Authors: Jon Ohlsson and Erica Wright
Stockholm University and Indea, Sweden
Edition: Volume 66, Number 1, April 2026
Introduction: The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse pedagogic interventions to facilitate knowledge transfer in a leadership development program. The program’s main strategy is to increase participants’ ability and subjectivity through practical interventions, which collectively empower their knowledge transfer agency.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a case study of a leadership development program focused on pedagogic interventions including attempts to support dialogue and collective learning whereby understanding became more explicit and talkable between stakeholders in the participants’ organisations. Data on learning experiences were collected through focus group interviews and follow-up conversations.
Findings – The pedagogic interventions were conducted in three steps. Becoming aware of contextual conditions and needs include preparatory work where participants identify desired results in their organisations. Through continuously integrative processes the participants got the opportunity to talk about theory and connect it to their reality. Designing development work and transfer possibilities strengthened the participants agency to make things happen in their organisations. Participants expressed and described positive experiences and valuable outcomes of the interventions.
Originality/value – Leadership skills learned in a leadership program cannot simply be applied in a workplace without contextual adjustments. The most important conclusion of this case study is that the pedagogic interventions stimulate active, transformative and communicative processes that strengthen participants’ knowledge transfer agency. The ongoing attempts to build bridges between program activities and contextual features in workplaces facilitate knowledge transfer.
Keywords: knowledge transfer, knowledge transfer agency, leadership development program, pedagogic interventions, organisational context
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 66:1 The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.