Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based Approach: A Practice-Based Approach

by Nicolini,Davide

• ISBN13: 9780765609106
• ISBN10: 076560910X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book explores the relationship among knowing, learning, and practice in the development of organizational knowledge. Scholars and practitioners from the US and abroad focus on organizational learning as a collective, social, and not entirely cognitive activity. These experts represent a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds (including management, IT/collaborative technology, sociology, psychology, and political science) and research traditions (symbolic interaction, activity theory, and actor network theory). They explore the implications for research and intervention growing out of the notion that organizational knowledge cannot be conceived as a mental process residing in members' heads, but rather as a form of social expertise, in which learning is situated in the historical, social, and cultural contexts in which it takes place. Thier work provides a fresh, authoritative, and challenging look at the changing field of organizational learning that will be equally useful in any advanced level course in which knowledge management is a central concern.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	vii
Introduction: Toward a Practice-Based View of Knowing and Learning in Organizations	3	(29)
Davide Nicolini
Silvia Gherardi
Dvora Yanow
Seeing Organizational Learning: A ``Cultural'' View	32	(21)
Dvora Yanow
Knowing in Practice: Aesthetic Understanding and Tacit Knowledge	53	(23)
Antonio Strati
Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems	76	(24)
Etienne Wenger
Developing Knowing in Practice: Behind the Scenes of Haute Cuisine	100	(26)
Marie-Leandre Gomez
Isabelle Bouty
Carole Drucker-Godard
Organizing Processes in Complex Activity Networks	126	(25)
Frank Blackler
Norman Crump
Seonaidh McDonald
Spatial and Temporal Expansion of the Object as a Challenge for Reorganizing Work	151	(36)
Yrjo Engestrom
Anne Puonti
Laura Seppanen
Organizing Alignment: The Case of Bridge-Building	187	(17)
Lucy Suchman
To Transfer Is to Transform: The Circulation of Safety Knowledge	204	(21)
Silvia Gherardi
Davide Nicolini
Allegory and Its Others	225	(30)
John Law
Vicky Singleton
About the Editors and Contributors	255	(6)
Index	261