Abstract
This study contributes to our understanding of opportunities for learning and knowledge creation at work. Through an interpretive case study the aim is to add insight to the theoretical debate on learning and knowledge creation, as well as inform managerial practice.
The concepts of learning and knowledge creation in organizations have received substantial attention over the past decades. Even so, studies on where and how this learning takes place at work, and on how opportunities and barriers emerge, are few. Thus, this study focuses on how these micro activities enable and/or restrict opportunities for learning and knowledge creation during work. This approach differs from more conventional research on learning and knowledge creation in two aspects. Firstly, it treats physical place and the division of labour as influential in creating learning opportunities and knowledge creation. Secondly, the research is carried out in a public hospital in Norway; a context associated with pluralism rather than the more homogeneous label knowledge intensive.
Findings in this study show a gap between a strategic vision of “becoming a learning organization” and how this is translated and acted upon in ongoing work practices. This is underpinned by a view on knowledge and learning that render work based learning difficult. Findings indicate that the view of knowledge is lopsided and focused on codified knowledge and the view on learning is focused on individual learning in an educational perspective. These views on learning and knowledge manifests themselves in how the physical layout is designed and in the way labour is divided; that on one hand contributes to fulfilling the vision of putting the “patient first” but on the other hand appear as barriers to opportunities for work based learning and knowledge creation.
My conclusion is that interaction as opportunity for learning and knowledge creation is particularly horizontally scarce among peers, and this research calls for a differentiated view of the influence of autonomy and more focus on the influence of |