channel, “in the sweet summer-time long ago,”
and “sat by the river,” like those poor fools in the song, and said, “Go
to! Now I shall never thirst again!” But in the night there came a
landslip from the upper level, and choked the river, turning its course
through my neighbour’s pastures, so that the meadows, once so
green and fresh, are bare and barren now for evermore. I speak in
parables, of course; and the value of “this here observation,” like
those of Captain Bunsby, “lies in the application of it.” I need not
observe, the street in which I hide myself is a cul de sac. A man who
sells chickweed, perhaps I should say, who would sell chickweed if
he could, is the only passenger. Of the houses on each side of me,
one is unfinished, the other untenanted. Over the way, I confront the
dead wall at the back of an hospital. Towards dusk in the late
autumn, when the weather is breaking, I must admit the situation is
little calculated to generate over-exuberance of animal spirits.
Sequestered, no doubt, shady too, particularly in the short days, and
as remote from the noise or traffic of the town as John o’ Groat’s
house, but enlivening—No.
On first beginning to reside here, I confess I felt at times a little
lonely and depressed. Therefore I brought home “Bones” to come
and live with me. And who is “Bones”? Ah! that is exactly what I have
never been able to find out. Contemplative, affable, easily pleased,
and an admirable listener, he is yet on some points reserved to a
degree that might almost be termed morose; while in his personal
appearance there is a dignity of bearing, an imposing presence,
which forbids the most intimate associate to attempt a liberty.
I will describe him as I see him at this moment, reclining in an easy
attitude on the cushions of my favourite arm-chair, benevolently
interested, it would seem, in my lightest movements, while I sit
smoking silently by the fire. Neither of us are great talkers quite so
early in the evening.
He is a well-formed and very complete skeleton of middle height—
perfect in every respect, and in all his articulations, with the
exception of two double teeth absent from the upper jaw. The arch of
his lower ribs is peculiarly symmetrical, and his vertebræ are put in
with a singular combination of flexibility and strength. As I look at him
now leaning back in a graceful attitude, with one thigh-bone thrown
carelessly over the other, he reminds me of so many people I knew
when I lived in the world, that I seem to fancy myself once more a
denizen of that revolving purgatory which goes by the name of
general society. Poor A—— was almost as fleshless, B—— much
more taciturn, and C—— decidedly not so good-looking. “Bones,”
however, possesses a quality that I have never found in any other
companion. His tact is beyond praise. Under no circumstances does
he become a bore—that is why we get on so admirably together.
Like a ghost, he speaks only when spoken to. Unlike a wife, refrains
from monopolising the last word. If he didn’t rattle so on the slightest
movement—a fault of anatomy, indeed, rather than temper—as a
companion he would be—perfection.
It is a dull, close evening. Were it not so near winter one might
predict a thunderstorm. The smoke from my meerschaum winds
upwards in thin blue wreaths, uninfluenced by a breath of outward
air, though the windows are open to the deserted street, black and
silent as the grave. My lamp is not yet lit (we both affect a congenial
gloom), the fire is burning out, but there is a dull red glow like a
fever-spot lowering under a volcanic arch of cinders; and looking into
it with unwinking eyes, I see the long-drawn, weary, beaten road that
leads backward through a life. I see a child set down to run alone,
half-frightened, laughing, trusting, almost happy, and altogether gay.
I see a youth bold, healthful, courageous, full of an impossible
chivalry, a romantic generosity that delights to lavish no matter what
—money, love, hope, happiness, coining heart and intellect into gold
that he may squander it on the passers-by. I see a strong man
crushed—a proud head grovelling in the dust, a high spirit broken, a
cowering wretch imploring that his punishment may be lightened
ever such a little, trembling and wincing like a slave beneath the
scourge. At this moment the fire falls in with a crash, while a pale
yellow flame leaps flickering out of the midst, and starting from my
seat to light our lamp for the rest of the evening, I demand aloud,
“What then is the purpose of Creation? From a quenched rushlight to
an extinct volcano, from the squeak of a mouse to yesterday’s
leading article, from a mite smothered in a cheese to an Emperor
murdered in Mexico, is the march of Time but the destructive
progress of a bull in a china-shop? Are the recurring centuries but so
many ciphers added to the sum of a thriftless, objectless
expenditure? Is the so-called economy of the universe but an
unbridled, haphazard course of boundless and incalculable waste?”
His backbone creaks uncomfortably while he moves in his chair.
“Waste?” he repeats in the hushed, placid tones that make him so
invaluable as a companion—“Waste? The subject is by no means
limited. I have some experience in it of my own. Would you favour
me with your ideas?”—and I go off at score with—
 CHAPTER I
“ON WASTE”

“Why are these things so?” I exclaim, plumping down again into my
seat. “Why have the times been out of joint ever since Hamlet’s first
appearance on the stage, with black tights and rosettes in his
shoes? Why is the whole world still at sixes and sevens? What is the
object of it all? Cui bono? cui bono? cui bono? Is there the slightest
appearance of a result? Any tendency towards a goal? Shall we ever
get anywhere, or are we travelling perpetually in a circle, like
squirrels in a cage, convicted pickpockets on the treadmill? By the
way, who convicted the pickpockets, and sentenced them? The
sitting magistrate, of course; and do the awards of that worthy
functionary produce any definite result in the direction of good order
and morality, or must his daily incubation, too, be wasted upon
addled eggs? Do you remember the story of the man who cut his
throat because he was so tired of dressing and undressing every
day? Don’t shake your head—I beg pardon, your skull—you told it
me yourself. I can appreciate his prejudices, but how did he know
there might not be buttons and buttonholes where he was going?
That is, supposing he went anywhere—if he didn’t, he was wasted
altogether. If he did, perhaps he was of no use when he got there.
Wasted again—only a human life after all. Not much when you think
of it amongst the millions that cling about this old globe of ours,
rising, swarming, disappearing like the maggots on a dead horse, but
of no light importance to the bearer when you remember its weight of
sorrows, anxieties, disappointments, and responsibilities, not to
mention the Black Care sitting heavily at the top to keep the whole
burden in its place. Life is a bubble, they say. Very well—-but is it
blown from a soap-dish by a school-boy, rising heavenward, tinted
with rainbow hues, to burst only when at its most beautiful and its
best? Or is it not rather a bubble gurgling to the surface from the
agonised lungs of some struggling wretch drowning far below in the
dark, pitiless water,

‘Unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown’?

—Wasted, too, unless the fish eat him, and then who knows? None
of us perhaps may ever eat the fish.
“Listen to me. I won’t make your flesh creep, for unanswerable
reasons. I don’t even think I shall freeze the marrow in your bones. I
could tell you some strange stories, but I dare say your own
experiences are more remarkable than mine. I will only ask you to
reflect on the amount of suffering that came under our daily notice
when we lived in the world, and say whether every pang of mind or
body, every tear shed or swallowed down, every groan indulged or
repressed, were anything but sheer waste? Can you not recall a
hundred instances of strength sapped by drink, of intellect warped by
madness, of beauty fading under neglect, or withered by
disappointment? Here a pair of lives are wasted because they must
needs run out their course in different grooves—there two more are
utterly thrown away, because, encompassed in a golden link, they
can by no means shake themselves free. The fairest of all, it may be,
and the most promising, never blooms into perfection for want of its
congenial comrade (wasted too, perhaps, at the antipodes), and
failing thus to reach maturity, dwindles, dwarfed and unmated, to the
grave. Think of Beauty wasted on the Beast—the Beast, too, utterly
out of his element, that he must roll on the garden sward rather than
labour in the teeming furrow. Look at Hercules spell-bound in the lap
of Omphale, broad-fronted Antony enervated by black-browed
Cleopatra. Consider the many Messrs. Caudle who lavish as much
good-humour as would set up a dozen households on their legal
nightmares, and do not forget poor Miss Prettyman pining in lonely
spinsterhood over the way. See the mother training up her child,
impressing on him, far more forcibly than she feels them for herself,
lessons of honour, truth, probity, and the unspeakable blessing of
faith—praying her heart out for that wilful little urchin, night and
morning on her knees. A good Christian with humble hopes of
heaven, does she know that, far more lavishly than those heathen
termagants in hell, she is pouring water in a sieve? Does she know
she may live to see that smooth, soft, wondering brow scored deep
with sorrow, or lowering black with sin—that round rosy cheek
hollowed by depravity, or bloated with excess? Worst of all, the
merry, guileless heart embittered by falsehood, and hardened with ill-
usage till it has ceased to feel for others, even for itself! Great
Heaven! have we not seen them—these simple, honest, manly
hearts, taken by some soft-eyed demon with loving ways, and sweet
angelic smile, to be kept carefully, to be watched jealously, till their
fabric has been thoroughly studied, then broken deftly and delicately,
yet with such nice art that they can never mend again, and so,
politely ‘Returned, with thanks’?
“Forgive me: on such anatomical outrages I have no right to
expect you should feel so warmly as myself.
“Millions of creatures, beautiful exceedingly, scour over the desert
plains of explored Africa; in its unknown regions, millions more may
be supposed to feed, and gambol, and die. What is the use of them?
If you come to that, what was the use of the Emperor Theodore, or
the King of the Cannibal Islands, or any other potentate who remains
utterly unimpressed when we threaten ‘to break off diplomatic
relations’?
“Myriads of insects wheel about us in the sun’s declining rays
every summer’s evening. Again, what is the use of them? What is
the use of the dragon-fly, the bumble-bee, the speckled toad, the
blue-nosed monkey, the unicorn, the wild elephant,—or, indeed, the
Ojibbeway Indians?”
Here, contrary to his custom, “Bones” interrupted me in full career.
“One moment,” said he, with his courteous grin. “Allow me to point
out that yours is inadmissible, as being simply an argumentum ad
absurdum. It would hold equally good with Léotard, Mr. Beales, or
any other public exhibitor—nay, you might advance it for suppression
of the Lord Mayor or the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
 He bowed reverentially while he mentioned the last-named
dignitary; and I confess I was inclined to admit the truth of his
remark.
“Then I waive the question,” I replied, “as regards the brute
creation, though I think I could find something to say, too, about the
weasel sucking rabbits, the heron gobbling fish, the hawk striking its
quarry, or the hounds running into their fox. But we will suppose that
the whole animal world, from the angler’s lob-worm to the
costermonger’s donkey, is enjoying its paradise here, and return to
our own kind, their sorrows, their sufferings, and, natural
consequence of sorrow and suffering, their sins.”
He shook his skull gently, and muttered something in his spinal
vertebræ about “a cart” and “a horse,” but I took no notice, and
proceeded with dignity—
“I have learnt my Latin Grammar, and almost the only one of its
precepts I have not forgotten impresses on me that—

‘Spades turn up wealth, the stimulant of crime.’

I suppose you will not dispute that the root of all evil is money?”
“Most emphatically,” he exclaimed, and his articulations rattled
with startling vehemence. “Most emphatically I deny the position. A
man may roll in wealth and be none the worse for it. On the contrary,
poverty, but for the unremitting labour it demands, would be far more
conducive to crime than a sufficiency, or even a superfluity of means.
No; the real enemy with whom every man has to contend confronts
him in the morning at his glass, and sticks persistently to him
throughout the day. The source of most unhappiness, the cause of
all ill-doing, the universal origin of evil, is not money, but self——”
“You mean selfishness,” I retorted; “and I am surprised to hear a
man of the world—I mean of the other world, or, indeed, of any world
whatever—assert so obvious a fallacy. Just as the liver, and not the
heart, is the seat of our real well-being, so I maintain that self-
indulgence, and not self-sacrifice, is the origin, the mainspring, the
motive power of all effort, progress, improvement, moral, social, and
physical. Researches of science, triumphs of art, masterpieces of
genius,—what are these but results of the same instinct that directs
the bee to the flower-garden, the vulture to the carcase? To eat is the
first necessity of man. He labours that he may live. Grant this, as you
cannot but concede the position to be unassailable, and you talk to
me in vain of sentiment, philanthropy, benevolence, all the
loathsome affectations of sympathy with which the earth-worm tries
to impose upon its kind. A man begins by being honest. Why?
Because without honesty, down the particular groove in which he
spins, he cannot earn his daily bread. When he has enough of this
and to spare, he turns his attention to decent apparel, a commodious
house, a general appearance of respectability; that is, he aims at
being respectable—in other words, at imposing on those who have
been less successful in the universal scramble than himself. Soon he
buys a warming-pan, a Dutch oven, china ornaments for his
chimney-piece, and the History of the Prodigal to hang about his
walls. By degrees, as wealth increases, he moves into a larger
residence, he rolls upon wheels, he replaces the china ornaments
with a French clock; the Prodigal Son with modern oil-paintings, and
hides the warming-pan in the housemaid’s closet up-stairs. About
this period he begins to subscribe to charitable institutions, to give
away what he does not want, to throw little pellets of bread at the
monster who is always famished and always roaring out of doors,
lest it should come in, and snatch the roast beef off his table. Some
day a team of black horses with nodding plumes, and a red-nosed
driver, come to take him away, ‘very much respected,’ and, forgive
the personality, there is an end of him, as far as we are concerned.
Will you tell me that man’s life has not been a continual concession
to self?—waste, waste, utter waste, from the pap-boat that
preserved his infancy, to the brass-nailed coffin that protects his
putridity from contact with the earth to which he returns? Why his
very virtues, as he called them, were but payments, so to speak,
keeping up the insurance for his own benefit, which he persuaded
himself he had effected on the other world.
“Now, supposing the pap-boat had been withheld, or the nurse had
tucked him into his cradle upside down, or—thus saving some
harmless woman a deal of inconvenience and trouble—supposing
he had never been born at all, would he have been missed, or
wanted? Would not the world have gone on just as well without him?
Has not his whole existence been a mistake? The food he ate, the
clothes he wore, the house he lived in—were not these simply
wasted? His efforts were waste, his wear-and-tear of body and mind
were waste, above all, his sorrows and his sufferings were sheer,
unpardonable waste. Yes; here I take my stand. I leave you every
enjoyment to be found in creation, physical, moral, and intellectual. I
make you a present of the elephant wallowing in his mud-bath, and
the midge wheeling in the sun; I give you Juliet at her window, and
Archimedes in his study; but I reserve the whale in her death-flurry,
and the worm on its hook. I appeal to Jephthah sorrowing for his
darling, and Rachel weeping for her children. I repeat, if that self-
care, which indeed constitutes our very identity, be the object of
existence, then all those tearful eyes that blur the light of every rising
sun—all those aching hearts that long only for night to be eternal—
are but so many witnesses to the predominance in creation of a
lavish and unaccountable waste.”
Like many thoughtful and deliberate natures, I am persuaded that
in early life “Bones” must have been a snuff-taker. He affects a trick
of holding his fleshless finger and thumb pressed together and
suspended in air, before he delivers himself of an opinion, that can
only have originated in a practice he has since been compelled, for
obvious reasons, to forego. Pausing during several seconds in this
favourite attitude, he sank gravely back in his chair, and replied—
“False logic, my good friend. False premises, and a false
conclusion. I deny them all; but the weather, even in my light attire,
feels somewhat too close for wordy warfare. Besides, I hold with
you, that an ounce of illustration is worth a pound of argument. I will
ask you, therefore, as I know you have been in Cheshire, High
Leicestershire, and other cattle-feeding countries, whether you ever
watched a dairymaid making a cheese? If so, you must have
observed how strong and pitiless a pressure is required to wring the
moisture out of its very core. My friend, the human heart is like a
cheese! To be good for anything, the black drop must be wrung out
of it, however tight the squeeze required, however exquisite the pain.
Therefore it is, that we so often see the parable of the poor man’s
ewe lamb enacted in daily life. One, having everything the world can
bestow, is nevertheless further endowed with that which his needy
brother would give all the rest of the world to possess. For the first,
the pressure has not yet been put on, though his time, too, may
come by-and-by. For the second, that one darling hope, it may be,
represents the little black drop left, and so it must be wrung out,
though the heart be crushed into agony in the process. You talk of
suffering being pure waste; I tell you it is all pure gain. You talk of self
as the motive to exertion; I tell you it is the abnegation of self which
has wrought out all that is noble, all that is good, all that is useful,
nearly all that is ornamental in the world. Shut the house-door on
him, and the man must needs go forth to work in the fields. It is not
the dreamer wrapped in his fancied bliss, from whom you are to
expect heroic efforts, either of mind or body. You must dig your goad
into the ox to make him use his latent strength; you must drive your
spurs into the horse to get out of him his utmost speed. Wake the
dreamer roughly—drive spurs and goad into his heart. He will wince
and writhe, and roll and gnash his teeth, but I defy him to lie still. He
must up and be doing, from sheer torture, flying to one remedy after
another till he gets to work, and so finds distraction, solace, presently
comfort, and, after a while, looking yet higher, hope, happiness, and
reward.
“Self, indeed! He is fain to forget self, because that therewith is
bound up so much, it would drive him mad to remember; and thus
sorrow-taught, he merges his own identity in the community of which
he is but an atom, taking his first step, though at a humble and
immeasurable distance, in the sacred track of self-sacrifice, on
which, after more than eighteen hundred years, the footprints are still
fresh, still ineffaceable. Waste, forsooth! Let him weep his heart out if
he will! I tell you that the deeper the furrows are scored, the heavier
shall be the harvest, the richer the garnered grain. I tell you, not a
tear falls but it fertilises some barren spot, from which hereafter shall
come up the fresh verdure of an eternal spring in that region

‘Where there’s fruit in the gardens of heaven, from the hope that on earth
was betrayed;
 Where there’s rest for the soul, life-wearied, that hath striven, and
suffered, and prayed.’

“I’m rather tired. I won’t discuss the question any further. I’ll go
back into my cupboard, if you please. Good-night!”