Abstract
Organizational implementation of IT systems requires distribution, sharing and pooling of knowledge of how the system can be used in daily practice. This paper analyzes processes of ‘learning at work’ as they emerge in groups of workers using IT for management and monitoring of the long lines and trunk networks in a telecommunications company. It is shown how resources for learning are socially structured, and how most of the learning takes place as an integrated aspect of the primary work. Thus, learning at work is also learning through work. The concept of ’organizational learning’ is discussed relative to the study, and it is argued that the cognitive perspective on organizational learning tends to obliterate some of the important aspects of learning at work.
Chapter PDF
References
Bermann, T. and Thoresen, K. (1992). Konferansesenteret. In Thoresen, K. and Keul, V. (Eds.), Omstilling med IT, NKS-Forlaget, Oslo, 99–116 (Norwegian only)
Clement, A., Kolm, P. and Wagner, I. (1994). NetWORKing: Connecting Workers In and Between Organizations. IFIP Trans.A-38, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1–250.
Cook, S.D.N. and Yanow, D. (1993). Culture and Organizational Learning. Management Inquiry, Vol. 2, No. 3.
Damanpour, F. (1991). Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis of Effects of Deter-minants and Moderators. Acad. of Management Journal, Vol. 34, No. 3, 555–90.
Dodgson, M. (1993). Organizational Learning: A Review of Some Literatures. Organiza-tion Studies, 14 /3, 375–94.
Dorroh, J.R., Gulledge, T.R. and Womer, N.K. (1994). Investment in Knowledge: A Generalization of Learning By Experience. Management Science, Vol. 40, No. 8, 947–58.
Duimering, P.R., Safayeni, F. and Purdy, L. (1993). Integrated Manufacturing: Redesign the Organization Before Implementing Flexible Technology. Sloan Management Review, Vol. 34, No. 4, 47–56.
Fiol, C.M. and Lyles, M.A. (1985). Organizational Learning. Acad. of Management Review, Vol. 10, No. 4, 803–13.
Franke, R.H. (1987). Technological Revolution and Productivity Decline: Computer Introduction in the Financial Industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 1, 143–54.
Gasser, L. (1986). The Integration of Computing and Routine Work. ACM Trans. on Office Information Systems, Vol. 4, No. 3, 205–25
Gerson, E.M. and Star, S.L. (1986). Analyzing Due Process in the Workplace. ACM Trans. on Office Information Systems, Vol. 4, No. 3, 257–70.
Hammer, M. (1990). Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate. Harvard Business Review, July-August 1990, 104–12.
Heath, C. and Luff, P. (1992). Collaboration and Control. Crisis Management and Multimedia Technology in London Underground Line Control Rooms. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Vol. 1, No. 1–2, 69–94.
Hedberg, B. (1981). How Organizations Learn and Unlearn. In Nystrom, P.C. and Starbuck, W.H. (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Design, Vol.1,Oxford University Press, 3–27.
Herbig, P.A. and Kramer, H. (1993). Low Tech Innovation: Resurveying the Basic Meaning of Innovation. Management Decision, 31 /3, 4–7.
Huber, G.P. (1991). Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures. Organization Science, Vol.2, No.!, 88–115.
Iden, J. (1995). Workflow Management: What Does the Literature Say ? Report No.36, ISSN 0803–6489. Univ. of Bergen, Norway, Dept. of Information Science, 1–18.
Jones, M. (1994). Don’t Emancipate, Exaggerate: Rhetoric, Reality and Reengineering. In Baskerville, R., Smithson, S., Ngwenyama, O. and De Gross, J.I(Eds.), Proceedings of IFIP Conference, 357–77.
Jordan, B. (1992). Technology and Social Interaction: Notes on the Achievement of Au-thoritative Knowledge in Complex Settings. IRL Report NO. IRL92–0027, 1–58.
Kanter, R.M. (1988). The Change Masters Unwin Paperbacks, London, UK, 1–432.
Keen, P.G.W., Bronsema, G. and Zuboff, S. (1982). Implementing Common Systems: One Organization’s Experience. Systems, Objectives, Solutions, 2, 125–42.
Levitt, B. and March, J.G. (1988). Organizational Learning. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 14, No. 3, 319–40.
March, J.G. and Olsen, J.P. (1979). Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, Norway, 2.edition, 1–408.
March, J.G. (1991). Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning. Organization Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, 71–87.
Meisingset, A. (1993). Human-machine interface design for large systems. Telektronikk, Vol.89, No. 2 /3, 11–20.
Orr, J. (1991). Contested Knowledge. Anthropology of Work Review, 12(3), 12–7. Orr, J.E. ( 1992 ). Ethnography and Organizational Learning: In Pursuit of Learning at
Work. NATO Advanced Research Workshop, ’Organizational Learning and Technological Change. Siena, Italy, September 22–26.
Pape, T. and Thoresen, K. (1987). Development of Common Systems by Prototyping. In Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P. and Kyng, M. (Eds.), Computers and Democracy, Ave-bury, UK, 297–311.
Pape, T. and Thoresen, K. (1990). Evolutionary prototyping in a change perspective. A tale of three municipalities. Information Technology & People, 6: 2–3, 145–70.
Rowe, C.J. (1985). Identifying causes of failure: a case study in computerized stock con-trol. Behaviour and Information Technology, Vol. 4, No. 1, 63–72.
Sachs, P. (1994). Transforming Work: The Role of Learning in Organizational Change. HICSS-27 Monograph on Representations of Work, Ed. L.Suchman. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 36–43
Simon, H.A. (1991). Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning. Organization Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, 125–134.
Star, S.L. (1991). The Sociology of the Invisible: The Primacy of Work in the Writings of Anselm Strauss. In Maines, D. (Ed.), Social organization and Social Processes: Essays in Honour of Anselm Strauss. Hawthorne, NY, Aldine de Gruyter.
Strauss, A., Fagerhaugh, S., Suczek, B. and Wiener, C. (1985) Social Organization of Medical Work. The University of Chicago Press, U.S., 1–310.
Strauss, A.L. (1993). Continual Permutations of Action. Aldine de Gruyter, NY, 1–280.
Suchman, L. (1983). Office Procedures as Practical Action: Models of Work and System Design. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, Vol. 1, No. 4, 320–8.
Suchman, L. (1987). Plans and Situated Actions. Cambridge University Press, U.S., 1–203.
Thoresen, K. (1995). Design for Heterogeneity. Proceedings of Computers in Context: Joining Forces in Design, Aarhus, Denmark, August 14–18, 1995, 60–72.
Van de Ven, A.H. and Rogers, E.M. (1988). Innovations and Organizations. Critical Per-spectives. Communication Research, Vol. 15, No. 5, 632–51.
Wagner, I. (1994). Networking Actors and Organizations. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 2, 5–20.
Wardell, M. (1992). Changing Organizational Forms: From the Bottom Up. In Reed, M. and Hughes, M. (Eds.), Rethinking Organization. New Directions in Organization Theory and Analysis. Sage Publ., 144–64.
Weick, K.E. (1991). The Nontraditional Quality of Organizational Learning. Organization Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, 116–139.
Wynn, E. (1979). Office Conversation as an Information Medium. Ph.D. Thesis, Berkeley, Dept.of Anthropology.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thoresen, K. (1996). Learning at work. In: Kautz, K., Pries-Heje, J. (eds) Diffusion and Adoption of Information Technology. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-34982-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-34982-4_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4977-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-34982-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive