Learning Agility: In Search of Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical Grounding

Invited Article

D. Scott DeRue, Susan J. Ashford, Christopher G. Myers
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol. 5(3), 2012 Sep, pp. 258-279

DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-9434.2012.01444.x

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APA Click to copy
DeRue, D. S., Ashford, S. J., & Myers, C. G. (2012). Learning Agility: In Search of Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical Grounding. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 5(3), 258–279. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2012.01444.x

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
DeRue, D. Scott, Susan J. Ashford, and Christopher G. Myers. “Learning Agility: In Search of Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical Grounding.” Industrial and Organizational Psychology 5, no. 3 (September 2012): 258–279.

MLA Click to copy
DeRue, D. Scott, et al. “Learning Agility: In Search of Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical Grounding.” Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol. 5, no. 3, Sept. 2012, pp. 258–79, doi:10.1111/j.1754-9434.2012.01444.x.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{d2012a,
  title = {Learning Agility: In Search of Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical Grounding},
  year = {2012},
  month = sep,
  issue = {3},
  journal = {Industrial and Organizational Psychology},
  pages = {258-279},
  volume = {5},
  doi = {10.1111/j.1754-9434.2012.01444.x},
  author = {DeRue, D. Scott and Ashford, Susan J. and Myers, Christopher G.},
  month_numeric = {9}
}

As organizations become more complex and dynamic, individuals' ability to learn from experience becomes more important. Recently, the concept of learning agility has attracted considerable attention from human resource professionals and consultants interested in selecting on and developing employees' ability to learn from experience. However, the academic community has been largely absent from this discussion of learning agility, and the concept remains ill defined and poorly measured. This article presents a constructive critique of the existing literature on learning agility, seeks to clarify the definition and conceptualization of the construct, and situates learning agility within a broader nomological network of related constructs. We conclude by discussing several important directions for future research on learning agility.