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 conflict, 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 conflict 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.
Amin, A. and Roberts, J. ( 2008) ‘Knowing in Action: Beyond Communities of Practice’ , Research Policy37(2): 353-69.
2.
Antonacopoulou, E. ( 2008) ‘On the Practise of Practice: In-Tensions and Ex-Tensions in the Ongoing Reconfiguration of Practices’, in D. Barry and H. Hansen (eds) Handbook of New and Emerging Approaches to Management and Organization. London: Sage.
3.
Bechky, B.A. ( 2003) ‘Sharing Meaning across Occupational Communities: The Transformation of Understanding on a Production Floor’, Organization Science14(3): 312-30.
4.
Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P. ( 1991) ‘Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning and Innovation’, Organization Science2(1): 40-57.
5.
Callon, M. ( 2002) ‘Writing and (Re)Writing Devices as Tools for Managing Complexity’, in J. Law and A. Mol. (eds) Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices, pp. 191-217. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
6.
Carlile, P.R. ( 2002) ‘A Pragmatic View of Knowledge and Boundaries: Boundary Objects in New Product Development’, Organization Science13(4): 442-55.
7.
Carlile, P.R. ( 2004) ‘Transferring, Translating and Transforming: An Integrative Framework for Managing Knowledge across Boundaries’, Organization Science15(5): 555-68.
8.
Child, J. ( 1972) ‘Organizational Structure, Environment and Performance: The Role of Strategic Choice’, Sociology6: 1-22.
9.
Crossan, M.M., Lane, H.W. and White, R.E. ( 1999) ‘An Organizational Learning Framework: From Intuition to Institution’, Academy of Management Review24(3): 522-37.
10.
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Lowe, A. ( 2002) Management Research: An Introduction. London: Sage.
11.
Edmondson, A. ( 2002) ‘The Local and Variegated Nature of Learning in Organizations: A Group Level Perspective’, Organization Science13(2): 128-46.
12.
Edmondson, A. ( 2003) ‘Speaking Up in the Operating Room: How Team Leaders Promote Learning in Interdisciplinary Action Teams’, Journal of Management Studies40(6): 1419-52.
13.
Eisenhardt, K.M. and Graebner, M.E. ( 2007) ‘Theory Building from Cases: Opportunities and Challenges’ , Academy of Management Journal50(1): 25-32.
14.
Elliott, D. and Smith, D. ( 2006) ‘Cultural Readjustment after Crisis: Regulation and Learning from Crisis within the UK Soccer Industry’, Journal of Management Studies43(2): 289-317.
15.
Engeström, Y. ( 2007) ‘From Communities of Practice to Mycorrhizae’ , in J. Hughes et al. (eds) Communities of Practice: Critical Perspectives, pp. 41-54. London : Routledge.
16.
Engeström, Y. and Ahonen, H. ( 2000) ‘On the Materiality of Social Capital: An Activity-Theoretical Exploration’, paper presented at conference on ‘Collective Cognition and Memory Practices: Building the Infrastructures of Distributed Collective Activity’, Paris, September 19-20.
17.
Engeström, Y. and Blackler, F. ( 2005) ‘On the Life of the Object’, Organization12(3): 307-30.
18.
Fuller, A. ( 2007) ‘Critiquing Theories of Learning and Communities of Practice’, in J. Hughes et al. (eds) Communities of Practice: Critical Perspectives, pp. 17-29. London : Routledge.
19.
Gherardi, S. and Nicolini, D. ( 2003) ‘To Transfer is to Transform: The Circulation of Safety Knowledge’, in D. Nicolini et al. (eds) Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based Approach, pp. 204-24. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
20.
Gherardi, S., Nicolini, D. and Odella, F. ( 1998) ‘Towards a Social Understanding of How People Learn in Organizations: The Notion of Situated Curriculum’, Management Learning29(3): 273-97.
21.
Handley, K., Sturdy, A., Fincham, R. and Clark, T. ( 2006) ‘Within and Beyond Communities of Practice: Making Sense of Learning through Participation, Identity and Practice’, Journal of Management Studies43(3): 641-53.
22.
Hatch, M.J. ( 1997) Organization Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23.
Hughes, J., Jewson, N. and Unwin, L. ( 2007) ‘Communities of Practice: A Contested Concept in Flux’, in J. Hughes et al. (eds) Communities of Practice: Critical Perspectives, pp. 1-16. London : Routledge.
24.
James, N. ( 2007) ‘The Learning Trajectory of "Old Timers": Academic Identities and Communities of Practice in Higher Education’, in J. Hughes et al. (eds) Communities of Practice: Critical Perspectives, pp. 131-43. London: Routledge.
25.
Jewson, N. ( 2007) ‘Communities of Practice in Their Place: Some Implications of Changes in the Spatial Location of Work’, in J. Hughes et al. (eds) Communities of Practice: Critical Perspectives, pp. 156-70. London: Routledge .
26.
Jones, O. ( 2006) ‘Developing Absorptive Capacity in Mature Organizations: The Change Agent’s Role’, Management Learning37(3): 355-76.
27.
Knorr-Cetina, K. ( 1982) ‘Scientific Communities or Transepistemic Arenas of Research? A Critique of Quasi-Economic Models of Science’, Social Studies of Science12(1): 101-30.
28.
Knorr-Cetina, K. ( 2001) ‘Objectual Practice’, in T. Schatzki, K. Knorr-Cetina and E. von Savigny (eds) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, pp. 184-97. London: Routledge.
29.
Lam, A. ( 2000) ‘Tacit Knowledge, Organizational Learning and Societal Institutions: An Integrated Framework’, Organization Studies21(3): 487-513.
30.
Latour, B. ( 1999) Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
31.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. ( 1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32.
Macpherson, A. and Jones, O. ( 2008) ‘Object-Mediated Learning and Strategic Renewal in a Mature Organization’, Management Learning39(2): 177-201.
33.
Marshall, C. and Rossman, G. ( 1999) Designing Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
34.
Mintzberg, H. ( 1979) The Structure of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
35.
Nicolini, D., Gherardi, S. and Yanow, D. ( 2003) ‘Introduction: Towards a Practice-Based View of Knowing and Learning in Organization’, in D. Nicolini et al. (eds) Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based View, pp. 3-29. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
36.
Popper, M. and Lipshitz, R. ( 2000) ‘Organizational Learning: Mechanisms, Culture and Feasibility’, Management Learning31(2): 181-96.
37.
Roberts, J. ( 2006) ‘Limits to Communities of Practice’, Journal of Management Studies43(3): 623-39.
38.
Schatzki, T. ( 2001) ‘Introduction: Practice Theory’, in T. Schatzki et al. (eds) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, pp. 1-14. London: Routledge.
39.
Schatzki, T. ( 2005) ‘The Sites of Organizations’, Organization Studies26(3): 465-84.
40.
Sole, D. and Edmondson, A. ( 2002) ‘Situated Knowledge and Learning in Dispersed Teams’ , British Journal of Management13: S17-S34.
41.
Stake, R. ( 2000) ‘Case Studies’, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 435-54. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
42.
Starbuck, W.H. ( 1996) ‘Learning by Knowledge-Intensive Firms’, in M. D. Cohen and L. Sproull (eds) Organizational Learning, pp. 484-515. London : Sage.
43.
Taylor, J.R. and Robichaud, D. ( 2004) ‘Finding the Organization in Communication: Discourse as Action and Sensemaking’, Organization11(3): 395-413.
44.
Wenger, E. ( 1998) Communities of Practice. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
45.
Wenger, E. ( 2000) ‘Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems’ , Organization7(2): 225-46.
