When we think of book clubs, some may visualize a group of older women sitting in a circle and discussing their favorite novels while sipping tea. It may be rarer to stumble upon the idea of a book club as an educational tool that can aid individuals in their professional learning.

In a newly published journal article, Neag School Professor and adult learning expert Robin Grenier examines, with colleagues including Neag School alumna Kristi Kaeppel ’20 Ph.D., the use of book clubs and literature as a tool for enhancing the professional learning of employees across various organizations — from the military to nonprofits to health care. Voluntary, fiction-based book clubs, the researchers say, offer employees a nonformal setting for learning while critically raising consciousness within an organization.

“We argue that fiction-based book clubs are effective vehicles for tackling challenging social issues because they facilitate three things particularly well: building relationships, fostering learning, and stimulating culture change,” says Grenier.

“What this means,” she adds, “is that the book clubs we describe in our paper might be excellent spaces for having tough conversations and addressing issues within organizations (and society), since participants can ask questions or raise important points by projecting onto fictional characters and situations.”

Voluntary, fiction-based book clubs, the researchers say, offer employees a nonformal setting for learning while critically raising consciousness within an organization.

The article describes this “public pedagogy” as standing at the “crossroads of culture, learning, and social change.”

“Public refers not to a physical site of educational phenomena,” the researchers write, “but rather to an idealized outcome of educational activity: the production of a public aligned in terms of values and collective identity.”

Three Pillars of Effective Book Clubs in Organizations

1. Relationship Building

While the purpose of coming together in a book club is to discuss literature, the true value lies in the relationships built among the participants, Grenier and her colleagues say.

“Book clubs provide a space for creating relationships with people that an individual might otherwise not have associated with, but with whom they nevertheless formed a committed community,” the researchers write. “For marginalized members of a workplace, friendships can serve as spaces of social support that challenge internalized notions of inferiority and propel individuals’ personal and professional growth.”

Through book clubs, individuals can get to know one another on a professional level and a deeper personal level, which in turn, the researchers attest, can foster a healthier work environment.

2. Fostering Learning

Historically, book clubs have often served as a site of learning for groups who could not participate in traditional forms of education, according to the researchers. The nonformal learning environment of book clubs also can create a more pleasant experience and lead “to greater retention of the material than formal professional development.”

The process of learning does not always have to equate to acquiring new knowledge. Instead, it can contribute to shifting perspectives, building previous knowledge, and using critical thinking skills.

“Although book clubs can in some instances initiate transformational learning that occurs through members having their existing perspectives challenged or broadened, leading to new perspectives, more often engagement encourages critical thinking among members,” the researchers write.

Book clubs can promote critical public pedagogy by encouraging readers to question the existing structures of society.

While reading certainly provides an opportunity for learning, it is the discussion element of book clubs that they state is “at the heart of the learning process.”

Grenier and her co-authors point out that “book club discussions can be intentionally tied to the workplace and professional practice, where the act of literary reading can be interwoven with organizational themes as members of the book club align ‘with institutional practices and priorities’.”

3. Cultural Change

Book clubs can also promote critical public pedagogy by encouraging readers to question the existing structures of society.

“Book club members use texts and subsequent discussions to learn as they work through, reflect on, or address the social or political issues they encounter in their lives — at home, in their workplaces, or in society more generally,” the researchers write.

In reading critically, individuals taking part in book clubs engage with the shared experiences of their peers, as well as of the characters in the books they discuss. This can lead to a greater understanding and empathy for those who have identities different from one’s own. That is, “when readers are willing to stand in another’s shoes … book clubs can become a space for engaging in cultural change work.”

Initiating cultural change, Grenier says, relies on “empathy-building, democratic communication platforms, and challenging hegemony.”

Book clubs may not only serve as safe spaces for this kind of engagement, but also can “hold the promise of moving beyond simply being an instrument of employee learning to a means of critical consciousness raising within organizations,” says Grenier.

How It All Began

Before writing the article, Grenier and her colleagues hosted their own book club session at the Academy of Human Resource Development Conference in 2019.

“We wanted to use a book of fiction that addressed a pressing social concern,” says Grenier. They decided on Damian Barr’s You Will Be Safe Here, a novel set in South Africa during the 20th and 21st centuries. “The discussion in the conference session led us to explore voluntary book clubs as a source of nonformal learning in organizations that we use in our paper.”

To make book clubs work as a critical pedagogy in professional organizations, a few things should be in place, according to Grenier and her co-authors. For one, participation in the book club must be voluntary to ensure the process of learning and reading is the most enjoyable it can be for all members. In addition, the entire process, including choosing the novels, must rest with the individuals in the group — not the organization’s managers.

The book club,” the researchers say, “is a simple yet potent counter to workplace exclusion” that can “facilitate inclusion by simultaneously connecting employees from a range of departments while breaking down silos and minimizing workplace hierarchies.” 

On a more personal level, they can help individuals who may be more reserved and introverted than their colleagues connect with co-workers.

“When we engage in reading and discussing fiction with others, it can produce an emancipatory form of adult learning,” says Grenier. “It creates a space that provides social and cultural influence among book club participants and supports a way to reveal, question, and possibly counter hegemonic practices in their organization.”

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