Islands of Practice: Conflict and a Lack of ‘Community’ in Situated Learning

Abstract

We examine how, in a utility company, existing practices and performance systems limited the scope of situated learning. We contribute to the understanding of situated learning by exploring how confl ict, systems and artefacts also shape the trajectory of situated learning rather than just a sense of identity or meaningful participation. Systems and artefacts mediate interactions in organizations and potentially contribute to boundaries between teams, resulting in 'islands of practice' and stark variations in performance. This case study broadens our understanding of situated learning in organizations by challenging the relevance of 'community' in contemporary organizations where confl ict and transience may be prevalent. We argue that practices and objects/artefacts are a fruitful way of researching organizational learning; situated learning in organizations is likely to be continually emerging against a constant battle to stabilize an appropriate set of practices that support the aims of management.

Bringing context and structure back into situated learning

“…Hence, we extend contributions emphasising the crucial role of organizational coordination for learning across epistemic divides (Brown and Duguid, 2001;Macpherson and Clark, 2009) by specifying this relationship as one of alignment between institutionally structured epistemic topographies and organizational structures. Second, our findings also illustrate the potential value of insights from comparative institutionalism for practice-based studies.…”

“…While more and more contributions in organization studies draw on PBS to understand organizational learning and knowledge generation (Amin and Roberts, 2008;Corradi et al, 2010), scholars increasingly challenge the usefulness of seeing situated learning as embedded in communities that are homogeneous and cohesive (e.g., Handley et al, 2006;Lindkvist, 2005;Macpherson and Clark, 2009;Roberts, 2006). Instead, more recent perspectives highlight the divisions within and links across organizations that are created by practice and structure (see, e.g., Brown and Duguid, 2001;Macpherson and Clark 2009;Mørk et al, 2008;Thompson, 2005).…”

“…Instead, more recent perspectives highlight the divisions within and links across organizations that are created by practice and structure (see, e.g., Brown and Duguid, 2001;Macpherson and Clark 2009;Mørk et al, 2008;Thompson, 2005). In this view, organizations host communities with fundamentally different practices rooted in the organizational division of labour.…”

“…For instance, recent contributions not only highlight that individuals often participate in multiple communities (Handley et al, 2006), but also draw attention to the tensions and power relations within communities, such as between novices and more experienced practitioners (Handley et al, 2006;Macpherson and Clark, 2009;Mørk et al, 2010). But while PBS is often argued to emphasize socio-cultural dynamics (Handley et al, 2006), in practice, PBS research rarely explicitly considers social structures beyond communal or organizational boundaries (Mørk et al, 2008).…”

Connecting Worlds

“…The experiment is tracked across the various dimensions of the I-space to illustrate how information connects across a network of scientists. This essay powerfully reminds us of the role that boundary objects and artefacts play in the process of interconnecting knowledge across boundaries (Macpherson and Clark, 2009) which ultimately generates value at the collective level.…”